My corny keg with tap only dispenses foam!

Question

I have a corny keg, 19 litres full of pleasant rosé garnacha that I made from a kit. The wine is nice, and it's carbonated in the corny keg to about 4.5 bar. (Obviously the head pressure goes down a bit when the gas is disconnected, as it is now.)

I bought a tap that seems of good quality that has a flow rate control on it in an effort to dispense the wine without excessive foam, however the problem I have is simply that no matter whether I set the tap to fast or to slow, all the gas seems to escape when pouring. Only a stream of white foam enters the glass, and once the foam has settled, which it does quickly, the wine that remains in the glass is nearly flat. This is disappointing as you can image because I've put much effort into brewing and aging the keg of wine :(

If I filled a 2l PET bottle and carbonated it (The same way I carbonate water) then it would carbonate nicely and pour easily.

1. Is there any way to get it to dispense with less foam from the tap?
2. When my German white beer is ready, am I going to have the same problem?
3. Am I doing something wrong?

Answer 1

Sorry to hear about the foaming. Have you carbonated wine before? The carbonation part is easy, but dispensing it without foaming is more challenging. The first important consideration is that the beverage (rosé garnacha in this question) is cold, like refrigerator cold. Room temperature beverages can hold CO2 under pressure, but when you release it to room temperature, you will lose most of the fizz. Think about trying to pour Champagne at room temperature. Big mess. So first, cool the wine. Second, use low pressure on your regulator, like around 3 psi (sorry, answering from USA). Make sure you bleed off all pressure from the keg to begin with, because you want the keg to simply be pouring at the 3 psi shown on your regulator. Pour at 3 psi while cold and you should be fine. I see you have a nice flow control faucet, so that helps. If the flow rate is too slow at 3 psi, you can keep increasing the pressure until it flows faster, typically around 8-12 psi. I use a good online reference for pouring beer, which is more fussy than wine. Check out boomchugalug.com. They have a good article at Kegging Instructions for the beginner at https://boomchugalug.com/pages/kegging-instructions-for-the-beginner-home-brewing. If you plan on using that 2L bottle, the principles are the same for the keg. Wine must be cold, and don't try to dispense above 8-12 psi (but start low to begin with before slowly increasing the pressure). Good luck!