Hi all! I'm new to this forum and to kegerators. I recently purchased a summit 1-tap tower kegerator and converted it into a 2-tap tower. Everything is new, minus the refrigeration system and box. I would love to say it's awesome, however, when I tapped my new keg of Peroni, I started to get all foam. I set the pressure to 10 PSI, the recommended pressure for a Pilsner, on the low end. I have had the keg in the fridge for about a day so the beer is acquainted with the temperature, and I have about 5 feet of 3/16 hose beer hose and 5/16 co2 hose approximately 2.5 feet. I was wondering what should do and if you guys have any suggestions for foam issues. Should I make the beer hose shorter or longer? Let me know. Thanks, OB
Do you have a tower cooler? If not, you need one. The beer line from the keg to the faucet needs to be exactly the same temperature. Have you taken the temperature of the beer coming out of the faucet with a calibrated thermometer? To do this you should pour a pint into a room temp glass. Immediately pour it off, pull another pint and measure the beer temp, not foam. You want to be at 38. Using this temperature and a force carbonation chart and the volumes of CO2 for the beer you can find the correct pressure. If you don’t have the actual number use 2.6, it’ll be close enough. Get 8’ of beer line, actual beer line, not Home Depot tubing. This will get you some things to think about, but my guess is you are likely too warm on the beer, the line is not uniform temp and you are too low on the pressure.
Stop. Right. There. Do you have a European Sankey coupler, or are you using a Domestic? This could be the source of your frustration. Cheers! Edit: My coupler guide states Peroni is now a Domestic coupler. Hmmmm
I wanted to thank you for your help. my beer leaves the tap at about 39F which I think is good. I was thinking about increasing the length of the beer line from 5 feet to 10 feet but then I had a flashback to my freshman year of college fluid dynamics class. Since we can change both pressure and length we have two variables. There are a plethora of combinations that can be made but I'll list two for now. I could change the line to 10 feet while keeping the CO2 pressure constant because there will be a pressure drop from the keg to the faucet. OR I could just decrease the pressure until it pours perfectly. now decreasing the pressure would make it pour a little slower. However, it would still keep the carbonation in the beer. Thanks again for the help. OB
The line length will slow the flow of properly balanced beer, it will not correct foaming. All it does is slow the flow down and remove turbulence from the equation. After you pour a beer, what does the beer look like in the line - is it fully packed or do you see bubbles moving to the high spots? Moving bubbles = not balanced. You need to look at a force carbonation chart using 39 degrees and 2.6 volumes of CO2, this applied pressure is what will keep the CO2 in solution. If you are taking the temp the way I described, by the chart you want to be higher in pressure, I’d go 14-15 and add the line length.
Once you set this pressure for the correct carb level it should not be changed. You reduce foam by lengthening your line. Don't be afraid to start as long as 10 feet, then whack it a little bit at a time. Many of us on this forum find 8 - 10 feet the sweet spot, others say 6 - 7 . . . just depends. Be aware your thermostat and pressure gauge most likely have some errors, hell even your thermometer may be lying to you. But knowing the above steps and a little bit of trail and error can give good results, just may take a couple of days (and that's true for everyone). If you are analytically minded here's a link that talks about balancing in detail: https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/foaming.193492/
