Carbonation Issues

I have been having carbonation issues with one of my last batches I put in the kegerator. I brewed a Red Lager extract kit from my local brew supply store. Everything during the brewing process went well. I have been experimenting with different forced carbonation methods and this time I put it under 40 psi for 24 hours and then 20 for another 24 hours. After that I turn it down to 8 psi for serving and was getting a decent head but the beer still tasted flat. I then turn it up to about 15 psi and left it for about a week. The beer still tastes flat and has excess foam. It takes several minutes for the foam to settle down. The whole time the kegerator has been set at approximately 35 degrees. Does anyone have any ideas what may be going on here. Thanks.

The beer is carbonated but tastes flat? Could it be a brewing/fermenting issue? When you do the 40 - 20 - 8 PSI, are you releasing head space pressure first? I use the set it and forget it method, I use a carbonating calculator to tell me PSI to set based on volume of beer, temp and volumes of carbonation. For example, at an average 2.4 volumes, a 5 gallon keg at 35 degrees, would be set at 8.72 PSI to carbonate and serve.

Issue is, your system also has to be balanced depending on your length of beer line, height of the tap from center of keg, line resistance, etc. So using this calculator http://www.iancrockett.com/brewing/info/kegbalance.shtml

If I was to set at 8.72 PSI, with my line having 2 lbs of resistance per foot (average for 3/16 OD tubing) and with my tap 2 feet from center of the keg...so in calculator I enter the 8.72 PSI, 2 resistance and 2 height, it tells me I need 3.86 feet of line to properly serve that beer.

Now personally, I use a 5 foot line, so with same resistance and height, I need to carb the keg at 11 PSI for a perfect pour. To do so and use the same average 2.4V of CO2, I keep my fridge at 40F.

Check this from their site too, look at their force carbonation chart. http://www.iancrockett.com/brewing/info/forcecarb.shtml At 35F, 8 PSI looks to only be 2.3V of CO2...so that is a little low maybe and is causing you to get the flatness?