After much reading and experimenting, I find the best balance of preformance, time requried, and ease is:
put beer in keg
put keg in kegerator
hook up to C02 at 30psi for 48 hours
bleed pressure, set at serving pressure (for me, 10psi with 15' of 3/16" hose)
wait an hour, sample, if needed: turn back up to 30psi for 2 hours, sample, repeat.
works every time.
With the short connection between keg and tap you were using, 10psi is way too high, you would take a fully carbed keg and then bleed off pressure and serve at about 3-5 psi, whatever will move the beer without creating a massive amount of foam. For portable setup, I use a Perlick tap on a 12' line of 3/16" hose, C02 set at about 8psi, and keg in a big, ice-water filled cooler. No foam problem.
Also, the "solve your short hose troubles" idea on HBT is clever, but not food grade at all.