Ok so when I first got this kegerator I cleaned the heck out of it, like I am talking clean room clean! Then I bought a 1/4 keg yuengling. It went so so. So I bought a Coors light one. Well it went a bit worse. So back to the nets I go. Reading everything I could. Bought new tap, new faucet, o-rings, line, pretty much everything. Cleaned them all before use. Got another keg Coors light 1/2, let set for 24 hours before tapping, set pressure to 15psi, let it set. Worked better but still half foam. Cleared pressure, set at 4psi, waited. Poured great albeit slow. Fast forward to new keg. Same kind. Same procedure. Worked fine for first 2 days then blam, line froze. WTF! So I see that my fan for tower was moving too much air, turned down speed. All is well for 2days. Blam! Now I get all foam, line has bubbles, I have no hair left, you get the story. Checked all the orings, cleaned again, checked everything to a T. Let it all set till I got home, still all foam! Temp of beer when settled is 38.6. What could it be now?
Btw, the tap is only about 1 1/2 months old and this is the 2nd keg on which it was used. I am wondering if it could be the keg?
It's not the tap, or keg coupler as we say in the industry. Where you get the beer out is called the faucet just to clear that up as well, many people call that the tap. It's also not the keg although it is theoretically possible that the gasket on the spear is damaged - put that out of your mind, that's not the answer. Try a longer, smaller internal diameter line. In the photos it looks like yours is too big.
Yea I call the tap the part that "taps" the keg and the faucet just that. The line is 3/16 10ft long. I read that is the smallest to go. I thought I captured that in the photo but looks like I didn't .
That is the temp after letting it sit for almost to hours and first pour. Here is what it does when first started. Almost like it loses prime and air gets to the top at the faucet. I checked all connections and replaced all seals/o-rings.
So lots going on here. What brand is this kegerator? Based on the bubbles / gaps right at the coupler, it is pretty unlikely that your issue is related to the tower cooler, and I can't imagine how you determined it was moving too much air. Is your thermometer calibrated? Are you taking the temperature of the second beer? Storing the line on top of the keg is certainly convenient, but it is also the warmest place in the kegerator. Again, with the gaps right at the coupler, this may not be relevant, but it will be as you get closer to dialing this in.
It is an edge star. I did 4 temps with 4 different glasses and all came within .1 to .4 of each other. The fan seems to have been causing too much air movement and causing the line to freeze. Since I turned it down some it looks to be fine on that. I just used another thermometer and it showed the same roughly.
I dis a slight test. Dropped the psi down to 4psi. Waited a bit. It pours much better with less foam. To me it does not seem right that a 11 psi drop would make it work better and I am afraid it might cause the keg to go flat. Granted a full keg only lasts me about 3 weeks but still.
To get the temp, you pull a beer (or foam), fill the glass, immediately dump it and pull another beer. Take the temp of the liquid without touching the sides of glass. Using that temp, the volumes of CO2 for the beer (2.7 in this case) and a force carbonation chart you apply the correct pressure to balance the system. The gaps in your line still suggest you are not balanced. Could also be that your regulator is not accurate. Yes, 4 psi will give you flat beer.
I was thinking about the regulator but it is only a few months old too so I had ruled it out. Guess I will by another one and see what I get. That is the only thing I have not messed with.
