saving a foaming keg?

[thirsty]

'allo,

we have a keg of pbr that has taken up foaming and there is air in the beer line. from reading all the other posts, it sounds like one of my bartenders put in a warm keg and served from it (bad bartender! no beer for you!). can the keg be saved by bleeding off a couple of pitchers with the CO2 turned off, or once it's gone foamy, is it a dud?

thanks.

[draught guy]

If the keg was warm it should settle once it gets cold enough,if it is overcarbonated you can turn off co2 at the wall and pull the pressure release ring to drain pressure off if it is severly overcarbonated you have do this and shake it in effect making the beer flat,If your cooler is working properly a warm keg should be good and cool in a day.

[Scott Zuhse]

How much beer was dispensed? The issue is not going to be over carbonation but how much degassing took place. Possibly you could reconstitute the gas in the beer once the beer came down to temperature (38F). You probably should apply 14 PSIG and roll the keg every once and a while to try to evenly distribute the gas. No guarantees with this practice.

As to if the beer was over-carbonated, shaking the excess gas down is not the best practice if you want to re-obtain the specified gas content. You will risk flat beer if you over shake. The beer may pour clear but will not be very palatable.

Scott Zuhse, Instructor Micro Matic Dispense Institute