Foaming in the keg

[Jenks023]

Hi Guys,

This is the first time I have experienced this foaming problem.
The brew is a Corona (not the first time I have made it).
The issue is that when pouring, the glass is all foam which quickly turns to flat beer.
I carbonated the keg at pouring pressure (10-12psi) until ready to be consumed (aprox 2weeks) @ 2 degrees.
I originally thought that it was a case of over carbonation so I disconnected the gas and burped the CO2 to reduce the pressure for several days.
This didn't help.
I then noticed foam and bubbles in the beer line coming from the keg.
I know it is a cardinal sin, but I opened the keg to discover foam nearly to the top (keg should be 1/4 empty by now)
I replaced the lid and expelled the O2.
Is this level of foam inside the keg normal, or do I have an underlying issue?

Any advise will be much appreciated.

Cheers,

Jenks

 

[manticle]

Any chance you forgot to tip out some starsan?

 

[MHB]

Couple of things that come to mind
It is over carbonated because 1/ it wasn't finished fermenting when it was kegged, 2/ your reg isn't accurate (they all go at some point), 3/ the beer was at a different temperature than expected.

Contamination with a detergent as above... not likely that there's enough in there to cause the problem without being able to taste it.

Infection, there are a multitude of bugs that can get into beer (not just the common Lacto, Aceto and Pedo) some can cause some interesting problems, again they should be either smell-able or taste-able, but perhaps early on they might not be so obvious but if you keep the beer long enough they might be more noticeable.

Bit of careful detective work should be able to eliminate most of the possibilities, which might make it easier to find the real culprit.
Mark

 

[Jenks023]

That could be a possibility with the steriliser. I use Phosphoric Sanitiser from Keg King.
I thought of infection, but at this stage the brew is palatable and does not have and odour but still unsure.
Thanks for the ideas.

 

[Mattwa]

Is it possible you put the dip tubes around the wrong way and you're blowing gas into the bottom of the beer and reaping foam from the short dip tube?

Just a thought...

 

[Spiesy]

Another possibility is if a lot of "gunk" made it's way into your keg, be it trub or hop particles - you may find your dip tube or poppet is blocked.

I have an Aussie Ale on tap right now, that I dry-hopped the living Christ out of. It was pouring foam. I de-pressurised the keg and took off the beer post, the spring inside the post was full of hop debris. Cleaned it out, re-assembled, all good.

 

[MHB]

One other possibility that I meant to mention.
If the O-Ring that seals the beer out post to the keg is damaged you can get some gas mixing with the beer, will cause a lot of uncontrollable foaming.
It might be worth popping the post off the keg and having a look at the O-Ring, replace it or over wrap with some PTFE plumbing tape and see if that fixes the problem.
Mark

 

[Florian]

New tap or shank?

I once had a shank that was drilled out from both sides, but the drills didn't quite meat properly in the middle and there was a big lump of sharply edged steel, which caused some massive foaming when pouring.

Otherwise I'd still think you might have overcarbed. Same pressure, temp and procedure as usual? Same reg as usual or different one?

I'd take the keg out of the fridge for a day or two to let the beer warm up, you will then have more gas coming out of solution as when only burping in the fridge. Burp regularly. Reapply gas at 10kpa or whatever the absolute minimum is to push beer through the tap and go from there.