Getting a lot of foam

[h22lude]

My friend has a Nostalgia KRS2000 and has been getting a lot of foam. I went over today to try and fix it but couldn't figure it out.

Few things I tried...

1) His beer line was less than 5 feet. I changed it to a 10 foot line.
2) Cleaning everything with BLC.
3) There was a spring in the faucet. I'm guessing the only purpose it has is to close the faucet automatically. I took that out.

None of those worked.

A few things I noticed that I want to look more into...

1) Switch out the faucet for a Perlick.
2) Switch his reg with mine.
3) The CO2 line was extremely small. I highly doubt this has effect on it but may swap it out for a bigger one. The line is comes with can fit inside the beer line.
4) There are two white plastic torpedo shaped objects inside the beer out part of the coupler. From what I have been reading, it seems like there should only be one and there should be a spring. Can anyone confirm this? It seems like the part that it is in is too large for just one. It would move up and down freely.

Any other ideas?

[djc]

A Perlick will not help with foam, larger gas line has no effect, and the torpedo is a back flow device to prevent beer from coming out of the coupler when you untap. There is normally only one, and it is not required. Depending on how it is contained in the coupler you may see a spring holding it in place (common with balls) but there may be another way it is held in. You should research proper balancing using the beer temperature and the volumes of CO2 for the beer you are pouring, and setting the psi accordingly. You are clearly not balanced.

[h22lude]

A Perlick will not help with foam, larger gas line has no effect, and the torpedo is a back flow device to prevent beer from coming out of the coupler when you untap. There is normally only one, and it is not required. Depending on how it is contained in the coupler you may see a spring holding it in place (common with balls) but there may be another way it is held in. You should research proper balancing using the beer temperature and the volumes of CO2 for the beer you are pouring, and setting the psi accordingly. You are clearly not balanced.

A 10 foot line should be good for balancing. I just used an online calculator and got 9 feet so that is ok. I have 3 home brew taps using 10 foot lines at 12 PSI at 41

[djc]

What you have doesn't really matter, what your friend has matters. Based on your questions I'd say there are plenty of things you can pick up here. The longer line slows the flow of already balanced beer. It doesn't do anything for balance. Balance uses the two variables to determine the proper pressure based on a carbonation chart. This prevents CO2 breakout caused by either too low a pressure or too high. You need to maintain the volumes of CO2 the beer was packaged at or you will continue to fight foam. You then need to maintain the same temperature from keg to faucet. What beer is it? What temp? What pressure? Tower cooler or circulator fan? What does the beer line look like at rest?

[h22lude]

What you have doesn't really matter, what your friend has matters. Based on your questions I'd say there are plenty of things you can pick up here. The longer line slows the flow of already balanced beer. It doesn't do anything for balance. Balance uses the two variables to determine the proper pressure based on a carbonation chart. This prevents CO2 breakout caused by either too low a pressure or too high. You need to maintain the volumes of CO2 the beer was packaged at or you will continue to fight foam. You then need to maintain the same temperature from keg to faucet. What beer is it? What temp? What pressure? Tower cooler or circulator fan? What does the beer line look like at rest?

I understand what I have may not be what he needs but our perimeters are pretty close. I was just showing that a 10 foot line should be good for what he has.

It is a Narragansett Lager at 39 pushing at 12PSI. The tower is insulated but not fan cooled. When pouring the beer in the line looks fine. At rest CO2 bubbles do start to form in line but I'm thinking they don't form in the line but are just coming back down from the faucet which is why I'm thinking the faucet has something to do with it.

Using the carb chart, 8 to 12 PSI is within the range and that is where we were. I believe the system is balanced. Well, I should say I believe the system is balanced based on the reg he has. If the reg is bad and isn't reading the right PSI, that could be the problem.

[djc]

I'm not sure of the v/v for Gansett, but assuming it is around 2.7 and that you are properly taking the temperature of the beer (calibrated thermometer, second pour immediately after the first, into a room temp glass without measuring foam temp or touching the sides of the glass) you are low. 39/2.7 is calling for around 14. BTW your range of "8-12"psi is too broad to be of any value. You need a number not a range that is 50% of the values you are looking at.

Also BTW, the faucet has no way of pushing bubbles down stream, so that isn't the cause of the bubbles.

The bubbles tell you that you aren't balanced.

[h22lude]

I'm not sure of the v/v for Gansett, but assuming it is around 2.7 and that you are properly taking the temperature of the beer (calibrated thermometer, second pour immediately after the first, into a room temp glass without measuring foam temp or touching the sides of the glass) you are low. 39/2.7 is calling for around 14. BTW your range of "8-12"psi is too broad to be of any value. You need a number not a range that is 50% of the values you are looking at.

