Damaged Keg?

Elliott75 · Jan 30, 2021

Hi everyone, I'm asking for help as I'm pretty baffled right now.

I've recently build a kegerator with room for two ball lock cornies.

Brew 1 got very frothy very quickly. I have 2m of 3/16 and I force carbed it at 40psi for 2 mins, potential for over carbing, but doubt it. It actually got so frothy that the last quarter was unusuable. Just foam all the time.

So brew 2 was a lager. Different corny. I left it for 2 weeks at 12psi. It's amazing. Now. Love it.

Brew 3. Back to the first keg. I force carbed it again, 40psi for 2 mins, released the pressure, serve at 12psi alongside the lager. Very quickly it's gone foamy again. In the line there's lots of gas. I tried venting the pressure and it did nothing to the pour. Still really foamy at low pressure and at high pressure.

Does anyone have any good questions to ask me, or places to investigate? Things to try?

My inner senses make me think it's a keg issue, a leak maybe? But there's nothing visible. Maybe I just shouldn't FC in the future? I really doubt that this is over carbed, I just don't see how it could be.

Any help appreciated.

hughjamton · Jan 30, 2021

Elliott75 said:
Hi everyone, I'm asking for help as I'm pretty baffled right now.

I've recently build a kegerator with room for two ball lock cornies.

Brew 1 got very frothy very quickly. I have 2m of 3/16 and I force carbed it at 40psi for 2 mins, potential for over carbing, but doubt it. It actually got so frothy that the last quarter was unusuable. Just foam all the time.

So brew 2 was a lager. Different corny. I left it for 2 weeks at 12psi. It's amazing. Now. Love it.

Brew 3. Back to the first keg. I force carbed it again, 40psi for 2 mins, released the pressure, serve at 12psi alongside the lager. Very quickly it's gone foamy again. In the line there's lots of gas. I tried venting the pressure and it did nothing to the pour. Still really foamy at low pressure and at high pressure.

Does anyone have any good questions to ask me, or places to investigate? Things to try?

My inner senses make me think it's a keg issue, a leak maybe? But there's nothing visible. Maybe I just shouldn't FC in the future? I really doubt that this is over carbed, I just don't see how it could be.

Any help appreciated.

Once the foam settles and you have some beer in the glass is it flat?

Elliott75 · Jan 30, 2021

Good question. I wouldn't say flat necessarily, I would say pretty normal.

hughjamton · Jan 30, 2021

Elliott75 said:
Good question. I wouldn't say flat necessarily, I would say pretty normal.

I would say that 40 psi for 2 minutes hasn't done anything except seal the lid.
Try either treating it the same as you did your lager, leave it for 2 weeks (preferable), or 30psi for 24/48 hours, vent it then re-pressure to serving psi. the beer needs to be cold though.
IMO 12psi is high for serving non lagers.
Another question, are they being served from identical taps? If you don't confidently pull the tap all the way forward it will fob. (unless its a Stella tap) I like a Stella tap for homebrew, it's the only one I know of that's like a normal domestic water tap, you can control the flow by the amount you open it, all others are either on or off.

Elliott75 · Jan 31, 2021

Ah, some good ideas there. I will certainly consider an identical carbing next time, I was impatient. I did 40psi for 2mins of rocking and rolling on v1 and 3.

The beer is always cold when doing anything, I understand that otherwise it doesn't absorb anything.

The two taps are identical. Indeed, I think everything is, length of line, gauge, etc.