Foam and verrrrrrryyyyy slow pour

[ehubs]

Hey everyone, I just bought a Vissani kegerator (I know it's not the best) for a decent price and I've been having problems getting the whole system to work.

Basically, everything appears to be working fine, however our pour only gives flat and foamy beer at a deathly slow pace... It's almost at a drip. When you pull the tap forward, foam shoots out at a promising pace but after a second it slows to a near drip and is foamy and flat... Anybody have advice???

Our keg is slightly warm (45f, but cooling), there are no air/beer line leaks, CO2 is full, keg is new, and the regulator is set to 15 psi... We released the pin multiple times to let the beer pressurize and reduce foam. Still, we get a terribly slow pour.. Our beerline is like 4ft.

Beer is Bud light and we're also at altitude 5280ft...Any help would be AWESOME! thanks in advance!

[cubby_swans]

that very slooooooooooooooow trickle is an indicator that your co2 is not reaching the keg.

1) Did you fill the co2 tank before tapping? (it's happened)

2) Did you turn the co2 on, on the tank?

3) There's a co2 on/off valve on the gas out port of the regulator. Make sure that's on, also.

Once you get the co2 problem tackled, the 4' of beer line will likely cause you problems, especially with a light bodied beer such as Bud Light, at your elevation. Your pressure sounds about right for your elevation, as long as your destination temperature ends up being 38F. Beer line lenght controls the flow rate. At sea level, 4' would be ill advised. I would advise getting 10' of 3/16" ID beer line and replacing your current line. Then, if you find the flow too slow, you can trim off a foot or two, but I think you're going to want at least 8' with the added pressure at your elevation.

[orange_black]

We released the pin multiple times to let the beer pressurize and reduce foam.

Im not sure EXACTLY what he means by this...

BUT... if he means they're releasing the pressure in the tank and then trying to pour a beer.....

yea... i can see why nothing would come out. Gotta let that thing pressurize for a while.

[cubby_swans]

I missed the part about pulling the pin. There's no reason to pull that pin unless you've over-carbonated your beer. When you pull that pin, you're just releasing co2 in the keg, and if your co2 is not reaching the keg (The OP's is not), the co2 in the beer will fill that headspace - thus flattening your beer. Your verrrrrrrry slow pour is pouring because the pressure that is building up from the co2 escaping out of your beer. Continue to pour only if you enjoy flat beer.

[NewHorizans]

This forum seems like a good place to start with my problems as they are similar. I am still trying to understand all of this science of having successful draft beer.

So I got a Kegerator (made of mini-frig) from Craigslist. My first keg was a 1/6 Barrel Fat Tire which I just got on Friday (05/15/2009). Got it home, hook it up with 8' cord & full tank of CO2 as the duel regulator showed the level in the green. At the time, I know the keg was over 40 degrees coming in from the car to the ride home, so I wasn't surprise by the initial foam when I first got it going. After a few hours, it was cold, and the system seemed to be working fine.

At that time, I had tried to look-up & ask what the proper PSI was for Fat Tire, but I was only able to find a post on here that said I need a low 5-8 PSI for that specific beer. While it seemed low, I didn't think it was wrong since I was getting good level foam after the Keg had cooled down.

Then the next day (Sat), maybe 18 hours from the original taping of the keg, the setting of 6 or so PSI, the flow was gone, just dripping out. It didn't have too much foam though, just didn't come out. So I went back online to a new website that said that ALL beer needed to be around 11 to 15 PSI depending on temp & sea level. Because I live at 725 feet above sea level, it seemed right to put the PSI on 12.

From there it seems to work fine, flow was up again, and while it did have alittle more foam than on 1st day, it was good to me. Then again on Sunday, the beer was coming out fine, and while I was having to poor out some foam when I first started pooring glasses, it seemed ok.

NOW, to my problems. On Monday night, I come home from work, and all the settings are the same. PSI still holding 12, and beer was very cold. Can't tell you the exact temp now because this is just a frig, and I need to buy a liquid thermometer. Well, I go to poor a beer, and NOTHING HAPPENS. Just a few drops of foam. I check the C02, and such, all the same as previous nights, only the beer just want come out. Since the Keg was so cold, my first thought was the keg was frozen, so I turned down the temp gauge, and went to bed.

Last night (Tuesday), the same problem was happening. No flow, so I begin trying all manner of things to get it working. I pick the keg up and turn it sideways to make sure it wasn't frozen. I closed the CO2 gauge, and pulled the pin on the Keg to release the CO2, and try to re-pressurize. This seemed to at least make the flow work, but now its ALL Foam. And honestly tastes like it is Over-pressurized.

If I don't have enough CO2, nothing comes out, when I do have enough, it tastes horrible and poors all form. SO PLEASE let me know what I need to do to fix this problem.

[twoodward15]

You don't suppose their beer lines are frozen do you? Neither has a thermometer, and a small blip of foam and a fridge set too low could freeze it fast.

[cubby_swans]

You don't suppose their beer lines are frozen do you? Neither has a thermometer, and a small blip of foam and a fridge set too low could freeze it fast.

Well, for the OP, with the Vissani, I'd bet no. Most of the cheaper kegerators have the opposite problem. Too warm. But there's always the possibility that they get something right once in a while. New Horizons never took a temp on a used mini fridge. No telling what he/she is getting for beer temp.

[NewHorizans]

Well, as it turns out last night. I decided to pickup the Keg & turn it sideways to see if I could hear/feel the beer moving, and to my surprise, it was FROZEN! Guess I don't have to worry about this frig not being cold enough.

I left it out with a crack in the door so it would thaw out. And before I went to bed, I re-pressurized it and lowered the temp. By the time I get home today, it should be back to normal. I think the main problem I am going to have to deal with is getting the temp under control

[NewHorizans]

UPDATE on NEW PROBLEMS

Ok, so while I know now that the Keg keeps freezing. My problem is fixing the frig so it stops freezing the beer every night.

I don't know if I mentioned this earlier, but this Kegerator was a mini-Frig that was converted. I have friends that were able to convert frigs & had no problems, but mine seems to be coming from the Freezer shelf which is no longer attached at the top, but hanging down. It can be moved around to fit the keg/CO2 tank, and at first didn't seem to even work as it didn't freeze up or anything. BUT now the whole shelf including the wire coming from the back is total covered in ice. It seems the shelf is what is causing the whole temp in the frig to go below 32 degrees F.

There doesn't seem to be any control for the Freezer temp. And the control for the frig doesn't affect it either. So what are my options??? I have though about cutting the shelf at where the wire meets the shelf, thus taking the vast majority of the freezing problem out. After which one of two things would happen; 1 - the left over freezer shelf wire would continue to freeze or import cold air to the point the temp continues to be too low OR 2 - after cutting the wire, the freezer wire would no longer work at all having been disconnected from the shelf and allow the regular frig temp to be what is cooling the beer or leave me to find out that the frig itself is not able to cool that low by itself, thus leaving me with a totally broken Kegerator.

I figure, when the Kegerator was just hooked up from being hot unplugged in the garage, it worked fine the first weekend, & took about 4 days before the freezer shelf got cold enough to affect the temp in the frig, so the Kegerator is good if I am only using it for a weekend party or something where I am not keeping the keg long.

I don't really want the system for that reason though, so can anyone tell me on here if they know what will happen if I try and cut that freezer shelf out? Either at the area where the wire meets the shelf or I can cut the wire from the back of the frig totally removing the whole thing?

Thanks, any insite from anyone about my experiences will be appreciated!!