The Dreaded FOAM!!

[Phil185]

I have an AA on tap that had been pouring very well. All of a sudden, I get nothing but foam, the temp in my fridge is 36ish, if anything it could be colder since the weather has dropped signifacantly this past week. (Fridge is in the back garage with no heat) Regulator is reading 12PSI, with approx. five feet of 3/16 line to the tap. Does anyone have any ideas on where to start to fix this??

[HighCountry]

Holy crap...this is weird, because I was getting ready to post something on this exact same phenomenon. I've been brewing and kegging for years and years and have never had this happen to me. Here are my details: Red IPA or strong ale, depending on how you want to look at it, kegged for a couple weeks and pouring fine. Then the foam happened - and it keeps coming no matter how much gas I let off or put back in. And here's my twist - I figured it's not something in the hardware, because it happened on two different kegs at the same time. These kegs are both on separate CO2 tanks, separate taps, and in separate refrigerator units. Both were pouring normally and then all of a sudden...

I'm very, very interested in how this conversation is going to go, especially since I owe two cases of this sucker to a friend.

[Sent From My iPhone]

Not sure if this is it, but check out your taps. If the beer's not over-carbonated then maybe the tap's dirty, not opening all the way and aerating the beer when you're dispensing.

[captain carrot]

Weeeeelll. Your keg might be getting low. Your pressure may be too high on the Co2. If the temp drops in the fridge the beer may absorb more Co2. It one of me beers is overcarbonated I shut off the Co2 supply and bleed off almost all of the excess using the pressure relief on the keg. Use the Co2 coming out of solution to push the beer or give it a small burst from the tanks to dispense. When the foaming stops you can turn the Co2 back on but maybe at a lower pressure. I prime all my kegs with 1/2c of corn sugar and found that dry hopping will increase Co2 levels (and foaming) also.

[HighCountry]

Not sure if this is it, but check out your taps. If the beer's not over-carbonated then maybe the tap's dirty, not opening all the way and aerating the beer when you're dispensing.

I can't speak for Phil185, but I've hooked both of my culprit kegs up to several different faucet/taps and the problem continues. Even tried it through the beer gun.

[HighCountry]

Weeeeelll. Your keg might be getting low. Your pressure may be too high on the Co2. If the temp drops in the fridge the beer may absorb more Co2. It one of me beers is overcarbonated I shut off the Co2 supply and bleed off almost all of the excess using the pressure relief on the keg. Use the Co2 coming out of solution to push the beer or give it a small burst from the tanks to dispense. When the foaming stops you can turn the Co2 back on but maybe at a lower pressure. I prime all my kegs with 1/2c of corn sugar and found that dry hopping will increase Co2 levels (and foaming) also.

Once again, I can't speak for Phil 185, but both kegs in question for me are nearly full, the problem continues whether or not I have the gas on, and continues when I bleed off gas.

Interesting thought about the dry hopping. These beers were dry hopped significantly after fermentation was 90% complete. I had fermented 10 gallons of this beer in a converted Sanke keg and dry hopped in there before transferring to the kegs for serving. I've never had a dry hopped beer behave this way before. What would the explanation be for that?

[Phil185]

I initially thought maybe I had something in my pick up tube, blew some CO2 through that with no change. I've released my pressure with the relief valve, no change. About the only thing I haven't done is to either turn off or reduce the pressure. It's 12 degrees outside this morning, I'm waiting to find out if I now have some ice beer Still this started before the cold temps hit hard. The faucet was cleaned as well as the lines when I tapped the keg. I still have about half the keg left. I get foam directly out of the keg, it's not foaming at the faucet. The beer tastes and smells fine once it settles, still, it takes a shit load of foam for a pint!!

[Phil185]

Not sure if this is it, but check out your taps. If the beer's not over-carbonated then maybe the tap's dirty, not opening all the way and aerating the beer when you're dispensing.

Hmmmm, I wonder if I could be sucking in air from the tap?? I've sprayed the tap with starsan, and have no leaks, I guess it could be possible the poppit seal is leaking but I would think I would be leaking CO2 if it was.