AHA Tech Talk item on forward seal taps

FYI - For anyone interested in having taps at home, here's some info on foaming issues with the forward seal variety. From: John Blichmann [mailto:John@BlichmannEngineering.com] Sent: Friday, October 05, 2007 4:00 PM Subject: Re: Shirron Forward Seal Faucet OK âEUR" I was very interested in the posts about these forward seal taps. Being a completely obsessed gizmo guy I couldnâEUR^(TM)t help but replace all my taps with these shiny new things when I saw them in the catalog. And while they are beautifully machined and electro polished (I have the Ventmatic taps) I got the same foaming problem as others on the posts have reported. I got a gush of foam, clear beer, and another gush of foam. I had just moved and installed a different setup than what I had at my old place, so I tried about every combination of hose length, diameter, pressures etc but still had a glass of foam for the first pour. Subsequent pours were fine. My taps and lines are air-cooled, so that wasnâEUR^(TM)t the problem. So I switched the taps back to my "old style taps" and the foaming problem went away. I reinstalled the Ventmatic and it came back. So that tells me pretty conclusively that the taps were the problem. So my only problem now is what to do with 6 Ventmatic taps. Anybody out there like foamy beer? Sincerely, John Blichmann Blichmann Engineering, LLC -- //Mike Behrendt MGBrew(a)comcast.net Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others. Groucho Marx