Complete Guide to Gas Mixers and its various applications
Author: Miguel Gil
contato@managas.com.br
How to fix foamy draft beer?
Have you ever faced this challenge, draft beer coming out of the tap with too much foam?
Excessive foam in the draft beer - How does it happen?
As the beer keg is consumed, it gets harder to pour a beer from the tap, the liquid becomes scarce, beer comes out too fizzy and foamy, its bubbles get larger and as an outcome, beer waste increases and the situation only gets worse.
Table of contents:
Draft beer creamy head purpose
Draft beer is great and it is a fantastic way to push the beer out of a keg and to deliver it to a glass. A creamy draft beer head or collar is also great and it is predominantly made by carbon dioxide. The beer head main purpose is to work as a lid to the beer glass, protecting the beer style and its fresh flavor by keeping the beer carbonation for longer.
Excessive foam in the draft beer - How does it happen?
To answer this question, we need to think about what happens when we dispense draft beer. Inside the beer keg, carbon dioxide applies pressure into the beer, which then forces the beer out of the keg into the beer lines to taps.
Inside the keg, in an ideal scenario, the CO2 (Carbon Dioxide) content present in the headspace (space at the top of the keg, where the CO2 pressure acts to extract the liquid) must be the same as the CO2 content present in beer (carbonation rate). This is a dynamic system constantly trying to reach its balance.
Study case 1 – Draft beer coming out flat
If, at a certain time during the consumption of the keg, the amount of CO2 in the headspace is less than the amount of CO2 present in the liquid, the beer will “lose” CO2 to the “headspace” until the balance is restored and in this case , the beer may taste “flat” due to the low level of CO2 (low carbonation).
Study case 2 – Draft beer is foaming
Another common scenario: if the amount of CO2 in the headspace is greater than the CO2 in the liquid.
To restore the balance of the system, the beer starts to absorb the CO2 coming from the headspace, the bubbles increase and there may be an increase in the carbonation rate of the beer. When this occurs, the beer may become fizzy and develop an excessive amount of foam (too much CO2 for that particular style).
Study case 3 - Draft beer fizzy and foamy - beer keg is almost empty
The excessive amount of foam is more common when the keg is almost empty, because at this stage, the headspace is larger and, consequently, the respective amount of carbon dioxide also becomes greater as each additional glass is poured.
If the total consumption of the keg is just a matter of hours, normally, there is no foam problem.
However, if the total consumption of the keg will take longer, high temperature or the kegs cold room is away from the taps (long beer lines demand higher pressure ), taps with foamy and fizzy draft beer can easily occur.
Solution to foamy and fizzy draft beer
CO2, carbon dioxide is a natural beer ingredient and it is responsible for the beer´s fizz. However, in a draft beer system, when pushing beer only with CO2, is very easy to alter the beer style, change its carbonation rate, gets it out of balance and generate beer waste with excessive foam and fizz.
Combining nitrogen and CO2 may be the answer as it helps to reach the perfect balance, optimize the draft beer system, and use lower dispensing pressure. The nitrogen concentration in the gas mixture mainly depends on the beer style and its carbonation rate.
To solve or minimize this challenge, we recommend trying to reduce the dispensing pressure, check the beer temperature and work with mixtures of CO2 and Nitrogen that meet the dispensing pressure demands of each beer style.
Questions and doubts related to “how to fix foamy draft beer”
Any questions, comments or request for additional information related to the topic covered above (“how to fix foamy draft beer”), please feel free contact us at any time.
In addition, please take this opportunity to explore our product line of high performance gas blender for draft beer dispensing.
Gas blender for draft beer dispensing, which combines Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and Nitrogen (N2) with great gas mixture accuracy. It generates one pre adjusted gas mixture.
Gas blender for draft beer dispensing, which combines Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and Nitrogen (N2) with great gas mixture accuracy. It generates one adjustable (from 0 to 100% of CO2 or N2) gas mixture with total flexibility.
Gas Blender for draft beer dispensing, which combines Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and Nitrogen (N2) with great gas mixture accuracy. It generates two independent and pre adjusted gas mixture.
Gas Blender for draft beer dispensing, which combines Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and Nitrogen (N2) with great gas mixture accuracy. It generates two adjustable (from 0 to 100% of CO2 or N2) and independent gas mixtures with total flexibility.