# First Keg'd Beer Is All Foam



## mattric (7/4/11)

Greetings one and all.

I have recenty just keg'd my first home brew. It was a 12L Kriek beer in a 19L corney keg.

Through advise on my little book of beer making, I had the beer @ 270kpa over 48 hours, then turned the presure to about 8kpa. However when I poured the beer it comes out all foam and slowly turns into half a glass of beer which isn't as carbonated as I would have liked.

The internets has advise upping the serving presure to 60Kkpa but to the same effect. I have also now turned the fridge to colder to see if that will amke a difference tonight.

What, oh wise ones of the internet, can I do to be able to pour a glass of beer instead of foam?


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## adryargument (7/4/11)

The length of the beer line really needs to be around 2-3m long if you want carby beers with no foam.


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## Leigh (7/4/11)

Believe it or not, but it sounds overcarbed at the current serving temperature. Turning the fridge down may help a little, but I think you need to burp the keg and release some of the carbonation.


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## mxd (7/4/11)

if you search for keg foam, over carbonated balancing etc.. you'll see "EVERYONE" does this 

with 12 lts you probably only needed 24 hours at 270.


the problem you have over carbonated your beer.


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## mattric (7/4/11)

adryargument, the beer line is 1m long. Is it possible to have it to short?

Leigh and mxd, when I first poured I forgot to burp the keg so while I turned the presure down to 60kpa on the regulator I assume there was alot of built up presure from the 270kpa beforehand. Yesterday I burped the keg and poured another foamy glass.

Please forgive my ignorance but how does one fix an over carbonated beer? Is it a case of burping the keg, lowing the presure and leaving it for a day or two?


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## stux (7/4/11)

mattric said:


> adryargument, the beer line is 1m long. Is it possible to have it to short?
> 
> Leigh and mxd, when I first poured I forgot to burp the keg so while I turned the presure down to 60kpa on the regulator I assume there was alot of built up presure from the 270kpa beforehand. Yesterday I burped the keg and poured another foamy glass.
> 
> Please forgive my ignorance but how does one fix an over carbonated beer? Is it a case of burping the keg, lowing the presure and leaving it for a day or two?



Yes, the same way you flatten a bottle of coke 

And yes 1M beer line is too short


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## mattric (7/4/11)

Stux, so it's a case of burping till it has no presure or are you saying to open the keg? I thought that was a BIG no no to allow oxygen into the keg.

Also why is 1m to short? Why is 2m considered better? How does this change the beer?


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## mxd (7/4/11)

search is you friend (try pour foam)

1 mtr is too short at some temps and some pressure (the is a spreadsheet and possibly a wiki about "balancing" your keg system)

To "flatten" your beer, turn gas off, release all co2 (via pressure releif valve) every couple of hours release more co2 (try pouring as well but at very low pressure e.g 40kpa)


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## .DJ. (7/4/11)

rock/shake the keg, release pressure, test, repeat


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## booyablack (7/4/11)

mattric

I only got into kegging myself last year and found out pretty quickly that force carbonating is somewhat of a black art!

I had the exact same problems with over-carbing and ending up with schooners full of head.

The way I deal with it is to do the following:

1 - Turn the gas off the keg at the cylinder, not just the regulator.
2 - Pour yourself some beers using just the pressure in the keg. These will still be quite foamy but the more you pour the better it will get. You also don't need to pour all these beers at once, just whenever you feel like having a beer.
3 - After a few schooners worth the beer will begin to start flowing less and less until it's just dribbling out.
4 - At this point make sure that your regulator is turned right down as low as it will go.
5 - Turn the tap on the cylinder on a tiny bit.
6 - Try pouring a beer and see what the flow is like.
7 - Keep adjusting up the gas tap at the cylinder and then the regulator as required to get a good flow without litres of foamy head.

This works for me when I've over-carbed and/or having pouring issues. I hope it helps you.

PS - I originally tried balancing my system with metres and metres of beer line but found I can get away with beer lines that go basically directly from tap to keg (i.e. around 90cm). 

PPS - I'm probably going to get shot now for saying that.


booyablack


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## tonyt (7/4/11)

Stux said:


> Yes, the same way you flatten a bottle of coke
> 
> And yes 1M beer line is too short


Mate, I have made this mistake many times. Simply disconnect lines, take keg out, shake the hell out of it, wait a few minutes, release the pressure valve.....keep repeating till it is ok.

good luck


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## jimmyjackpot (7/4/11)

Do not open the keg, just burp it with the release valve. There is a spreadsheet on this forum for balancing your system (you will need to do a search for it) to work out line length. I overcarbed my first few kegs so I have switched to carbonating at pouring pressure (10 psi) over 7 - 10 days - takes a bit longer but worth the wait and cuts out any messing with the regulator.


