New to beer/kegerator

If you stop that pour, and start a new one in a fresh glass what do you get? Pouring beer on foam creates more foam. Are you opening your faucet all the way?

 

OK, just noticed that. If I do stop that pour and start a new one, it's perfect. The first second of the pour is good, 2 or 3 seconds of foam, then the rest good (watching as it comes out of the faucet), but the 2 or 3 seconds makes it half foam. I just staring paying attention to the connecter for the beer line on the coupler, it makes a 90° curve and is tiny. Could that be doing something?

 

You've got a pocket of CO2 (pressure still too low) or first beer foam going on. If you wait 10 minutes, what happens?

 

Same thing, 5 minutes, 30 minutes, 12 hours in between, I still get a few seconds of straight foam at the start of the pour which messes the whole glass up

 

i think you have a pocket of breakout. Is give it another pound of pressure and give it a day to evaluate progresss. You can still drink during the process.

 

I'm at 15 PSI with no change yet. I just changed it about an hour ago, so I'm not expecting immediate results. I did notice that there were a bunch of pockets of air in the line before I raised the pressure. When I went up in pressure, the first pour was solid foam, the subsequent ones were about 3/4 foam. Faucet all the way open, glass tilted, etc.

 

3/16" lines? Check that to be certain. How long does it take to pour a pint?

Double and triple check your temperature. Because you have a temp problem here. Use a quality calibrated thermometer. Stick it in a crushed ice bath and be absolutely sure your beer is 38F. This is likely a temperature problem. Unless you have a some screwy hardware somewhere in the train it's a temp problem. 90% of foam issues are related to temp.



This is a Home Depot kegerator, and restaurant supply stores don't sell circular saws so there you go.
Cheers.

 

Temp is good, I might be new to the kegerator but I'm a "if it can be cooked outside, I'm going to cook it outside" guy. I've got several different thermometers, all of which I calibrate weekly. I've been using a thermopen for the beer temps and a maverick for their ambient temp. I found a forum post on micromatic that says the shank elbow into the faucet was his problem, and a lot have agreed. I'm going to replace that, as well as the shank that goes from the coupler to the beer line and see if that helps. What should I look for when buying new ones?

Also, I would prefer my beer colder, I know that throws the balance off, but is there anybody that has any experience with adjusting the thermostat? It's currently set to as cold as it goes but I know there is something you can do with the thermostat to make it colder. Can anyone give me advice for that?

 

^^verified beer lines, length and ID. Time to fill a glass depends, the only way I've got decent pours is at 8 psi, and that takes 20 seconds or so for a pint. At the recommended pressure of 13, it'll fill the glass with foam in 5 or so

 

I finally got it! New faucet shank, for whatever reason fixed the problem. I've now got perfect pours

 

Shouldn't have said that out loud.

 

What did I miss?

 

Shouldn't have said that you've got it out loud, it can only go horribly wrong from here.

 

How a manufacturer could manage to fuck up a shank amazes me. but there you have a Home Depot kegerator. probably designed by the same guys who are making nail guns.

Good news though and good to know.

 

I have that same kegerator from Home Depot, the igloo. I bought it naively as well. On the plus side it doesn't have the same problems most of the big box kegerators have so we both got lucky. I'm surprised you are only getting 39 degrees though, that's usually the biggest issue with these low end kegerators, they can't get cold enough. I need to buy a real thermometer but even at 3/4 of max the inside of the fridge is around 34 degrees. I haven't tested the temp at the tap but I know its too cold at max and probably a tad too cold at 3/4. I don't use a tower fan though, do you have a good seal with the power for the fan?

I also don't have the shank problem because I replaced the tower with a dual faucet tower. Its got a proprietary connector for the tower but you can use a piece of plywood drilled into the tower holes that already are there and then attach the tower to the plywood. I still have the original regulator though and am fighting leaks which I'm beginning to think is just a bad regulator since I've doused it with soapy water and eliminated all of the leaks I can see. Good luck, glad I'm not the only idiot to impulsively buy one of these igloo's.

 

The kegerator itself (besides cooling) it's going to make the beer pour perfect. I would check and make sure you at 10' lines, keep the temp around 34-36 (works for me) and the PSI in and around 8-10psi. Usually after a day of not using it, the first pour is somewhat foamy, then after that it pours beautifully. I like the correct length of line, temp and pressure is all you need to get a great pour.

 

After much research and equipment checking... I have these conditions:
5.5C
2' of line with a 9" elevation
my line is 3/16 poly. (2.2 psi of resistance per foot)

Plug these numbers into the formula on this page:
http://www.iancrockett.com/brewing/info/kegbalance.shtml

And you get a pressure of 4.775psi. Now my analog gauge can't be that exact, but it is calibrated and the needle is just barely past the 4psi mark. My IPA is perfectly balanced, perfect amount of head and definitely NOT flat. It takes approx. 18seconds to pour a 20oz. pint.

 

You are way under pressure here. Hear me out, I'm not looking to argue. Your system is not balanced. Choker length doesn't have anything to due with where you need to set the regulator. Choker does one thing only; it slows down the pour. That's it. You applied pressure is way too low and that's why you only need 2 feet of choker. And your temp is set higher than ideal as well.

(5.5C equals 42F. For the 99% that are living in the States.)

We discussed this earlier

Your system is not balanced and it's physics not opinion. Works for you but please stop offering flawed advice. It really is physics.
Cheers.

 

Mine is in the garage in eastern NC...that probably has something to do with my temps (although my garage fridge and deep freezer do OK out here). The tower is insulated pretty poorly, and the power supply for the fan is just running through the door, so I'm sure all of those are contributing factors as well. After these passed few cooler days the beer tastes a lot colder though, when I start drinking this afternoon I'll take some more temps and see what they are.

 

38 degrees, so I got one more degree. I think I'm going to bypass the thermostat and get an external one.

Also, this might be another stupid question, but let's say there is a commercial beer I like, but I'd prefer it to be a bit more carbonated, could I force carb it with the regulator? I know, I know, if I'm going to be that picky I need to start brewing my own