Over carbonated and flat

Hi Everyone,

I've been looking for the answer to this question for a while now but can't seem to find it.

When force carbonating my kegged beer I always seem to over carbonate it. It foams like crazy before it ever tastes carbonated. I'm running it off extremly slow when I first taste it, so its no that I'm letting it shoot out of the keg or anything.

My thinking was that maybe it had something to do with the fact that it was finished carbonating before the beer had completly cleared up. I thought I remembered reading somewhere that the yeast floating around in the beer had some kind of effect on the carbonation. For example, making the bubbles smaller or something like that, because I can tell its carbonated but it feels like something carbonated with nitrous.

Anyway thanks in advance for any suggestions
-Dan

Hi Everyone,

I've been looking for the answer to this question for a while now but can't seem to find it.

When force carbonating my kegged beer I always seem to over carbonate it. It foams like crazy before it ever tastes carbonated. I'm running it off extremly slow when I first taste it, so its no that I'm letting it shoot out of the keg or anything.

My thinking was that maybe it had something to do with the fact that it was finished carbonating before the beer had completly cleared up. I thought I remembered reading somewhere that the yeast floating around in the beer had some kind of effect on the carbonation. For example, making the bubbles smaller or something like that, because I can tell its carbonated but it feels like something carbonated with nitrous.

Anyway thanks in advance for any suggestions
-Dan

I always release some of the pressure after force carbing it then hook it up to the gas at around 10 psi. Never have had a problem.

Yep, sounds like he's not dumping the pressure off/out of the keg first...then reconnecting at a lower pressure to dispense...

I had it set at 12 PSI for a week. and then dispensing at 12 psi. worked fine. Tried turning PSI down to dispense after it foamed and still had foam. any ideas?

fromhereon said:

I'm running it off extremly slow when I first taste it, so its no that I'm letting it shoot out of the keg or anything.

Click to expand...

Another thought...
Are you opening the tap all of the way? Partially opening the tap (whether it is a picnic tap or perlick) is great way to make sure you get nothing but foam.

How long is your serving hose? What PSI are you serving at and how did you carbonate?

For the time being, I would try serving as fast as it will flow, starting and stopping as abruptly as possible, I would think trying to pour slowly might increase foam. It might be more apparent when pouring into a larger glass.

I believe the serving hose is about 6 feet and I always make sure to open the tap all the way. I don't think it is the equipment though because when I get the carbonation leveled out right it comes out perfect.

Also I carbonate the beer at 35 psi for a day or two then bleed off all the pressure. Then I connect the serving hose and turn the pressure up to about 10 psi. Now I want to taste a little to see where the carbonation is but it foams like crazy. So I bleed the tank again and turn the psi down to about 3. It comes out without foaming at all, but it tastes flat.

I guess I might be able to fix the whole thing by just carbonated slower. I can't stand waiting so I try to hurry it along for the first day or two.

Thanks again for all you responses,
Dan

What diameter is your serving hose? You need about 6 to 10 feet of 3/16 hose to restrict your flow to keep the CO2 in solution.

I think that may be my problem too. I have 3/16" lines at 4.75 feet length. The beer is perfectly carbonated after 2 weeks of 38F and 10 PSI. Then after a day, it tastes flat with tons of foam. Then the next morning it is good again, but only for 1 or 2 glasses, then back to being flat tasting.

I had similar problems when I started kegging. What I've been doing, and have found to be more successful is to only force carb for 24 hours at 30 psi. Bleed off all the CO2, then set the regulator to my serving pressure. Which for me is typically around 8-10 psi.

If the beer sits on high pressure for any longer than a day I have the same issues you have, and it ends up having to sit another day on low pressure before you can get a non-foamtastic pour.

The line comments are good, too. Can't remember what length my lines are, but when I stepped up from the odd length hoses, and had 6-7 feet on all my kegs, they were way more consistent. Really looking forward to getting a kegerator so I can have a nice, clean, organized space for the kegs.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f84/beer-line-length-pressure-calculator-35369/

^ Beer line length and diameter calculator ^

Someone put that on my post about the same issue.

Also, the chart below helped me understand over-carbing better.

Another issue I found was that my gauge was not reading correctly inside the fridge. I think this can happen if you buy a cheap gauge and/or because of the temp. inside the fridge. The gauge wasn't made to be working inside a fridge. Sometimes the gauge needle can also get stuck when cold.

My gauge was reading low, so then when I set the CO2 tank at 13 PSI, it was at least a few units higher, just enough to overcarb the keg (and I did not force carb at all).

Good luck.