Also BTW, the faucet has no way of pushing bubbles down stream, so that isn't the cause of the bubbles.

The bubbles tell you that you aren't balanced.

Using 14PSI, I'm getting almost 12' of line. I'll have to try that to see if it helps. I put on 10' last night and it didn't seem to make it much better.

Side question, could an improperly balance system make a beer seem flat without knocking CO2 out of suspension? So the beer comes out nice and smooth with not a ton of foam but the mouth feel seems a little flat.

[djc]

If your applied pressure is lower than the balance pressure for the temp, over time the beer will go flat. It may not show up as bubbles in the flow, it will show up as lost to the head space in the keg. For a short draw you really don't need to worry about line length calculators. Balance to the temp and V/V, with a 10' line on there you should pour very slow and foam free. most lines wind up being cut back to 8 or so feet.
Could also be a bad regulator as you mentioned earlier, or he could have over carbed the keg before he asked for help.

[h22lude]

If your applied pressure is lower than the balance pressure for the temp, over time the beer will go flat. It may not show up as bubbles in the flow, it will show up as lost to the head space in the keg. For a short draw you really don't need to worry about line length calculators. Balance to the temp and V/V, with a 10' line on there you should pour very slow and foam free. most lines wind up being cut back to 8 or so feet.
Could also be a bad regulator as you mentioned earlier, or he could have over carbed the keg before he asked for help.

This was a new keg when I got there so no CO2 tank attached. I think right now my guess is a bad reg. I'm going to bring my reg to test it out. 10' should be good but I may pick up 12' just in case.

[djc]

Did you vent the keg after you tapped it?

[h22lude]

Did you vent the keg after you tapped it?

No I did not.

I know not all kegerators are the same but I had one very similar and never had these issues with similar products. 37 degrees, non cooled tower, 5' line, tagged and poured no foam.

[BigKutta]

I assume this is not the first keg he has tapped with this setup?

Look into the coupler itself. One day I started getting foamy beer after tapping a new keg and I chalked it up to the keg being bad. I tried everything and nothing worked. I bought a new couple and it turns out the coupler was bad (most likely the rubber part). Give this a try.

[h22lude]

I assume this is not the first keg he has tapped with this setup?

Look into the coupler itself. One day I started getting foamy beer after tapping a new keg and I chalked it up to the keg being bad. I tried everything and nothing worked. I bought a new couple and it turns out the coupler was bad (most likely the rubber part). Give this a try.

That is always a possibility. I do believe it never worked right.

[KillianBoy]

h22lude,
I really wish the Nostalgia owners that got theirs to work would stick around or post how they solved their problem.
From an online copy of a Nostalgia kegerator there is a spiral spring above the torpedo (euro?) back-flow valve, was the one from the faucet a spiral type spring? Most that have a spring are the self-closing type with a spring outside, not inside. So my feeling is spring was mis-located from coupler to faucet.
Are both the faucet and coupler still connected to the 90 degree turn?
Without input from Nostalgia owners, I'd replace the 2 90 degree turns, not sure if some have defects that cause massive foam. Is the flow from faucet pure white from start to finish of pour?
There was member that posted a video of a fast pour of beer that was white from start to finish, never came back as to what happened. Try and post pictures of the bottom of the coupler.
KB

[h22lude]

h22lude,
I really wish the Nostalgia owners that got theirs to work would stick around or post how they solved their problem.
From an online copy of a Nostalgia kegerator there is a spiral spring above the torpedo (euro?) back-flow valve, was the one from the faucet a spiral type spring? Most that have a spring are the self-closing type with a spring outside, not inside. So my feeling is spring was mis-located from coupler to faucet.
Are both the faucet and coupler still connected to the 90 degree turn?
Without input from Nostalgia owners, I'd replace the 2 90 degree turns, not sure if some have defects that cause massive foam. Is the flow from faucet pure white from start to finish of pour?
There was member that posted a video of a fast pour of beer that was white from start to finish, never came back as to what happened. Try and post pictures of the bottom of the coupler.
KB

I'm going to his house tomorrow to look at it again. I did replace the 90 degree at the coupler but that didn't fix it. I'm going to try my reg to see if that fixes it.

I'm not sure what parts he put together but they don't seem correct. The coupler had two of the backflow torpedoes in it which seems wrong. The faucet had a spiral spring in it that is about 1.5" long. The kit also came with a smaller spring, maybe .25" long. The instructions say to put in one backflow torpedo and then that small spring but the coupler seems to big for just those two. The spring wouldn't hold the torpedo into place and it would be able to move freely. I may take the torpedoes out and not use them.