overcarb on a balanced system?

[izumidai]

I kegged a belgian golden strong a while ago and it is in my fridge at 42F and the reg is set to 25psi. The beer poured fine for the last month, but I am getting mostly foam now. I have between 10 and 11 feet of beer line and I was getting that nice duvel type pour. What would cause this change?

[Mylo]

You probably need a few more feet. I push a beer with 18 PSI through 13 feet of tubing at 40 degrees. Your beer finally equalized under all that pressure, and your tubing isn't providing enough backpressure.


Mylo

[ApresSkiBrewer]

Also, as you remove beer from the keg, I find anecdotal evidence that its much easier to over carb/carb a gallon of beer, as apposed to 5 gallons of beer (maybe has something to do with the head space, but this is definitely true when shaking to force carb). Maybe now that your keg isn't completely full, paired with what Mylo pointed out, you're probably equalized now, and weren't quite there earlier. +1 on a few more feet.

[izumidai]

So I tried adding a couple of feet for the beverage out but my test did not last long as the keg was kicked shortly after hooking it back up. I did notice many small bubbles coming out of the coupler into the beer line though. Do you think this was because there was not a lot of beer left in the keg? I was actually very surprised that the keg kicked. I don't think I drank 5 gallons in a month and a half, but maybe I did. I did pour off quite a bit of foam when I ran into this problem. I am not very knowledgeable about his process, but was all of that foam formerly my beer? If so, then that would probably explain what happened to the brew.

I am actually a little discouraged about kegging after this experience. Maybe kegging a belgian golden strong was a little ambitious for the first time out. Next up is a porter that is going into the keg today. Hopefully the lower volume will be more manageable. I am going to carb it to 2 - 2.25 vols.

Thanks,
Kevin

[Mylo]

It's all temp and pressure, man. Obviously all the connections need to be tight, and the inside of the lines clean and smooth. Gunky buildup or a rough fitting can knock some carbonation out of solution. There are several sites out there that will help you determine what length of what (inner) diameter line you need to hold back the pressure that you are serving at. I have found most of those calculations too conservative. It's best done by trial and error. I try to shoot for 1-1.5 oz dispensed per second. That means it will take about 12 seconds to fill a pint. Well worth the wait.


Mylo

[mkade]

I kegged a belgian golden strong a while ago and it is in my fridge at 42F and the reg is set to 25psi. The beer poured fine for the last month, but I am getting mostly foam now. I have between 10 and 11 feet of beer line and I was getting that nice duvel type pour. What would cause this change?

On a separate note, I'm not so sure how I feel about serving a Belgian golden strong at 42F. I feel like you're about 8-10 degrees too cold to really enjoy your beer. The best part is that if you warm it up, you'll also decrease the solubility of CO2 in your beer, which could help your foaming problem.