Having difficulty with very foamy beer! New keg system, was pouring very well in the first 2 weeks, but now I am getting a ton of foam, and not simply on the 1st pour. It is in a 5 gal corny keg. The regulator is at 12psi. The temp of the beer is around 40 degrees. The beer line length is aprox 5ft, the tower is aprox 1 1/2 feet above the top of the keg. The beer does appear to be coming out at a rather quick rate! It is mostly foam, and I have to wait a min or so before I can drink. Should I drop the PSI on the regulator try and pour at a much lower rate? or will this just make things worse as the beer pressure will be higher than the C02 output? What advice do you guys have for trouble shooting this. Thanks.
Couple things:
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your beer line is likely way to short. Best thing I ever did was to replace my line with 10’ over 5’. Get much better line restriction.
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are you cooling your tower? With the increased summer temps that tower/ faucet warm quicker. As the beer runs through it it warms and loses its ability to hold the dissolved CO2.
3). Make sure the line isn’t pinched or kinked. I know… but it has happened to me and it took me awhile to figure out. Any kind of “Nucleation” site will result in off gassing. Once I was drinking a IPA that somehow dislodged a hop particle in the ball lock disconnect. That took awhile to figure out, too.
I would turn the regulator down to 9 or 10 psi, shut off co2 valve, bleed co2 with pressure relief valve on top of keg then try pouring. Only turn co2 back on when the pour slows to a trickle.
Good idea, except the valve needs to be shut off first to prevent the possibility of beer backing up into the gas line and regulator (this can happen if the keg is overfilled or you have foaming in the keg for whatever reason). Then bleed off pressure from the keg, turn the pressure down, pour your beer, etc. :cheers:
Increase line to 10 feet for sure. I recently did this and solved my foam problem. Also cooling your tower will help a little bit too. But the line length is key.
Before you mess around with line length try serving from a picnic tap that is chilled in the cooler with your beer. If it’s still foamy you are probably over carbed.
Do some of the math and balance your system.
It’s not necessary to replace all of your lines. I use 5’ beer lines with no issues because my system is balanced.
If you do a google search, there’s a couple of websites I think that explain it. It’s basic math, nothing too hard. Should tell you where you need to have your PSI set for your system, or if you’re particular about your carb levels, you can change your line length. Most of my beers are just about right where they need to be for a typical ale carb level, and I don’t really mind if they are a little over carbed. I’m still not having problems with excessive foam, so it seems fine to me. If I ever need to carb something that requires something extra (like a Saison), I’ll deal with it then 
