I’m having a problem and need some help. For my stout (Guinness) I’m using beer gas mix with a short beer hose (4-5 feet) and keeping the temp around 38°. The gas company is a respectable company that does beer gas for many breweries. My first few beers out of the keg are perfect. But the further into the keg I go, the more and more foam. I tried one keg at 35 psi and another at 28 psiwith similar results. Is it a beer line length problem? A psi or temp problem? I could use any help possible. thank you
It could be any of those. The warmer the beer the more likely gas will come out of solution. Also, I think 28psi is a little high, maybe shoot for 25psi.
Another question, how did you carbonate your keg?
What do you mean carbonated the keg? I just purchased the keg pre carbonated. I’ll try my next one at 25 hoping it helps
Ahh I see. Thought you made it. You need to reach out to the brewery and see at what psi you need to serve. If you serve it at a higher psi than the brewery carbonated it you’ll over carbonate it and the nitrogen will rush out like that when serving.
Also welcome to the forum. This is a Homebrew forum so I assumed you made the beer.
I think you should start by releaseing the pressure and then start at say 20psi and incrementally increase it
Oh I didnt realize the website I’m on. I thought it was just a at home beer keg forum. I sincerely apologize for that. I’ve just been having trouble getting my stout kegerator perfect for the entirety of the keg and am getting desperate. I will bleed the keg, start it at 20 and see if it fixes the problem. Thank you
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No worries! The beer is carbonated to a specific level of CO2 by the brewery. If you use too little psi the beer won’t cascade like you want. If you use to high of psi it will absorb the CO2 and over carbonate it. With nitro beers it’s very easy to do because they are carbonated to a lower volume of CO2.
While back ago had the same isue. To much foam. Me did force carbonate. For 2.5 days. Than. Had serving presure. About. 6 psi. What. Works for my other beers. But could not get. The carbonation right for my stout. So did purch co2. And left it stand at 6 psi for 7 days. Did buy a separate inline co2 reg. So i have one tap point what i can control. Did set the psi to. 3 and it did pour a perfect stout beer
@William.walsh0612 - Although this is primarily a homebrew forum, you are certainly welcome here. We are happy to help.
A shorter liquid line with higher pressure will contribute to foaming. There’s a line length calculator here Determining Proper hose length for your Kegerator – Mike Soltys, Ph.D. although it’s not specifically focused on stout.
Beer gas, as you probably know, is a combination of nitrogen and CO2 - the ratio of the two varies. You can ask your gas supplier what theirs is. The beer will absorb CO2 but not nitrogen. In a larger bar where the kegs may be a long way from the taps, and maybe even in the basement, the nitrogen provides pressure to push the beer all the way without over-carbonating it due to the higher pressure required. Its a balance of the gas ratio and the line length.
As others have said, reducing pressure will reduce foaming, but will also reduce carbonation. A longer line will also reduce foaming (Pressure drops along the line due to friction as beer flows.) If that doesn’t work out, consider a beer gas with less nitrogen in the mix.
I bet your suppliers can offer specific suggestions.
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