By Commercial Service Company · October 6, 2026
If your draft beer is pouring foamy, flat, or inconsistent from one tap to the next, the cause almost always comes down to one of four things: how cold the beer is when it leaves the line, how much CO2 pressure is pushing it, whether something in the line is restricting flow, or how long it's been since the lines were actually cleaned. Most bar and restaurant owners chase the symptom instead of the cause, which means the problem keeps coming back. Here's how to work through it.
Line Temperature
Draft beer wants to stay cold and consistent from the keg cooler all the way to the faucet. Industry best practice is to keep beer around 36-38°F at the faucet. If the beer warms up anywhere along the path — in a glycol trunk line, through an uninsulated section, or in a faucet that sits in a warm back bar — dissolved CO2 comes out of solution faster than it should, and you get foam.
- Check that walk-in or keg cooler temperatures are holding steady, not swinging.
- Look for warm spots where lines run near ovens, dish machines, or other heat sources.
- If you're on a glycol-cooled system, uneven cooling along the trunk line is a common, often overlooked cause of foam at specific faucets.
Glycol chillers and the refrigerant systems behind them are not a DIY repair. If temperature is inconsistent and it's not a simple cooler thermostat issue, that's a job for a licensed technician.
CO2 Pressure
CO2 pressure has to match the resistance of the line it's pushing through, which depends on line length, diameter, and the vertical rise from keg to faucet. Too little pressure and the beer goes flat or pours slow with excess foam at the start of the pour. Too much pressure and you get foam all the way through the pour.
- Regulators should be set based on the specific line run, not a generic number pulled off a chart for a different setup.
- A regulator that's drifting or sticking will cause pressure to wander even if nobody touched the dial.
- CO2 cylinders and regulators are gas equipment under real pressure. Leaks, faulty regulators, or questionable fittings should be handled by a qualified technician, not patched up in-house.
Restriction in the Line
Even with the right temperature and pressure, beer can still pour wrong if something inside the system is restricting flow. A partially clogged faucet, a kinked or pinched line, a worn-out washer, or buildup inside the beer line itself will all change the pour — usually toward more foam, since the beer gets agitated squeezing past the restriction.
- Faucets should disassemble and clean easily; if parts are gummed up or hard to pull apart, that's a sign cleaning has fallen behind.
- Check behind the back bar for lines that got pinched or kinked when equipment was moved or reinstalled.
- Old or cracked tail pieces and couplers are a common hidden restriction point.
Cleaning Cadence
Beer stone, yeast residue, and mold can build up inside draft lines even when everything looks clean on the outside. That buildup narrows the inside diameter of the line, which changes flow and contributes to foam, off flavors, and inconsistent pours. General industry guidance is to clean draft lines on a regular schedule — commonly every two weeks — rather than waiting until a problem shows up.
- Set a recurring cleaning schedule and keep a simple log of when it was done.
- Clean faucets and couplers along with the lines, not just the tubing.
- If a line hasn't been cleaned on schedule, foam and flavor problems are often the first sign, well before anything looks visibly dirty.
When to Call a Professional
A lot of draft system troubleshooting is things an owner or manager can check day to day — cooler temps, obvious kinks, whether the cleaning log is current. But once you're into regulator work, gas fittings, glycol chiller performance, or anything involving refrigerant, that's electrical and gas equipment that needs a licensed technician. Guessing at pressure settings or opening up gas connections without the right training risks both the equipment and the people working around it.
If your draft beer system in the Little Rock, Conway, Benton, Bryant, Maumelle, Jacksonville, or Searcy area is pouring more foam than beer, don't just keep adjusting the tap and hoping. Commercial Service Company has been servicing central Arkansas restaurant and bar equipment since 1976. Give us a call at 501-548-2374 and we'll get your draft system pouring right.