Help me troubleshoot my foam

So your faucets are real closing, there is a mechanism in the beer flow. Couple of things with that - you will get beer glue forming if you don’t have a beer for a day or two - opening the faucet will feel like you’re going to break it. Being rear closing the shut off is on the tower side of the faucet, so exposed beer sits in the air getting gross.

You can get some really nice forward closing faucets for $40-$50 each. Perlick is the king of those, micromatic has a house brand. There is no mechanism, it is literally a ball at the front of the faucet so there is nothing exposed.

 

Hmm, this is disappointing to say the least. It appears the hefe is still over carb'ed. To troubleshoot, suggest you take the hefe off the gas and purge the headspace. Come back in an hour and purge it again (report on the difference in gas escaping). Come back in an hour and try a pour. All of this with the gas off. Leave the gas off until you report back. Oh yeah, about how full is the hefe keg?

About the only other area to troubleshoot is the faucet and the accuracy of thermo/pressure (which is a rabbit hole if ever). Balancing a 16psi beer is tricky, but I've kept two faucets at 15psi for years that are balanced. Plus, many bars in Europe are serving at the higher pressures. So it can be done.

 

Okay, you probably have less than 2psi in the headspace, which is what we are after. Now set the pressure to something intermediate, like 10psi, and try a pour. Report back on speed of pour, feel of carb level, and of course foam level.

 

Would you confirm that right next door the lager is pouring normally at 11psi? If yes, then the only variable left untested is the faucet. If this is the case then recommend you exchange beer lines to faucets and see how the hefe pours on its new faucet . . . ditto the lager.

 

We know the lager faucet is pouring normal at 11 psi and the hefe faucet is all foam at 10 psi. Also, we're reasonably sure the hefe is not over carb'ed as you burbed it multiple times. You've exchanged the secondary gas inputs with no difference, so pressure is most likely not the problem. The only variable left to test is the faucet being used to pour the hefe. What I'm suggesting is to move the hefe beer line from its current faucet to the lager faucet. Also, connect the lager beer line to the former hefe faucet.

Yes, this is a PITA, but this is just about the last untested variable in the process. If the lager is all foam on its new faucet we know the culprit.

 

. . . just to be clear, keep the 14' line connected to the hefe keg, just move it to the new faucet. This is a known good faucet . . . if it foams then something is AFU in the keg.

 

How did this end up? Been fun following along.