Low carbonation after counter presure filling??

First, I search and couldn't find the answer I'm looking for.

We are carbonating in corny's with 18-20 psi at room temp for about 1 week.

We then chill and server as needed. Carbonation is fine with good head retention.

We have used a Blichmann beer gun to fill bottles for competitions and are receiving consistent comments regarding low carbonation.

How can we fix this?

Thanks,

hopfen

hopfen said:

First, I search and couldn't find the answer I'm looking for.

We are carbonating in corny's with 18-20 psi at room temp for about 1 week.

We then chill and server as needed. Carbonation is fine with good head retention.

We have used a Blichmann beer gun to fill bottles for competitions and are receiving consistent comments regarding low carbonation.

How can we fix this?

Thanks,

hopfen

Click to expand...

18-20 psi at room temperature is pretty low, depending on the temperature of the room! Here's a chart:
http://www.kegerators.com/carbonation-table.php

So, if your room is even 65 degrees, you're only looking at 1.8 volumes of CO2. That's practically flat. Like an English beer like a mild. If you want to have a carb level similar to American style ales or German lagers, you will want to use 29 psi or more at 65 degrees.

And this will fix my bottling issue? I'm confused because keg served beer seems well carbonated.

Thanks,

hopfen

hopfen said:

And this will fix my bottling issue? I'm confused because keg served beer seems well carbonated.

Thanks,

hopfen

Click to expand...

It shouldn't be well carbonated, not at that pressure. That's weird!

Yooper

Would you mind detailing your process for force carbing
I only know of the shaking at pressure one
Thanks

redman67 said:

Yooper

Would you mind detailing your process for force carbing
I only know of the shaking at pressure one
Thanks

Click to expand...

If I'm not in a huge hurry, I keg, give the keg a shot of co2, purge (to purge the oyxgen out) and set it at 12 psi in my fridge for 7-10 days before tapping.

If I'm in a huge hurry, I do the same but set it at 30 psi for the first 36 hours, then purge and reset it at 12 psi. It's ready in 3-4 days that way.

Is that injecting into the out side? down the dip tube

redman67 said:

Is that injecting into the out side? down the dip tube

Click to expand...

No. the gas goes on the "in" and the tap goes on the "out".

Most fussing around (shaking, putting the QD on the "out", adjusting the pressure too high) just causes problems. With the "set it and forget it" method, you can have 5 kegs (that is all I can fit) at the same pressure, all the time. It takes about a week to carb up, but the beer is perfect. No foaming issues, no under- or over- carbed beer. I don't understand at all why people want to shake and rush it- the carbonic "bite" in a newly carbed keg is unpleasant so I wouldn't drink it for a couple of days anyway.

All of the "my beer is foamy" posts seem to have two themes- shaking the keg, and short serving lines. No one I know who sets the psi at 12 in a 40 degree fridge has foaming issues. The other thing that is weird to me is "serving pressure" and "carbing pressure". If I had different pressures, I'd have to climb into the kegerator, turn off the gas to all the kegs, purge the keg I was serving from, reset the regulator to 2 psi, pour the beer, and then do the same for any other beers I wanted. Then crawl back in there and turn them all back to 12 psi for the night so the beer would stay carbed up! No way. It's always set at 12 psi. No matter what. No shaking/foaming/adjusting. I like that.

Maybe the length of time at serving temp and presure finished the carbonating.

We brew 20 gallon batches at a time.

We keg at room temp and then apply 18-20 psi and let the kegs sit at room temp until we need them which is usually 2-3 weeks.

According to the chart, we should be at 29-30 psi at 65 degrees and let them sit at that presure for 2-3 weeks.

Is this correct?

thanks,

hopfen

Thanks again for the info Yooper

Pressure testing??

We keg 4 at a time and fill with 30 psi then let them sit for 2-3 weeks. We don't leave them on the gas though.

Maybe this is the issue? They may be bleeding/loosing pressure over time even though we don't have any liquid leaking from them.

We would need to rig up multiple lines to keep all of them at 30 psi for the duration.

How can I test the pressure at any point? Can I rig up a line attached to a guage and put it on the gas "In" side to test? will this give me a proper reading?

Thanks,

hopfen

hopfen said:

Pressure testing??

We keg 4 at a time and fill with 30 psi then let them sit for 2-3 weeks. We don't leave them on the gas though.

Maybe this is the issue? They may be bleeding/loosing pressure over time even though we don't have any liquid leaking from them.

We would need to rig up multiple lines to keep all of them at 30 psi for the duration.

How can I test the pressure at any point? Can I rig up a line attached to a guage and put it on the gas "In" side to test? will this give me a proper reading?

Thanks,

hopfen

Click to expand...

The beer absorbs the gas- so if you want to carb up the kegs they need the gas on constantly according to the chart above.

You can test the pressure, I think some people use a spunding valve.