On gas for 3 weeks - still seems flat

All,

I brewed a high gravity beer a few weeks ago. It came in at 10.1%. I have had it on co2 for almost 3 weeks, and the beer still doesn't seem carbonated. The temp of the keezer is about 36 degrees. I have a 10 ft liquid line at 13psi. According to the charts that I've seen, this should be correct, if not overcarbonated. I could be reading the charts incorrectly, so I'm not sure.

Do high abv beers take longer to carbonate?

Thanks!

How much head space in the top of the keg? I've found that if the keg is super full the set and forget method can take a long time. Try drinking a couple of pints of flat beer and give it another few days.


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Check your O-rings and your connections as well to make sure they aren't leaking if you haven't already.

Yes, there must be a leak, the ABV shouldn't matter and it should be carbed by now.


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Gravity doesn't matter for forced carbing, should definitely be done by now.

I don't have any leaks that I can see. I sprayed starsan around the main opening and all of the fittings; no bubbles. I don't know what else to look for. Should I increase the pressure to 20 and then back it down to see if I can get anything from that?

I did remove my gas qd, and it seemed hard to get off. I'm wondering if I may have only had a partial connection that wasn't allowing full throughput through the qd....if that's even possible. I just reseated the qd, so I'll wait a few more days to see if that helped....

Seems flat or is flat?

If you mean that it tastes flat, then that may just be something percieved, and could be a result of you being overly-critical (as many of us are with our own brews) or maybe it's the flavor that is coming out flat-tasting.

As for whether it is carbed though, well does it have head and tight bubbles running up through the beer when you swirl it? If so, then it's carbed, especially after this long.

If it is flat, and you suspect re-seating your connection will fix it you could always try a 'quick carb' rather than waiting another week. If you turn up the gas to 40psi for 24 hrs that will carb a keg from flat nicely. Then turn back down to 12psi and bleed the keg headspace down to that as well.

The danger is that if your beer is partially carbed, you may end up with too much. Maybe bump it up for 12 hours then drop pressure, bleed keg and try the beer again.

Just trying to think of ways to know if you've solved your issue a bit faster.

If you dont have a leak then its most likely the lack of head space at the top of the keg

Fwiw, from my own empirical results, heavier FG brews do take appreciably longer to carbonate. If my Pales and Wheats with FGs in the 10-12 point range take 3 weeks on CO2 to be perfect, my 20+ point stouts will take at least 4 if not 5 weeks...

Cheers!

day_trippr said:

Fwiw, from my own empirical results, heavier FG brews do take appreciably longer to carbonate. If my Pales and Wheats with FGs in the 10-12 point range take 3 weeks on CO2 to be perfect, my 20+ point stouts will take at least 4 if not 5 weeks...

Cheers!

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You are aware he's talking force carbonating in keg, right?

Since it's not the yeast producing CO2, but instead actual CO2 carbing it, I see no reason it should take any longer than it would to carbonate water or soda at the same temp and pressure.

I'm sorry everyone. I was pouring into a small glass and it seemed flat. I decided to pour a full glass and it's carbed. It just doesn't have a large head, so I'm assuming it's a combination of long liquid tubing and temp. I upped the temp on the Keezer to help out with this.




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grittanomyces said:

You are aware he's talking force carbonating in keg, right?

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Wow.

And I was not ?

Did I stutter? "On CO2" wasn't clear enough?

My point remains as stated....

Cheers!

kenpotf said:

I'm sorry everyone. I was pouring into a small glass and it seemed flat. I decided to pour a full glass and it's carbed. It just doesn't have a large head, so I'm assuming it's a combination of long liquid tubing and temp. I upped the temp on the Keezer to help out with this.

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Just a thought, did you clear out the beer from your lines before a pouring a sample? Because I've noticed that just a day with the beer sitting in the lines, and the line beer can taste really bland and flat.

Glad it seems to be better.

day_trippr said:

Wow.

And I was not ?

Did I stutter? "On CO2" wasn't clear enough?

My point remains as stated....

Cheers!

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No need to be rude, I was just wondering because it seems counter-intuitive that ABV would have any effect on force carbonation. Maybe you could elaborate instead of debating my reading comprehension skills. That would seem to be more helpful and worth reading.

It seems better. I drank that glass, and man am I feeling it Maybe the head retention will get better after another week or so. Other than that, I'm happy with the flavor.

grittanomyces said:

No need to be rude, I was just wondering because it seems counter-intuitive that ABV would have any effect on force carbonation. Maybe you could elaborate instead of debating my reading comprehension skills. That would seem to be more helpful and worth reading.

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.

Cheers!

[edit] There isn't a lot of literature on the topic of sugar concentration versus carbonation, but I did find this paper, and Figure 7 is very interesting...