Please help!!! (CO2)

Just finished my keezer build and tapped the keg. Once tapped, I turned on the Co2 and was, per the instructions, trying to set the gauge to 10-12 psi by turning the handle clockwise, which I did. But the gauge is reading roughly 45psi and I cannot turn the handle anymore. Anyway to release pressure or any tips on what to do?

Turn it the other way

This I tried, with no results. But I did run some beer which released the pressure in the line and have got it set to the correct PSI...for now.

Another question from the newbie...will I have to adjust the co2 gauge regularly? It appears that every pour the gauge drops below 10 psi. Is this normal or is something incorrect? Thanks for the help in advance.

You need to bleed the pressure off. The regulator can only flow in one direction, so there's no way that the CO2 can get back into the keg. Turning down the regulator only degreases the amount of CO2 it regulates, it wont decrease what pressure has already been applied. There should be a release valve on the regulator or the keg, or both. Just turn down the regulator, bleed off the pressure, and watch where the pressure drops to. When I turn them down, I usually bleed off until I can hear CO2 entering the keg, then I know that's where the new setting is for the regulator.

mgmiller08 said:

Another question from the newbie...will I have to adjust the co2 gauge regularly? It appears that every pour the gauge drops below 10 psi. Is this normal or is something incorrect? Thanks for the help in advance.

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It's probably dropping because you have already turned down the pressure. So you increased it to 45 PSI to begin with. You haven't bled off the CO2, so there's nowhere to go. If you turned down the regualtor, there will still be 45 PSI in the keg, but the regulator is now in the dialed position where it would regulate 600 PSI to 10 PSI (instead of 600 PSI to 45 PSI, making up numbers here, so don't take them literally).
Every time you pour, the beer level is decreasing and allowing more room for the CO2, thus the pressure that hasn't been bleed off now has somewhere to spread out to, which would degrease the pressure on the gauge.

Another note, once you have the pressure dialed in, you shouldn't have to adjust the regulator. There will be instances where you may have to though, like if you change your refrigerator temp.

beninan said:

You need to bleed the pressure off. The regulator can only flow in one direction, so there's no way that the CO2 can get back into the keg. Turning down the regulator only degreases the amount of CO2 it regulates, it wont decrease what pressure has already been applied. There should be a release valve on the regulator or the keg, or both. Just turn down the regulator, bleed off the pressure, and watch where the pressure drops to. When I turn them down, I usually bleed off until I can hear CO2 entering the keg, then I know that's where the new setting is for the regulator.

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I bled the line and it seems that I have got the pressure where I want it...on the regulator. But as I pour a beer, it seems like there is still TOO much pressure. It is all head and it is a strong pour as well.

What's your beer line length, internal diameter, refrigeration temp, and CO2 pressure?

How did you carbonate the keg?

beninan said:

What's your beer line length, internal diameter, refrigeration temp, and CO2 pressure?

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5ft of beer line, not exactly sure the internal diameter of the line(purchased generic kit from beverage factory), fridge temp is roughly 43F, and pressure is set to 10psi. Do I need to make changes to anything? Also this is just a normal keg purchased from a beer store, not a home brew....atleast for now.

Also, how long has the keg been refrigerated and undisturbed?

Good question...it has probably been refrigerated for quite some time since I purchased this particular keg. Also "undisturbed," it was disturbed a good bit on the ride home, but it has been a good hour since it has sat in the keezer.

mgmiller08 said:

5ft of beer line, not exactly sure the internal diameter of the line(purchased generic kit from beverage factory), fridge temp is roughly 43F, and pressure is set to 10psi. Do I need to make changes to anything? Also this is just a normal keg purchased from a beer store, not a home brew....atleast for now.

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Oh, so its a commercial keg? If so, I have one on tap right now, and they seem to be a pain in the arse for me. For instance, mine was more carbonated than what my setup was built for. So if they carbonated it at 12 PSI at 35 degrees, and my refrigerator is at 45 degrees, then I would need to have it set to 15 PSI (again, pulling numbers out of the air) so that it will have the same balance of CO2 so the CO2 wont come out of suspension (foam). I can't simply turn up my pressure, due to my other kegs being hooked up. So instead, I made the commercial beer go flatter by bleeding off the pressure over a couple days, and that helped a lot.

The best way to hook up a commercial keg is to find out what carbonation level the brewery carbonated it to. Then you can use a carbonation chart (http://www.kegerators.com/carbonation-table.php) to figure out what pressure at what temperature you need so you can match that carbonation level. A change in pressure OR and change in temperature will change the carbonation level. The CO2 is absorbed into the beer until it reaches an equilibrium of CO2 absorbed in the beer VS. the CO2 pressure. If you decrease the pressure or increase the temperature, the CO2 will want to come out of suspension, which causes bubbles and turns into foam.

mgmiller08 said:

Good question...it has probably been refrigerated for quite some time since I purchased this particular keg. Also "undisturbed," it was disturbed a good bit on the ride home, but it has been a good hour since it has sat in the keezer.

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How big is it? I'd give it 1/2 a day to a full day to settle, depending on how well it was shaken. Remember, it's a GIANT canned beer. If you shake it and then open it, it will foam up. The more volume there is, the longer it has to sit to absorb the CO2 back into itself.

Thanks for all the help.

You may want to look into a longer beer line in the future. I run three taps, with a line length of 10' each. This gives you resistance on the beer, which helps keep CO2 in solution.

