Pouring a beer from a tap is gratifying. Watching it cascade into a glass with the perfect amount of foam is a simple yet visually stunning pleasure.

The act of pulling on a tap and watching beer pour might seem simple, but maintaining a draft system can be surprisingly tricky. Any hiccup in a beer line can result in excessive foam, flat pours, or leaks that waste product and cost money.

Almost all issues with beer lines can be resolved with proper beer foam control and beer line cleaning. Let’s break down some of the most common problems that can occur on the line and how to prevent them.

#1: Too Much Foam

If you’ve worked behind a bar for more than a shift or two, you know the horror of pouring a pint and getting nothing but foam.

Too much foam can happen for all kinds of reasons—bad pours, warm kegs, or too much CO2 (which can be a problem for bars that change beers out a lot with different carbonation needs). But oftentimes, the culprit behind a foamy pour is either a dirty line or a nearly empty keg.

When a line gets dirty, yeasts and sugars can accumulate, creating rough spots called nucleation sites. A nucleation site is basically a point where dissolved CO2 attaches and forms more bubbles. Proper beer line cleaning prevents those sites from forming by clearing out yeasts, sugars, and beer stone that can build up in a line.

Bartenders and operators might also notice that the end of a keg is when the beer gets really foamy. There are also a few reasons for this: with less beer in a keg, there’s more room for CO2 to accumulate, and the line is drawing both beer and gas. Beer can warm slightly as a keg empties, which can make for a foamy pint.

A beer foam control tool, like a foam preventer, can stop that from happening. As the keg empties, the flow becomes mostly foam. A foam preventer senses that and immediately shuts off the beer line. This keeps the line full of liquid—so when you tap a new keg, you don’t have to purge tons of foam or waste beer to get a good pour.

#2: Flat Beer

The opposite of having too much foam is a beer that’s flat and lacks carbonation. Sometimes that means the CO2 or whatever gas combo you’re using isn’t configured correctly, or there’s a leak in the gas line, but often it’s also an issue of beer line cleaning and maintenance.

If you’re noticing beer is coming out flat, first check your gas mix and see if it’s right for the style of beer you’re pouring (lagers, for example, require more carbonation than a stout or porter, which might use a mix of CO2 and nitrogen). Also, check for areas where leaks might occur, like couplers and faucets.

It might seem counterintuitive, given what we learned above about foamy pours and dirty lines, but an improperly cleaned line can also result in flat beer. So much of what makes beer taste great is that CO2 dissolves into the beer, giving it its effervescence. But anything in a line could disrupt CO2’s ability to remain dissolved in beer, making it taste flat.

Try cleaning the line: certain chemical cleaners tackle different kinds of buildup, while tools like cleaning pumps and specially designated cleaning kegs make the process easier.

#3: Leaks

We touched on leaks when talking about flat beer, but they can cause huge problems for your beer line.

A beer line is a series of connections: a coupler is attached to a keg, then connected to tubes that transport beer from the keg to the tap. There are plenty of points of connection where a leak can occur, and because kegs are often changed out, there are opportunities for faulty connections.

The best way to check for leaks is to visually inspect your lines. A good clue that there’s a leak is if the CO2 tank empties faster than expected, you get foamy pours when pouring beer, or you hear a hissing sound coming from the line.  

Replacing worn parts—like gaskets—along with training staff to change kegs properly can help prevent leaks.

Best Practices To Prevent Foamy Pours, Flat Beers, And Leaks

Keeping a draft system running smoothly is about consistency. The most important thing you can take away from this guide is to develop a regular beer line cleaning schedule and keep your cleaning tools on hand.

Your cleaning schedule will depend on volume and how often you change kegs. When in doubt, try giving lines a clean every two weeks.

It’s also about having the right tools on hand to prevent problems before they begin. A beer foam control measure, like a foam preventer, can stop lines from getting foamy, and having small tools like gaskets on hand makes quick maintenance tune-ups easy.

But that doesn’t mean problems can’t pop up. We recommend making a checklist for things to inspect when the beer is off, something like this:  

• Check gas pressure
• Inspect lines and connections for leaks
• Check the last time a line was cleaned
• Get a temperature read and make sure kegs are the right temperature

Foxx carries a range of foam preventers and beer line cleaning products to upgrade your setup—they make it easier to keep every pour consistent and every pint tasting the way it should.