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  • Beer Pump- HELP!

    Having an issue with our IPA draft line. CO2 keeps breaking out in-line causing spurts and excessive foaming. I have done absolutely nothing different with this beer from others. We have about 25 feet of line so everything goes through a beer pump, and it seems that the there's a disturbance right where the beer exits the pump on way to the taps. I base and acid wash everything all the time, and have kept the same head pressure, roughly 13lbs on the brite tanks always. Temperature is also constant, roughly 40degrees or so, what it always has been. Not sure what is causing this sudden break out? It may be a touch over carbonated, but not so much that I would think it to be this drastic. We do not own a Zahm . Any suggestions? I'm thinking about increasing the head pressure, but if that doesn't work all I can think of is to blow off the brite tank over the weekend and start the carbonation process all over again.

  • #2
    Originally posted by fancypants View Post
    Having an issue with our IPA draft line. CO2 keeps breaking out in-line causing spurts and excessive foaming. I have done absolutely nothing different with this beer from others. We have about 25 feet of line so everything goes through a beer pump, and it seems that the there's a disturbance right where the beer exits the pump on way to the taps. I base and acid wash everything all the time, and have kept the same head pressure, roughly 13lbs on the brite tanks always. Temperature is also constant, roughly 40degrees or so, what it always has been. Not sure what is causing this sudden break out? It may be a touch over carbonated, but not so much that I would think it to be this drastic. We do not own a Zahm . Any suggestions? I'm thinking about increasing the head pressure, but if that doesn't work all I can think of is to blow off the brite tank over the weekend and start the carbonation process all over again.
    "Decreasing head pressure."

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    • #3
      A couple possibilities:

      -If your beer is unfiltered, a chunk of hops/trub could be lodged in there.
      -You could try turning up the CO2 pressure to the pump itself. In my experience, setting it below the balance point of your draught system will result in foamy beer.

      Without a CO2 tester, though, your overcarbonation is probably higher than you think. Turning up the pressure could be a temporary fix, but it'll overcarbonate your beer more in the long run. If you can, I'd try to run your IPA through another tap and/or run another beer through your IPA line before recarbonating to have extra assurance that overcarbonation is the likely problem.

      Joe

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      • #4
        I had a similar problem a couple months back with a tap. Thought it was the beer itself. Switched taps/beers like Joe suggests above and found it was the tap/line itself. Did an interim line clean and flushed it, whatever "it" was, out. Ran fine after that.
        Dave Cowie
        Three Forks Bakery & Brewing Company
        Nevada City, CA

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        • #5
          It is actually a filtered beer. I cleaned the lines heavily 3 times now... I gave the old line switch a shot and have decided this is an issue with the beer itself as it broke out in a different line also. It just seemed weird that it would pour fine for the first few days and then suddenly go bananas. Working on releasing some of the Carbonation now. Thank you guys for the suggestions...

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          • #6
            Originally posted by Maltballs View Post
            It just seemed weird that it would pour fine for the first few days and then suddenly go bananas.
            Sounds like over carbonation due to too high of a head pressure. One of the great things about beer pumps is that you don't need much more than the equilibrium pressure for head pressure--start there, then increase the pressure if you have breaking between the keg and the pump.
            Timm Turrentine

            Brewerywright,
            Terminal Gravity Brewing,
            Enterprise. Oregon.

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