# Too Much Froth When Pouring From Keg



## rozbastow (26/11/11)

Hi All,

I am sure this has probably been posted before but have searched the forum and cannot find any topics relating to this.

My husband and I have been home brewing for the most part of this year and haven't had any issues until the last 2 batches... now we find ourselves with 4 corny kegs of brew we have no idea what to do next with!

Everything we have done has been the same as the time before, only now we have too much froth when pouring, carbonation looks great, taste is ok but also tastes a little flat - we thought we may have over carbonated but have released the gas from the kegs on numerous occasions and yet there still is way too much froth when pouring!

Any ideas what we should do and what we have done wrong? 

Cheers
Roz


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## mxd (26/11/11)

search for over carbonation


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## rozbastow (26/11/11)

Will do.. thanks


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## Spork (26/11/11)

Is the whole pour frothy or just the first bit? Could be the warmer weather warming your taps / font causing CO2 to come out of solution.


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## thebludger (26/11/11)

Spork said:


> Is the whole pour frothy or just the first bit? Could be the warmer weather warming your taps / font causing CO2 to come out of solution.




yes its the whole poor pulled 2 glasses then a jug all head takes a good few minutes to see beer in the glass or the jug


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## DU99 (26/11/11)

did you natural carb or force carb


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## pk.sax (26/11/11)

you say, there is too much foam, tastes flat. Points to perhaps too high a serving pressure?!
Maybe try dialing back the pressure to ~7-8 psi. See if that helps, the beer should pour fast but not gush out. Well, thats what I ended up doing to fix my pour.

Could've added extra long beer line to be able to pour with higher carbonation pressure but decided I like my carbonation on the low side anyway. (I use beer guns atm, so they are always cold)


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## Guest Lurker (26/11/11)

Its over carbonated. 
Releasing the gas from the headspace while cold will make very little difference to the gas level in the beer. 
Take a keg out of fridge, open pressure release valve, leave at room temperature overnight, close valve, put back in fridge, gas again. Do not apply pressure any higher than 80kPa during the gassing process, be patient, and regardless of your fridge temperature, your line diameter, your line length you will end up with a pourable beer.


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## kiwisteveo (26/11/11)

sometimes my beer will pour a bit frothy/heady when i haven't drunk any for 2-3 days but after 3-4 schooners she's alright,i have it set on about 85- 90kpa,so as long as i have a couple everyday always pours great, but some glasses a harder to pour than others.


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## jbowers (26/11/11)

Depending on fridge temp 85-90 is quite a bit, it is not surprising that you get a few foamy pours.


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## thebludger (26/11/11)

jbowers said:


> Depending on fridge temp 85-90 is quite a bit, it is not surprising that you get a few foamy pours.




had 2 kegs sitting at room temp for 2 days burping it when i went out there took the 2 cold kegs out put the 2 warm kegs in let them get cold put the pressure on 12psi left it for a while then went and poured a beer all head and not carbed enough so left it for a few hours tried again but all head so i'm wondering if i have had to much head space in the keg how far do you fill the kegs up to


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## rozbastow (26/11/11)

Guest Lurker said:


> Its over carbonated.
> Releasing the gas from the headspace while cold will make very little difference to the gas level in the beer.
> Take a keg out of fridge, open pressure release valve, leave at room temperature overnight, close valve, put back in fridge, gas again. Do not apply pressure any higher than 80kPa during the gassing process, be patient, and regardless of your fridge temperature, your line diameter, your line length you will end up with a pourable beer.



We have 2 kegs with the ring pull and 2 with the pressure release valve, will try your suggestion on all 4 now and let you know tomorrow how it turned out.

Thanks Guest Lurker B)


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## kymba (27/11/11)

shaking them will aslo release c02 from solution


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## kelbygreen (27/11/11)

have a read of THIS LINK! and download the balancing table down the bottom. If it taste flat and it pour head sounds like the beers to warm or the pressure is to high. If the lines are warming up and then you pour it will froth up and it may be the case by the time you go back to pour another the lines are warm again. If you balance your system and dont force carb then you may have to look into something else, maybe the beer line is to short??? how long is the beer line?


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## thebludger (27/11/11)

kelbygreen said:


> have a read of THIS LINK! and download the balancing table down the bottom. If it taste flat and it pour head sounds like the beers to warm or the pressure is to high. If the lines are warming up and then you pour it will froth up and it may be the case by the time you go back to pour another the lines are warm again. If you balance your system and dont force carb then you may have to look into something else, maybe the beer line is to short??? how long is the beer line?




going to have a read good read of it thanks 

now we have one long line thats feed from the gas to a t piece then 2 lines that are the same lengh that feed to the kegs i'll try and get pic for ya's


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## gap (27/11/11)

it is the beer line length you need to worry about
not the gas line length.

Regards

Graeme


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## rozbastow (27/11/11)

Ok guys, I can honestly say that it's not the lines as they were the same as before and we were getting fantastic pours every time. After getting nothing but froth from our pours off these 4 kegs, we have tried several suggestions from other brewers including the local brew shop guy, the only thing that has now changed with our lines is we've divided the CO2 line and put in a T piece so we can gas both kegs at the same time, the beer line is still the same as before.

