Lots of foam, low carb

[SnowGoon99]

So my first beer that i kegged has a wild foam problem. Just foams out of control no matter how i pour it. I always open the tap all the way when i pour out of the cobra tap. My line is 5ft and 3/16 ID. I have the regulator set to 12psi or so and the temp is at 39F. The carbonation is actually lower than i would like cuz i'm afraid it'll just cause more foam. It tastes great too. So it's not infected and not overcarbonated. Any thoughts?

[Fremont Brewer]

So my first beer that i kegged has a wild foam problem. Just foams out of control no matter how i pour it. I always open the tap all the way when i pour out of the cobra tap. My line is 5ft and 3/16 ID. I have the regulator set to 12psi or so and the temp is at 39F. The carbonation is actually lower than i would like cuz i'm afraid it'll just cause more foam. It tastes great too. So it's not infected and not overcarbonated. Any thoughts?

I have the exact same problem right now. My first kegged batches ever and am having troubles getting the carbonation right. Seems to foam up too much. I have even the same line length as you and same temps and psi. ????

[Whitebeard_Brewer]

Put a longer line on there and see if that helps, start around 7-8 feet, and go down from there.....it's what I would do anyway.

[San_Diego_Matt]

what method did you use to carb the beer? What PSI and for how long?

[krizwit]

How long has your beer been at 39 deg? If you just put it in the keggerator after the beer was 68 deg. It will take some time for the keg to cool and for the beer to actually reach the CO2 level you want.

If you get a lot of foam in your glass, the CO2 is obviously coming out of solution so that when the foam settles the beer seems flat.

Some beer lines have 3# of restriction, so you might actually need only 4.5 or 4 feet of tubing. My buddy had beer lines that had 3# of restriction and once he shortened his lines, the beer stopped foaming excessively.

[theblaster]

I have had this problem in the past as well and could not figure out why I was having a foam problem. Then I poured two glasses, one in an old glass and one in a new glass (totally random - just lucky). The new glass had almost no foam in it, the old one was all foam. Turns out the problem was that my old glasses had tiny fractures and scratches (something about the dishwasher, the extreme heat and the glasses occasionally bouncing into one another - they don't break but they do get microfractures).

The problem for me was too many nucleation points on the old glasses. New glasses have a nice, smooth suface. Not sure this is your problem, but by moving to all new half liter glasses (which was a nice bonus) my beer now pours smooth into my glass (and down my throat).

[Rictanica]

are you dispensing at 12 psi?

[SnowGoon99]

The beer has been at 39F for about 2.5 months now. I am dispensing at 12psi as well. Since my other beer on the same regulator is pouring fine i'm inclined now to think it's my cobra tap. I've heard that these things are not made very well. Haven't tested it against another one yet though.

I did find that if i held the tap way above the keg it didn't foam as much. But still more than i would like and still under-carbonated.