5 days at 30 psi - no carbonation..?

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lone_wolf

lone_wolf

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Hey Brothers
5 days ago I kegged a pretty plainclothes Best Bitter. Not my first attempt at kegging, nothing fringe about the beer.
My usual technique is 2-3 days at 30 psi and then down to serving pressure for a few more days. results always predictable. Until now.
Its been 5 days at 30 psi and the beer is still DEAD FLAT.
The guage for CO2 bottle contents still reads 700 psi approx and this would only be perhaps my 6th brew on the bottle (10kg) so theres plenty of gas. right?
If I release the valve on the keg cap I get a big rush of gas. So theres plenty of gas in the headspace of the keg. I suspected a leak on the O-Ring so brushed the edges of the keg cap with detergent-water. No bubbles.

The only thing I've done differently with this batch is
1. I think I accidentally swapped the keg caps between the 2 kegs - however these are standard fittings and if there was a leak brushing the seals with water+detergent would have exposed it surely
2. I filled the keg closer to the tip of the gas dip-tube than I usually would on transfer to keg (liquid might have been 1cm, maybe even a little less under the tube). however within a day I ran-off a litre+ of beer so should be plenty of space now
dear god help, I started kegging because of the state that unpredictable bottle-managed carbonation gave me. WTF is (not) going on here?
 
lone_wolf said:
Hey Brothers
5 days ago I kegged a pretty plainclothes Best Bitter. Not my first attempt at kegging, nothing fringe about the beer.
My usual technique is 2-3 days at 30 psi and then down to serving pressure for a few more days. results always predictable. Until now.
Its been 5 days at 30 psi and the beer is still DEAD FLAT.
The guage for CO2 bottle contents still reads 700 psi approx and this would only be perhaps my 6th brew on the bottle (10kg) so theres plenty of gas. right?
If I release the valve on the keg cap I get a big rush of gas. So theres plenty of gas in the headspace of the keg. I suspected a leak on the O-Ring so brushed the edges of the keg cap with detergent-water. No bubbles.

The only thing I've done differently with this batch is
1. I think I accidentally swapped the keg caps between the 2 kegs - however these are standard fittings and if there was a leak brushing the seals with water+detergent would have exposed it surely
2. I filled the keg closer to the tip of the gas dip-tube than I usually would on transfer to keg (liquid might have been 1cm, maybe even a little less under the tube). however within a day I ran-off a litre+ of beer so should be plenty of space now
dear god help, I started kegging because of the state that unpredictable bottle-managed carbonation gave me. WTF is (not) going on here?
Click to expand...

What temperature is the keg? If it's warm, it will take some time even at 30 psi. consult a carbonation temperature chart.
 
I was going to ask too about the temp of the keg....but ya beat me to it.

Still, at 30psi for 5 days...that's unusual for none to make it into the solution......hmmm
 
I'm awaiting on responce on this well. I am having the same problem now. I have no leak, Keg is charged, but the beer isn't carbed and its been a full 14 days at 10psi in my cold fridge. funny i did nothing different than i have done in the past. the only difference is there wasnt a full 5 gallons of beer in there. so i kind of knew it would take a little longer carb than normal. but for my system 4.5-5 gallons, 10 psi, 8 days... i get bubbles BUT not this one.
 
Have you guys tried rocking the keg to see if you are hearing any gas entering the keg? You should be able to rock it and literally hear and feel gas entering. If not, I would disassemble your posts and make sure the poppets are functioning correctly. Make sure nothing is blocking them...gunk, hop residue, etc.
 
Brewnoob1 said:
I was going to ask too about the temp of the keg....but ya beat me to it.

Still, at 30psi for 5 days...that's unusual for none to make it into the solution......hmmm
Click to expand...

thanks for the response - I should have mentioned, keg is sitting in a refridgerator - about 5 degrees celcius.
 
Brewnoob1 said:
Have you guys tried rocking the keg to see if you are hearing any gas entering the keg? You should be able to rock it and literally hear and feel gas entering. If not, I would disassemble your posts and make sure the poppets are functioning correctly. Make sure nothing is blocking them...gunk, hop residue, etc.
Click to expand...

Hi thanks that is a fair suggestion - only problem is that only a week prior to filling the kegs I gave both close to a sanitation overhaul - disassembled the connectors, took out dip-tubes etc. So this is the first batch to go into a completely clean keg.... there is no possibility of hop, gunk, funk or residue in the posts..I should say I'm loathe to rock the keg/party as I dry hopped this beer and I have crapload of hop haze and gunk in the bottom of the keg that I want to consolidate and pour off...
now that you mention poppets, I remember that during disassembly + cleaning the poppets actually fell out of the posts for the first time. They were sanitized and returned to the insie of the post - I suppose its possible that I didn't fit them correctly.. that said, if I didn;t surely that should translate to a gas leak and no/minimal pressure in the keg headspace. As I say releasing the pressure valve on keg cap is like firing up a jet engine, theres plenty of pressure...
 
Well tappped me a pint today. it took a bit longer than normal but mine is carbed up. thanks and good luck to the OP...

as the say,, time heals all beers! :)
 
I am little confused. You say the beer is flat. That means you drew a pint, right? But then you said you don't want to roll the keg because you want to consolidate the junk from dryhopping. Didn't you get that out with the first pour? Is is possible the first pour had so much junk in it there would be no way to judge the carb level? Also, I would guess just the opposite, that is, you may be way over carbed.
 
tektonjp said:
I am little confused. You say the beer is flat. That means you drew a pint, right? But then you said you don't want to roll the keg because you want to consolidate the junk from dryhopping. Didn't you get that out with the first pour? Is is possible the first pour had so much junk in it there would be no way to judge the carb level? Also, I would guess just the opposite, that is, you may be way over carbed.
Click to expand...

for some reason theres more than a pint of crud in the bottom, I would have poured off at least 2 litres now and its as murky as ever. like opaque. strange as i filtered through a grain bag when i transferred to keg, obviously more hop dust got through the grain bag than what I thought. And trust me its not a case of not being able to judge the carbonation because of the crud or overcarbonation. I've overcarbonated beer before and my experience is that you get a flat beer but with a monstrous head produced by a million volumes of CO2 racing out of solution.
 
Brewnoob1 said:
Have you guys tried rocking the keg to see if you are hearing any gas entering the keg? You should be able to rock it and literally hear and feel gas entering. If not, I would disassemble your posts and make sure the poppets are functioning correctly. Make sure nothing is blocking them...gunk, hop residue, etc.
Click to expand...

well i think you are onto something man, so i disconnected the gas and dispenser lines a little while ago and noticed two things:
firstly, after purging the keg I noticed that after an initial rush of gas it quickly died away. so maybe not so much pressure in the headspace after all
secondly I noticed that beer started seeping out of the dispenser post and kept seeping until I kept purging every last nanolitre of gas from the keg. So there is obviously an issue with the poppet on the dispenser post right? I'll take its apart and inspect later, but I'm already doubting my ability to spot and correct the problem
also given that the dispenser hose has been hooked up for the last 5 days - wouldn't the mechanism in the quick disconnect prevent the gas leak? I don't know..
wonder how much CO2 Ive thrown away over the last 5 days at 30 PSI.
 

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