Part of the Beer Mastery school. Class 2 of 6.
The capability: you can diagnose a foaming tap from its pattern.
Prerequisites: Modules 13, 31.
The practice
Measure the first pour and the sixth from every tap. Record the temperatures.
Then trace one run from keg to faucet and note where the cooling stops.
Then read the regulator. Find the set pressure and find out whether anyone has changed it — and start recording it monthly.
And time the pour on every tap. A balanced system fills a glass in a consistent window and the outliers are the imbalanced ones.
The reference
The other taps on the same system, which share the gas and the cooler.
What you are building
Pattern reading.
Every tap foaming means systemic — gas, cooler, or pressure. One tap foaming on the first pour only, worst on the furthest tap, means line temperature. Every pour on one tap means that line.
And the self-reinforcing failure, per Module 31: raising the pressure to fix foam over-carbonates the keg, which produces more foam, which invites another increase. A regulator that has crept upward over months is the record of every previous misdiagnosis.
Verification and boundary
The first-and-sixth measurement on every tap, recorded.
Boundary: compressed gas handling carries safety requirements — carbon dioxide is odorless, heavier than air, and pools in low spaces, per Module 2.