Use and Care Manual

25
TROUBLESHOOTING
TROUBLESHOOTING
Wild Beer: Beer comes out as either all foam, or too much foam and
not enough liquid.
Possible Causes Solutions & Explanations
1 Beer was improperly drawn into
glass.
Always open the tap faucet quickly and
completely. Never open it partway.
Make sure you have checked to find the
best distance to keep the glass away
from the tap while drawing the beer.
The foam should create a tight, creamy
head, and the collar on the average
glass should be between ¾" and 1" high.
2 Yeast growth or other obstructions in
the tap.
Make sure to clean the tap spout with a
good brush every day. Scour all internal
tap parts at least once a week.
3 Kinks, dents, or twists in the coils or
direct-draw lines; or obstructions in
the lines near or behind the tap.
Check for and replace any kinked,
dented, or twisted lines from the keg to
the tap.
Check for a frayed coupling behind the
tap that may cause an obstruction.
4 Sag or trap in line. Keep all metal beer lines straight from
the barrel to the tap. Never permit the
lines to sag or droop, this can create a
trap that causes wild beer.
5 Beer too warm at the tap, in the coil
system, or in the air shaft system.
Make sure the temperature at the tap is
at least 2° colder than at the beer barrel.
In a sweet-water refrigerated or ice-
water system, make sure the faucet
shank is always submerged.
In a cold-air system, make sure the
coldest air from the blower is first
directed to the tap, and then circulated
back to the pre-cooler.
6 Hot spots in the line. Make sure all beer lines are insulated;
a long beer run must be constantly
refrigerated. Insulation helps, but
insulation is not refrigeration.
Keep all beer lines away from hot water
pipes, hot air ducts, and steam pipes. A
cold steam pipe in the summer is a hot
steam pipe in the winter.