Hello everyone,
Doing a little bit of reading around on different home brewing forums and some experimentation for myself, I was able to fix the excessive foaming I was having while pouring beers.
The issue seems to be about "line balancing". Essentially, for a certain serving pressure and pipe size, you need a specific length of pipe, otherwise you'll get too much foam or the pour will take excessively long and could be flat.
I purchased a some additional 4mmx7mm tubing, and around 10 feet of length or so seems to give me a good pour. I even have the clamp wide open.
Hi Ryan
Good to know you solved excessive foaming issue. I just done my first brew. And also get the same foaming issue. Very frustrate. 🙁
You just replace original tube with new one? Can you show how do you run/place new tube? 10 feet is very long for machine. I am just curious how can it fit in machine?
@Jacky
Yeah, the original tubing slid off the barb pretty easliy. The new tubing I had to heat up in hot water to soften it up a little bit, and then pressed it on as far as I could. It didn't go on the barb quite as far as the original tube, but it's on there solid for sure. And then I just coiled/wapped the tubing around the top of the minikeg while it's sitting in the unit. There's plenty of room for the extra length of tube in there and the lid goes on without any issues.
@Ryan saw a 10ft 4mmx7mm tubing on Amazon. Will try that one to see. Thanks
https://a.co/d/bJ1UbKp
@Ryan hi Ryan, thank you for your post. we will also look into your method as well so we can take this into consideration in the future product improvements.
@Ryan i have informed your experience with our company. we are wondering if you can send us the link of the tube you purchased, and a video or photos of the set up you have?
@April I just sent you a message with the tube I used and some pics. I'll post below here too, in case anyone else wants to copy what I've done.
Tubing I used: https://www.mcmaster.com/6697N15/
Some pics below:
Turn off the CO2 canister and release some pressure before pouring. This totally solved for me. Once done, turn on CO2 for preservation.
@Roger That's one other way to do it.
I prefer balancing the line lengths to the correct regulated pressure, rather than trying to balance a decreasing pressure to the short original line lengths myself. I found that it pours more consistenly for me over various pours. Glad that there are multiple ways of foam free pours though! Everyone has what works best for them 😀
@Ryan Trying your method next but I found that disconnecting Co2 from the keg, bleeding off using the PRV and pouring worked well. If I wanted more head, I'd just reconnect the Co2 and top off the pint.
I try turning off the Co2 valve and release pressure but still only foam. How long should I release pressure or is there a level of PSI to aim for?
@Christian keep releasing till you have the foam you want. How does the brew taste? Did it ferment all of the way?
OK! Thanks! I released pressure all the way down to 0 PSI. Better but still quite foamy. I think the brew tastes flat with limited carbonation and somewhat sour. The foam is also still very thick and gets stuck on the inside of the glass.
Sour??? Did you sanitize before brewing with star san? What was your brewing process? What recipe?
It was Amber Lager. I only used dish washing detergent for sanitation. I will try again with a proper cleaning agent.
Dish washing detergent might clean your equipment but it will not sanitize it.
I tried your method with the longer line and it made little difference. I still got way too much head, but it did settle down quicker, in say 2-3 minutes versus 5-6 minutes. Would a 5mm line work better? Would it be to large for the fitting?
@Gene Going to larger ID tube would most likely give you more foam, since there would be less resistance in the line to balacane out the pressure. For less foam you want to try and get the line resistance to balance out the serving pressure, which would be accomplished by a longer length of tubing, smaller ID tube, or a tube material offering more resistance.
@April
April I did the same thing. I was able to reduce foaming using only 5 feet but it is important that people start with a completely sanitized keg. Otherwise it will get a high yield of dense foam.
