Kegerator service in Boston

That little group of bubbles in the line above the coupler is a shot of foam waiting to happen. When you are balanced there will be nothing but beer in the line. After seeing the pics, I'm going to back up on my advice to leave the beer line at the bottom, you don't have the room for that and there isn't going to be a reliable way to keep it off the cold plate. Leave it alone for now as the pressure settles in and you are finishing getting this right, but next time you are tinkering or when you replace the keg go back on top with it.

 

The CO2 gap is a collection of bubbles that have merged into one big bubble. It is a shot of foam. If you haven't poured a beer since you bumped the pressure this could just be residual from the previous settings. Pour one and then evaluate what's going on in the lines. The other thing that can be playing into your issues as we get further down the funnel is opening and closing the door. Cold plate units do not have the capacity to easily compensate for losing their cooled air.

 

You need to get a grip on the temperature. "Like 48" is not a temperature. What happened to the 39-40 you reported before? It is very very hard to balance at high temps. These measurements all over the place suggest to me that you need to also see if your thermometer is properly calibrated. Make a glass of ice water with a lot of ice in it but leave enough room that you have a pocket of just water at the bottom. Stir it, let it sit for a few minutes, stir again and then take the temperature of the water pocket without touching ice or the sides of the glass. It should be a hair above 32. If it isn't then it is not reading correctly and you need to correct all of your measurements to reflect how far off it is reading.

 

How are you measuring the beer temp? Are you measuring the temp of the beer after your first pour? Does the foam decrease after the first pour at all? Have you tried to check the thermometer against the ice and water mixture that DougC123 mentioned above? If the beer really is at 33 degrees after pouring is the glass uncomfortable to hold or drink?

The beer gauge isn't showing full vs empty (unless its at zero). Before being too concerned about that I'd insure that you really know what the temperature is. I do find my beer can get a little bit more foamy right before the CO2 kicks but its never been significant for me (then again my system isn't fully balanced and I cheat with a flow control faucet so others smarter than me may talk better to this).

 

The bubbles come from not enough pressure for the given temperature, which is not the same as lines too warm. What is your pressure?

 

It's not as easy as one may think, but also not as rough as it seems to be going for you. If you are really at 34, then 12.5 is too high based on force carbonation charts. Do you still have bubbles in the beer line? The other thing to look at is the possibility of burrs or damage in the shank / faucet. If you deliver foam free beer up to the shank and there is a defect there it will create foam. I wouldn't have even brought this up if I hadn't gone through it myself when I ordered low cost stainless shanks and they came with burrs inside the bore which made them into foam nozzles.

 

The Perlicks are not a likely culprit, they are high quality. Here is an image of a brand new shank. There is no amount of balancing that can fix this. This the joint line between the elbow and the shank itself, it is full of weld slag.

To drop the pressure you do need to vent, a then shake the keg and vent some more. Repeat a few times over a few hours.

 

Rather than worry about this particular keg should he worry more about just getting things right for long term? First work at getting the temperature a bit higher to 38 F. So if he stops worrying about flatness of this keg and turns off the CO2 for a few pours will that bleed off the excess CO2? I didn't think commercial kegs could be vented, I thought that was only for corny kegs for homebrew (excuse my ignorance if I'm incorrect). Once the beers stops flowing turn back the CO2 to the 12.5 (assuming he's gotten the temp up to 38 F). I'm just wondering whether trying to focus on this keg being over carbed he should focus on the future and getting everything ready for the next keg?

Once this keg is done (either empty or flat) buy sixtel keg's until everything is working perfectly. If he can get the temp to 38 F, the CO2 at the right level, a long line and tower cooler and he still has foam then he can go from there. Feel like he's chasing his tail here, IMHO.

 

You vent commercial kegs with the coupler, there is a pressure relief valve on it just like there is on a corny keg. Look back at his picture of the coupler, there is a pull ring on the side of it which is the vent. Yes, you could shut off the CO2 and pour for a while, and then do it again and again. Seems like a waste of beer when you can just directly vent it, shake it and repeat.

Temperature under control is definitely an issue here, it is swinging wildly likely from too much fiddling and bigger adjustments than needed. He has long line and a tower cooler.