Cheers


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## stux (27/11/11)

Sounds over carbonated with perhaps a dash of warm taps

How long is your beer line? And what is its ID (inner diameter)


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## mxd (27/11/11)

I'll be going over-carbed, we need to know, temp, pressure on reg, line length. I know you say it hasn't changed, but it's a very common problem when we all start kegging.


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## rozbastow (27/11/11)

The length of the beer line is 1150mm, the ID is 6mm... have attached some pics of our lines


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## mxd (27/11/11)

what temp is the fridge at and what pressure, your taps you can slow the pour down so too short lines is not an issue.

Have you tried slowing the pour down (via the tap) ?


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## hirns (27/11/11)

mxd said:


> what temp is the fridge at and what pressure, your taps you can slow the pour down so too short lines is not an issue.
> 
> Have you tried slowing the pour down (via the tap) ?



Clarifying MXD's comment: He does not mean simply pull the handle lightly for a slower pour. There is a flow control valve on the right side of your tap that is used to adjust the tap's pour rate.



Hirns


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## rozbastow (27/11/11)

The temp of the fridge is ? - The temp control is set at 1 .. we need to buy a temp gauge. We generally pour at 80 to 100 KPa

Yes, we have previously tried both fast pour & slow pour using the flow control valve, it made no difference. 

Chris has just closed the pressure release valves and re-gassed 2 of the kegs which are now in the fridge getting chilled... will see how it's turned out in a few hours.


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## Logman (27/11/11)

Can you completely stop the flow of beer with the flow control? Push it to the extreme both ways...


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## hirns (27/11/11)

80KPA holy shit batman, that's 11.6 psi, gear it back to 4-6 psi or 40-42KPA! And it will overcarb the beer as well!


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## hirns (27/11/11)

What do you mean by regassed. If you've over carbed them simply shake the keg and release the pressure to vent the co2. Leave the co2 line off untill it is carbed to the correct level. The extra co2 should still push it out of the tap till then. When its all good hook up the co2 again at 6psi.


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## Tony (27/11/11)

I had a keg that i over carbed a couple weeks ago. It just poured foam.

Its caused by the gas breaking out of solution in the line due to the pressure drop once out of the keg.

I opened the keg up and gave it a shake and after a day or so it had degassed enough and poured perectly.

cheers


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## rozbastow (27/11/11)

hirns said:


> What do you mean by regassed. If you've over carbed them simply shake the keg and release the pressure to vent the co2. Leave the co2 line off untill it is carbed to the correct level. The extra co2 should still push it out of the tap till then. When its all good hook up the co2 again at 6psi.



We followed the advice posted by Guest Lurker




Guest Lurker said:


> Its over carbonated.
> Releasing the gas from the headspace while cold will make very little difference to the gas level in the beer.
> Take a keg out of fridge, open pressure release valve, leave at room temperature overnight, close valve, put back in fridge, gas again. Do not apply pressure any higher than 80kPa during the gassing process, be patient, and regardless of your fridge temperature, your line diameter, your line length you will end up with a pourable beer.


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## rozbastow (27/11/11)

Logman said:


> Can you completely stop the flow of beer with the flow control? Push it to the extreme both ways...




Yes, we can completely stop the flow of beer with the flow control


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## hirns (27/11/11)

Roz said:


> We followed the advice posted by Guest Lurker



No not quite, gas at this pressure for two days, THIS is not serving pressure. After two days disconnect the gas unless you've got a check valve to stop beer getting into the reg, then burp the geg, adjust the regulater to serving pressure and then recoonect the gas to the keg. I regularly only serve at 27kpa or four psi! :icon_cheers:


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## Logman (27/11/11)

Roz said:


> Yes, we can completely stop the flow of beer with the flow control


Try and turn the flow control on super slow, like a couple of millimeters at a time and see what happens when it first starts to come out - or have you tried that? Just that with my taps, I can get over-carbed beer to pour anyway if I turn it on sensitively enough...


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## mxd (27/11/11)

Roz said:


> The temp of the fridge is ? - The temp control is set at 1 .. we need to buy a temp gauge. We generally pour at 80 to 100 KPa




If you leave (as in put in an uncarbed keg for a week or so) it at 80 kpa and 1 deg then you should be around carb level of 2.6 which is fine (well for me it is  )

How did you carb the keg to start with ?


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## stux (27/11/11)

I keep my kegs at between 80 and 90kpa. That is also the serving pressure. Fridge temp is 4C.

I used to dick around with line lengths. FWIW, without flow control, 1.1M at ID 6mm is far too short.

You'd be wanting more like 2M at ID5, BUT with flow control, that shouldn't be a problem.

I now have flow controllers on my taps, and I can pour a beer at 300kpa without foaming.

Dial your flow controllers in until nothing flows, then dial them out slowly while you pour until you have just the right amount of foam.

My ID5 lines are all about 1M now, which gets from the taps to the far corner of the kegerator with the door open.

Another cause of foamy pours is warm taps. You can help rectify this by setting up a PC fan to blow fridge air at the shanks. Might've become a problem as the weather warmed up

My carbonation regime is to cold crash to 1C in the fermenter, then keg. I then burp the keg and put it on 300kpa for 24 hrs. After that I burp the pressure and set it to 80-90kpa. Its drinkable, and will carb up perfectly in a couple of days.

The beer needs to settle/clear anyway.


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