Me and my buddies just moved into an apartment with a kegerator. We go to the University of Georgia so for a housewarming gift to eachother we split a keg of Terrapin Luau Krunkles and we’ve been having trouble getting it to not foam as much. We’ve tried a bunch of different PSIs and temperatures but just can’t seem to get it to work. We’ve thought about replacing the beer line ( ~5ft 3/16”) as a last resort but it still looks pretty clean. We wanted to know if anyone had any advice for us on what temperature, PSI, etc. Any help is appreciated!
Welcome to BA I'm no expert so the best advise i can give you right now is take a look at some of the other threads that talk about foam. There's lots of great info in them. A couple of the questions others are going to ask are: - what's the temp of the beer coming out of the tap? - how much time are you giving between adjustments? Both temp and psi
You have foam because your temp/pressure/line-length are not balanced. The science on how to set this up is fairly detailed...here's the short version: You must control your temperature first, target is a liquid temp of 38...if you don't have an accurate thermo go buy one. Caveat: it will take 24+ hours for any changes you make to thermostat to stabilize in keg. Once temp is firm you want a pressure in the range of 11-12 psi. Set this pressure and don't touch it again. If you think it's above this level, then bleed off some pressure and go back to the 11/12 setting. Caveat: it can take 2 - 3 days to stabilize, just depends how much you were off. Once temp/press is stabilized don't ever touch them again. From here on you eliminate foam by adjusting line length. Buy 10' of 3/16" beer line and don't skimp on any cheap vinyl, get real beer line. Coil any extra in the lowest part of kegerator. Report back. Here is the long version: https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/foaming.193492/ https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/help-with-balancing-my-system.248243/
@Willlintner I own a kegerator that’s not set up (take my comments with a grain of salt), but I’ll be ahead of the game when my patience is exhausted for not having draft beer at home. That said and after having read most (if not all) the Home Bar forum posts made in the last 3+ years, a recurring theme for balancing a system is patience. What might seem like small or insignificant tweaks are often neither small nor insignificant. If a car is running rough and replacing the fuel filter fixes it, the car runs better immediately. If a misplaced or invalid character in a line of code breaks the app, the proper fix unbreaks the app immediately. Not so with balancing a draft system…..resign yourself to the fact that it will probably take a week or more to get your perfect pour. Note the sequence and waiting time for tweaks prescribed by @Dr. PortLargo. Not suggesting this is your mindset, but if you dial it in from the gitgo you can be pretty much done with it instead of settling for your first keg to be ‘okay’ and then fiddling with another, and another, with a nagging dissatisfaction that “it ain’t like the taproom”. It can probably end up better than many taprooms because it will be tailored to your (and your buddies') preferences. Four last thoughts: 1) Try Creature Comforts Reclaimed Rye if it’s still available (haven’t seen it in a while) 2) If you get stuck, ask. The learned folks here want you to enjoy your draft beer at home. 3) Go Dawgs! 4) Patience
The unit ships with 5' of 3/16" choker, which is a give away right there. @Willlintner out of curiosity, what brand kegerator and where did you buy it?