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## adryargument (7/4/11)

mxd said:


> search is you friend (try pour foam)
> 
> 1 mtr is too short at some temps and some pressure (the is a spreadsheet and possibly a wiki about "balancing" your keg system)
> 
> To "flatten" your beer, turn gas off, release all co2 (via pressure releif valve) every couple of hours release more co2 (try pouring as well but at very low pressure e.g 40kpa)



pouring a beer creates turbulancd, which creates foam. Having a longer line provides enough friction that the beer travelling through it can return to it's liquid state.

My lines are just over 2.5m per tap, which I find allows for a higher level of carbonation.

The longer he lines = more co2 you can pump into the beer, which is not always good if you have a stout etc.


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## mattric (7/4/11)

You guys are awesome... I'll give this all a try tonight.


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## Nick JD (7/4/11)

Read this thread.

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...14988&st=20

Get the excel sheet in the 25th post, plug in your figures and see what it says.

I think the reason you have overcarbed your beer might be that it was 12L in a 19L keg.


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## Wolfman (7/4/11)

I had the some trouble with my first brew as well. I had two half kegs and gassed them at 300Kpa for 24 Hours (first mistake). A little foamy and no bubbles. I also found I had gas in my beer lines. Over carbed? Yer? So I removed the kegs, vented the gas, did a disco dance with them and proceeded to burp them. 
So with some *more * research, I then used the "Ross Method". Worked well but I have a perfect pour, perfect head (to start off with) then not many bubbles? 

My serving pressure is 60Kpa. I have in the Kegerator a Melbourne bitter and a pub draught both from Brew craft.

Am I missing something?


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## kelbygreen (7/4/11)

shan the ross method is alright if you need to carb the keg quick it will pour a good head but it dies down after a minute or 2. If you leave it sit for 2-3 days it will hold alot better head or just keep drinking it and by the time its almost empty the head will be perfect lol then it blows well does to me anyway.


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## Wolfman (7/4/11)

So what pressure do i leave for the 2-3 days?


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## kelbygreen (7/4/11)

serving pressure. if you have 2 in there just drink one I never wait just start drinking once force carbed lol. you will find after a few days the head will hold longer. the best method is to let them carb up at serving pressure but you would need at least 3 kegs id say to do that


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## Wolfman (7/4/11)

Cheers for the info KG. I have room for 3 so I will endvour to do that in the future. I have just started back home brewing and this is my first go at kegging. I thought it was just hook the gas up and away you go. Hahahahaha yer right! The rewards are there when you get it right though thats the main thing.

Cheers again


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## stux (7/4/11)

mattric said:


> Stux, so it's a case of burping till it has no presure or are you saying to open the keg? I thought that was a BIG no no to allow oxygen into the keg.
> 
> Also why is 1m to short? Why is 2m considered better? How does this change the beer?



Now that I'm on a real computer and not a phone...

If you wanted to de-carbonate a bottle of coke, you shake it, let the fizz out by unscrewing the lid a bit, and repeat until done.

The same applies to a keg, except you don't have to pop the lid you can just pull the PRV.

So, shake your keg a bit, then release the pressure...

wait a bit, then perhaps do it again...

once you've done that a bit, just hook it up to your reg at a calculated kpa based on fridge temp and desired C02 volumes, ie 90kpa, and it'll come up to the right level.


The reason you need a longer beer line is to provide resistance to the flow of beer, which means the beer will pour slower which means you can use a higher pressure to dispense, which keeps the bubbles in the beer.

The ideal situation is to balance the line so that the dispensing pressure is equal to your carbonating pressure.

Carbonating pressure is dependant on temperature and desired volumes

Dispensing pressure is dependant on beer line length, and beer line internal diameter and height that the beer has to be pushed to get to the tap.

If you ID of your beerline is 6mm you need more beer line or lower pressure, so you can get nice 5mm line which means the lines can be shorter.

There is a spreadsheet which can calculate both your carbonating pressure, and how long your beer line should be to enable you to use a dispensing pressure which is equal to your carbonating pressure.

1M is too short, especially if your beer line is 6mm or greater ID

2M is generally a relatively good length


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## stux (7/4/11)

Re slow carbing

The more headspace you have and the less beer, the faster your beer will carb at serving pressure

I like to accelerate the process a bit by force carbing to below final carbonation and then dialing back to serving pressure.

What I've found works well for me, with a full keg at fridge temperature is to dial the pressure to 300kpa for 24 hrs. I then dial it back to zero, and over the next 12 hours or so the pressure on the reg will drop to about serving pressure, normally a bit lower, in which case I then dial the pressure back up to 90kpa which is my carbonating/serving pressure, at that stage its got a pretty good pour and over the next day or two it will develop full carbonation and no more gas will be getting absorbed by the beer

It helps if you have a manifold to turn off your other beers when you are above your carbing/serving pressure


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## stux (7/4/11)

So, work out how many volumes you want, and what carbing pressure at your fridge temperature that is, then work out how long a beer line length you need to serve under that pressure.

I shoot for 2.5V, which is about 90kpa at 5C


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