Colo Keg Head
07-16-2004, 12:42 AM
Successful Update
For those of you who care, I finally had a successful ending to my foamy beer issue on my kegerator. This is what I did:
1. Added more restriction to my 5' beer line so it now totals 9'. This really helped cut back on excessive suds especially at the elevation I'm at in Colorado (5000'). My beer line pro buddy said most retail purchased kegerators are set up for sea level where 5' of line is ok, but that we need 9-10' of line for the proper restriction at elevation.
2. Drilled my shank to 3/8". The shank originally wasn't quite this wide and I think the larger opening also helped eliminate excessive foam. Just make sure you rinse out the shank well enough after you drill so you don't encounter any crunchy metallic flakes in your beer in the first pour or two.
3. I am pretty sure my regulator is not accurate, therefore, I have the pressure set just to the point where small bubbles in my beer no longer form in my beer line. I got to this point by incrementally bumping up the pressure until there were no bubbles and the beer poured well. The guage reads 8 psi but my beer line pro buddy thinks it's probably more like 12-14 psi judging from the pour rate. I don't like tweeking the pressure too much so if I have problems with this method, I will invest in another regulator, but I think we're pretty close on the pressure.
4. Had my faucet and line cleaned with a professional grade line cleaning system by a friend. You should have seen the black crud burping out of the faucet. I'm sure not nearly enough people out there clean their lines as much as they should but I guarantee if anyone who doesn't clean would have seen the crud coming out of my faucet, you would surely start cleaning on a regular basis!
Hopefully this info will help the numerous amounts of people like myself that have run across the excessive head problem. I know, excessive head is an oxymoron, but in this case, it has been a problem that will hopefully no longer show up at my house!
For those of you who care, I finally had a successful ending to my foamy beer issue on my kegerator. This is what I did:
1. Added more restriction to my 5' beer line so it now totals 9'. This really helped cut back on excessive suds especially at the elevation I'm at in Colorado (5000'). My beer line pro buddy said most retail purchased kegerators are set up for sea level where 5' of line is ok, but that we need 9-10' of line for the proper restriction at elevation.
2. Drilled my shank to 3/8". The shank originally wasn't quite this wide and I think the larger opening also helped eliminate excessive foam. Just make sure you rinse out the shank well enough after you drill so you don't encounter any crunchy metallic flakes in your beer in the first pour or two.
3. I am pretty sure my regulator is not accurate, therefore, I have the pressure set just to the point where small bubbles in my beer no longer form in my beer line. I got to this point by incrementally bumping up the pressure until there were no bubbles and the beer poured well. The guage reads 8 psi but my beer line pro buddy thinks it's probably more like 12-14 psi judging from the pour rate. I don't like tweeking the pressure too much so if I have problems with this method, I will invest in another regulator, but I think we're pretty close on the pressure.
4. Had my faucet and line cleaned with a professional grade line cleaning system by a friend. You should have seen the black crud burping out of the faucet. I'm sure not nearly enough people out there clean their lines as much as they should but I guarantee if anyone who doesn't clean would have seen the crud coming out of my faucet, you would surely start cleaning on a regular basis!
Hopefully this info will help the numerous amounts of people like myself that have run across the excessive head problem. I know, excessive head is an oxymoron, but in this case, it has been a problem that will hopefully no longer show up at my house!