Glasses of Foam

[Ged]

Guys

This is driving me nuts.. I cant seem to get a consistent delivery from my keggin setup.. Have three kegs running and each keg is giving me 3/4 pint of dense foam... Have played around with the PSI etc but can't seem to get a working system...Temp inside chest freezer is 7 to 8 deg c. Length of line between keg and picnic tap is approx 9 feet ( sits inside chest freezer so same temp) Line is from craftbrewer and is OD 8mm/ ID 6mm. Pressure around 0.5 bar and tried upto 0.75 bar. Picnic tap fully open and starts a fast pour then white foam pishes out and fills the glass...

Setup using an online calc around 6 months ago that I now cant find.

Anything immediately wrong with the above figures that stands out ?

Thanks for your thoughts before i start bottling again :) That was a joke !

[Andrew]

Sounds to me like the beer has been held under pressure and it has been "force carbonated". Even though you've dropped back on the Co2 from the reg the Co2 will now be dissolved in the beer and it will breakout at dispense. Thats why it took so long to dissipate after you vented the keg, it was all dissolved in the beer. Next time I'd not put on as much top pressure if your forece carbonating it and just have enough pressure to push the beer out.

[Ged]

Yup...That sounds about correct but I wasn't force carbonating but had the pressure too high for around 3 weeks :) Tasted good once the foam had subsided and I had about a third of a flat pint left :)

[Nick T]

I was wondering about the exposed line, however 'room temperature' in the garage at the moment is very cold. Also, I can see the gas in the line inside the freezer, so it seems to be breaking out not long after it leaves the keg. Although the strange thing is that I got good pours when I had the system on Bronco taps, with less line... I may just have to go the route of depressurising and degassing, as you suggest.

[James P]

Sounds like your compensating tap is having issues then??

[Nick T]

I was wondering about that, but in the clear line just before the tap you can see all the gas bubbles racing up the line....

Might refit a bronco and see if that still works.

[bart]

20psi is waaaay too high. Your beer will over carbonate if left more than about 5 days at that pressure. And for pouring, thats really over the top as well. 10psi is the absolute maximum I'd ever pour at. I prefer about 3 - 5psi though.

Basically on my system I leave the beer at about 30psi for about 2-3 days until a decent carbonation level has been achieved and then bump it down to about 8-10psi for storage. Some beers pour ok at 8-10 but for a lot of them I drop it down to 3-5psi.

[Nick T]

Hmm, now I'm really confused - for 3 volumes of CO2 (for a saison, recommended range 3 - 3.5 volumes) I get about 19-20 PSI at 6-7 degrees using the various online calculators, which is why I have that line at 20PSI. What do people do for kegging their spritzy beer styles? I suppose I could just reduce it back down to the lower pressures and next time just bottle the fizzy beers (if I ever bother making one of them again!)

I think I need to have a session with James' teddy bear.....

[bart]

if i want a beer to turn out more carbonated then i leave it at about 12-15psi rather than 8-10psi after the initial couple of days at about 30psi. basically anywhere up to around 15psi, once the beer is carbonated, should keep the beer at an acceptable level of carbonation (although you definitley wouldn't want to pour at 15psi, that's far too much). Adjusting the range that you store the beer at between 8psi and 15psi will alter the fizziness of the beer. if i forgot about a beer at 20psi for a week i'd definitley go back expecting it to be over carbonated.

having said that, this is just from my own observations on my own setup. i hate 'calculators' etc, i much prefer to do it just by 'feel'.

basically, if you want good results with a keg leave it at 10psi for 2 weeks.

if you want to carbonate faster at higher pressures you run the risk of overcarbonating.

to un-carbonate you need to shake the keg a bit and then burp the valve. you need to do this lots and lots of times to uncarbonate an over carbonated beer. and you need to wait a while between each burping.

[Nick T]

Thanks Bart, looks like I am in for some burping sessions....sounds a bit like looking after a baby, although hopefully the keg won't make a mess of my shoulder (the parents out there know what I mean....)

[Nick T]

After degassing, re-pressurising and re-cold-conditioning I finally got a good pour of saison last night - ahhhhh, satisfaction!

[bart]

Glad to hear it Nick

[Nick T]

And thanks for the advice!