
Kegerator Foam Problems? – Fight the First Foamy Pint!
Does your kegerator spew foam for the first couple of glasses of beer? And then shape up and start behaving? Or, just keep putting out foamy pint after foamy pint?
Let’s fix it!
Start With a Good Foundation
First, start with a balanced system. This gets your setup tuned-in and healthy. If your system is not balanced you have problems that are beyond line temperature. See: Balancing Your Draft System
After your system is balanced, everything else revolves around trying to keep your lines and taps as cold as possible.
Line Temperature Problems
Another potential pitfall are warm beer lines. The beer that’s sitting in your beer lines is warming up. Warmer beer does not hold CO2 as readily. Your warm-ish beer hits the faucet and whammo… you get foam for the first couple pours. The problem clears up because your lines, shanks and faucets cool down after you’ve run enough beer through the lines. I’ve seen people discard half a pitcher of foamy beer before things clear up. Lost beer isn’t good.
The solution usually revolves around getting and keeping your lines chilled as much as possible.
Related Resources: Step by Step Balancing Your Kegerator Draft System | Kegerator Beer Line Temperatures & Reducing Foam with a Recirculating Fan | What Does a Flow Control Faucet Do?
Fixing A Foaming Kegerator Gear and Techniques for Reducing Foam
- Use a recirculating fan to stamp out warm spots. I have a freezer based kegerator/keezer and this has resolved the first foamy pint issue for my kegerator. See: Kegerator Beer Line Temperatures & Reducing Foam with a Recirculating Fan
- If your kegerator has a draft tower, consider getting a tower cooler. These are fan setups that are designed to blow cold are into your tower. Cooling the tubing and tower down. Search “Beer Tower Cooler” on Amazon to look for some options.
- Neoprene Wraps are available that further insulate your tower. These should help reduce foam and help save on energy. Search “kegerator tower insulation” on Amazon to look for some options
- Use longer shanks. A longer shank means… a colder faucet. A colder faucet means less foam. Credit for this tip goes to Tom Schmidlin.
- For longer runs that go outside your kegerator, considering a recirculating coolant line. This line would run alongside your beer lines circulating cold liquid. Commercial establishments use recirculating glycol lines for this purpose. Those are generally very expensive. You could build a similar budget setup by recirculating water using a utility pump. You’ll also want to insulate those lines. Search “propylene glycol” on Amazon
- Brass Draft Beer Shank Cold Block – These thread on to your standard shank to let you run glycol or water lines through them. Cold shanks and faucets mean less foam.
- Nukatap – One of the specific design goals of this faucet. Reduce thermal mass to reduce foaming.
Flow Control
Flow control devices feature a built in flow compensator that allows you to adjust the resistance your faucet/line/device is exerting. That means less tubing and potentially less foaming and wasted beer. The compensation feature also makes it easier to serve higher carbonation beers as you can set the faucet to provide resistance to offset the increased pressure needed to store and serve these beers at higher pressures. Instead of replacing your beer line with ever increasing lengths of tubing, you simply turn a knob to increase resistance.
Flow Control Faucets
Intertap Stainless Steel Forward Sealing with Flow Control
Intertap forward sealing faucets have a unique modular, threaded spout design which can fit a variety of different attachments including a growler filler, stout spout and ball lock post. Check out my Hands on Review of these great faucets.
NUKATAP Stainless Steel Forward Sealing with Flow Control
These are Kegland’s follow up to their great Intertap lineup. They work with all Intertap accessories and sport a number of improvements. Check out our Hands on Review of these great faucets.
NUKATAP Stainless Steel Beer Faucet (With Flow Control) D1584 – via MoreBeer
Perlick 650SS
More Flow Control Faucets
- CMB Flow Control Event or Party Faucet – the only handheld faucet I’m aware of that has flow control
- Search flow control beer faucet at Amazon – offerings vary
Related: What Does a Flow Control Faucet Do?
Flow Control Devices
- KegLand Stainless Flow Control Ball Lock Threaded – similar idea to flow control faucets. These take the place of your standard ball lock liquid QD and feature a dial to let you change resistance.
- CMB Inline Flow Control – installs inline on the liquid side of your kegerator
- Flow Control Shank Adapter – installs at the shank to convert faucets to flow control
Related Resources – Foam Control & Kegerator Balancing
- What Does a Flow Control Faucet Do?
- Step by Step Balancing Your Kegerator Draft System
- Kegerator Beer Line Temperatures & Reducing Foam with a Recirculating Fan
Rebuild Your Kegs!
Our Draft Resource Page!
Also: Kegerator Tips & Gear | Keg Repair Part #s | Recent Keg Finds
Our Top Draft Resources!
- Rebuilding & Reconditioning Homebrew Kegs!
- Food Safe Replacement Keg O-Rings in Bulk
- Hands on Review: Kegland DuoTight Fittings & EVABarrier Tubing!
- Why Won’t My Homebrew Carbonate? Fixing Beer Carbonation Problems
- Kegerator Foam Problems? – Fight the First Foamy Pint!
- Upgrade Your Kegerator – 6 Improvements!
- Serve Homebrew & Sanke Kegs on Any Kegerator
- Recent Homebrew Keg Finds
- Tips and Gear for Growler Filling
- What’s the Difference Between Ball Lock Kegs and Pin Lock Kegs?
- Checking for Draft System CO2 Leaks – Using The Pressure Gauge Method
- Tip: Consider Oetiker Stepless Clamps for Kegerator Gas and Beer Lines
- Hands On Review: Inkbird ITC-308 Dual Stage Temperature Controller +WiFi Version
- Convert Your Mark II Keg & Carboy Washer to a Recirculating Draft Line Clea…
- Step by Step: Finding and Fixing Keg CO2 Leaks
- Kegerator Beer Line Temperatures & Reducing Foam with a Recirculating Fan
- Kegging CO2 Use Estimations and Calculations
- Step by Step: Balancing Your Kegerator Draft System
- Build a Recirculating Draft Line Cleaning Pump
- Home Brew Keg Roundup – New & Used, 5 and 2.5 Gallon & More!
- Damp Kegerator? Fix Kegerator Condensation
- Portable Draft Beer Serving Options!
- Homebrew Temp Controller Roundup! – Kegerator and Fermentation – con…
- Bulk Keg Orings and Keg Repair Part Numbers
More: Our Last Fifty Finds!
Make sure the components you use are compatible and rated for your intended application. Contact manufacturer with questions about suitability or a specific application. Always read and follow manufacturer directions. toppost:firstfoamypint tag:tpr
A couple comments
What is the reasoning on longer shafts making colder taps?
Also, One of the Nukatap design ideas is that it uses less material so it cools down faster. So even a non-flow control model should help with foam reduction. Besides , if you balance the system well, flow control shouldn’t be necessary
Great point Greg! I’ll add it to the post. Thank you!