SUPER FOAMY BEER!!

4' is too short no doubts. try 8 ft of 3/16" ID bev line. this will slow down your pour a lot and will reduce turbulence.
38 is good, 35 will work very well if not better.
30 psi for one week might have been a bit much. burp the keg regularly and set it at 12 psi to maintain decent vols of CO2.

go from there, take your time. longer line to reduce flow rate. lower psi to reduce flow rate. burp to relieve CO2 content. 10 to 12 psi to balance properly.
Cheers.

 

You are getting foam because your system is unbalanced. Suggest you read these two threads before reading anything else (including my comments below):
http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/help-with-balancing-my-system.248243/#post-3183725
http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/foaming.193492/

Okay, you've read the above threads and know you've broken multiple rules of the game. But it can all be fixed. Basically there is no way to tell what the beer carb level is but my guess is it's grossly over-carbed. I would release all the pressure and start over as noted in the referenced threads. If anything stumps you, fire-away again. Caveat: This will not be a quick fix, expect several days (week) to get it under control. Good news is you will become an expert and will be able to 'splain the principles of balancing draft beer to the unwashed masses.

 

This will never solve your problem. After bleeding the pressure the excess CO2 in your beer diffused (off-gassed) into the headspace leaving a pressure only slightly less than the original. With a serious over-carbed beer (suspected here) you could bleed to zero and disconnect the CO2 input and still have nothing but foam. Try bleeding again to zero then wait overnight, the pressure will come back from the gas in the liquid filling the headspace. Only when the quantity decreases to allow enough headspace for the CO2 to off-gas sufficiently will your beer be properly carbed. Right now it's just a guess. For a good pour you must balance carb-level, temp, psi, and line length. Twiddling with the pressure knob is not going to give good results.

1. Do you know what carb level you want? A Google search for DB should give you this, most IPAs are about 2.5 - 2.7 volumes.
2. Do you know the actual temp of your beer? Your thermostat setting is likely to be off from actual temp. Without this number everything else is just a shot in the dark.
3. Have you looked at a beer-carbonation chart? Only when you know the answers to 1 & 2 above will you know what psi to set. Then you never change this psi unless you change beers (carb level) or temp. That's right . . . psi is not adjusted to reduce foam. The people who recommend blindly adjusting psi to solve the problem are usually drinking over/under-carbed beer.
4. Once you determine all three of the above then it's time to adjust your line length. You can use the formula (in the links provided) or just start around 10 feet and whack a little at a time.

 

How many beers have you poured? You need to replace that high carbonation with lower carbonation, just bleeding off the top pressure once won't give you immediate lower pressure. Keep bleeding pressure each day for a few days or pour beers off to help replace the high with lower pressure. Oh, and balance your system.

 

Well don't know what to add that hasn't been said. Charging the keg at 30 psi I would not recommend. Relieving pressure to the keg only does so from the head space. At this point you would either have to continously relieve keg pressure until the internal keg pressure = regulator pressure, or add restriction until it pours slow enough. I also would not turn down the pressure or increase temperature. If you turn down the pressure on the regulator then gas in the keg will disassociate from the beer, if you increase the temp the same thing happens.

Good luck

 

To get the residual pressure from the keg, vent it, shake it, vent it, let it sit a while and repeat. The over pressurization will go away. Then set the pressure based on volumes of CO2 and the temperature. Add in the lounge line, 12' will be too long. You can start there to see what foam free beer is like, but you will get bored waiting for the glass to fill. Cut it back in 6" increments until you have a good balance between foam and speed. Most people who add line wind up in the 8' range.

 

The calculations, rules of thumb, etc. usually work out to around 5', so that tends to be accepted as 'normal'. Theoretically, in a perfectly balanced system, with a properly chilled line/faucet, and a chilled, pristine glass, a pint with a perfect head can be drawn in 20 secs with 5' of line. Unfortunately, nothing is perfect, so we tend to use a longer line to compensate - a cheap and easy 'fix' (note the quotes). It's easier to finesse a proper head from a longer line than it is to tame the foam from a shorter one. And, in a home bar, a 25-30 second pour is not a show stopper.

 

Most kegerators do come with 5' and most people change them to 8-10'. It is a $8 / 20 minute thing, so even if you are skeptical it is worth trying. This conversation has taken longer than it would to just do it. You've been told what you need to do so don't be fussy with people who are trying to help.

 

once you have achieved the proper temperature and pressure the final part is very easy.

a properly working system will pour 38F beer on the first pour, every time. it can be 40, maybe even 42 if you like, but it must be consistent. the applied pressure is going to around 8 to 10 psi. and you can dial that in to get it just so, but mostly so long as you are in the range the beer is fine.

the line diameter and length will tame the velocity. that's it.

starting with 10' or even 12' is suggested because you can live with it, see how the beer pours, then reduce by 6" or a foot in a week. with 5' you are stuck. shorter line = faster pour and more velocity. more velocity = more foam.

5' of line is not very much resistance. the beer tends to pour faster and with more velocity than needed. we are not running a bar, so an extra few seconds to control the pour is very useful.

note too that you'll see a lot of activity for your specific problem because you are putting in the time; it's not that anyone is touchy but we do see a boatload of people who don't have the patience for more than 5 minutes and two posts.
Cheers.

 

Guessing at your temp doesn't help, but with the leak you described I don't think you will ever win. If that connection is loose it could be what is agitating the beer. What does the beer in the line look Ike after a pour? After it sits for a while?