I also wanted to add that I have a 2 tap tower setup, but only one line is connected at this time. I have shut off the co2 valve on the second line. Does this have any affect on these issues? Also, when I do connect my second keg, how will that affect my psi readings considering I will have two different styles of beer and most likely two different psi requiremnets?

if you require two different pressures, the only way you can accomplish that is with multiple regulators. When I built mine, I went overkill. I have my main regulator on my tank, which I set at about 20 lbs, which runs into a manifold with three more regulators, allowing me three seperate settings.

Well I thought I had all the kinks worked out last night, but turns out I don't. I bled the lines and set the co2 gauge to 11psi before I went to sleep. Woke up this morning, and the gauge read 50psi. It just continues to increase on me and I am not sure why. Earlier this morning, I came in and bled the lines again, reset the gauge to 11psi and just now(20 mins later) read it and it has already made it up to 18 psi. Why does the pressure continue to go up? I konw the co2 absorbed in the beer vs the co2 pressure has to be close to equilibrium, so what is the solution? Do I continue to bleed the lines?

i would disconnect the line from the keg, bleed the keg down (how long have you had it under excessive pressures?- that might be contributing to excessive foam too) and see what your gauge does. If your reg is bleeding through, it will bleed pressure to a closed valve the same as it would to a keg full of beer. Hopefully it doesn't go high enough to burst your lines or connections. Regulators are a little touchy, and take some time to adjust to when you tamper with the set. When you turn them back, the pressure won't drop until it has someplace to go, and when you turn them up, the needle doesn't always reach it's peak right away and stop- sometimes you will have a little bit of residual climb. I would tweak things unconnected so you are not saturating your beer. you might want to get a different gauge for your low side, too. A gauge with a smaller scale (say 0- 20 psi) is going to be more reactive to your adjustments then one with a larger one (like 0-100) - though it will be less forgiving to 40 psi, and if you bottom it out hard and bend the winding, you may have to replace it.

spearko520 said:

i would disconnect the line from the keg, bleed the keg down (how long have you had it under excessive pressures?- that might be contributing to excessive foam too) and see what your gauge does. If your reg is bleeding through, it will bleed pressure to a closed valve the same as it would to a keg full of beer. Hopefully it doesn't go high enough to burst your lines or connections. Regulators are a little touchy, and take some time to adjust to when you tamper with the set. When you turn them back, the pressure won't drop until it has someplace to go, and when you turn them up, the needle doesn't always reach it's peak right away and stop- sometimes you will have a little bit of residual climb. I would tweak things unconnected so you are not saturating your beer. you might want to get a different gauge for your low side, too. A gauge with a smaller scale (say 0- 20 psi) is going to be more reactive to your adjustments then one with a larger one (like 0-100) - though it will be less forgiving to 40 psi, and if you bottom it out hard and bend the winding, you may have to replace it.

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Ok, I will disconnect from the keg and bleed the lines. What do I need to do after this? How do I check to see if it is bleeding through? I am not sure how long it was under excessive pressure. Like i said, I set it to 10psi last night, and woke up to 50psi, so it could have been hours. Also, I will look into a new gauge for the low side, but I just purchased this keg, and it is a half keg, so I need to make it work for now. Don't want to lose this entire thing.

I bled the lines and disconnected from the keg. Once disconnected, the gauge continued to rise just as it did when connected and the knob is turned as low as it can go. What does this mean? After this I turned the co2 off completely and bled the line out and the pressure is still increasing. What are the next steps to determine what my issue is?

Note: After bleeding the excess about 5 times once the tank was turned off, the guage is finally sitting on 0, where I want it.

Turns out, after speaking with Beverage Factory, that I have a faulty regulator. A new one is on the way, but it will be another week. Since I bled the line at the keg before untapping, the beer will stay fresh and not go flat correct?

mgmiller08 said:

[...]Since I bled the line at the keg before untapping, the beer will stay fresh and not go flat correct?

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The beer will be fine...

Cheers!

good luck with the new one-keep the beer cold and it should be fine, there should still be enough CO2 in suspension. when you say turned as low it goes- you do mean the pressure and not the actual physical location of the knob, right? on a reg tightening the knob increases pressure bleeding through the diaphragm, loosening decreases

Wanted to update my issue...just recieved the new regulator and things seem to be working great. Only issue I am having now, is that the beer has to much foam. I called Beverage Factory and spoke with a "specialist" and they informed me that since I overpressurized the keg, that I needed to bleed the line at the coupler and then set the CO2 to 8 psi to help with pressure and foam. Well I have done this a couple times and I am still getting way too much head on every pour. Any suggestions?

Shut off the gas and burp the CO2 out of the head space. Let the keg sit over night, then burp the head space again. Then turn the gas back on and pull a pint. If the quality of the pour is satisfactory, you're done, but if it's still too foamy, repeat the burping regimen until you get the beer tamed...

Cheers!

day_trippr said:

Shut off the gas and burp the CO2 out of the head space. Let the keg sit over night, then burp the head space again. Then turn the gas back on and pull a pint. If the quality of the pour is satisfactory, you're done, but if it's still too foamy, repeat the burping regimen until you get the beer tamed...

Cheers!

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I have done this two nights in a row and still about the same pour. It might have got a little better, but each pour is still about 50% foam. Also I have only been turning the regulator to 8 psi in hopes that will help, and not much difference. It seems when I initially pull the handle, a quick burst of pressure is releasing and seems that most the foam is coming out then. After a couple of seconds, then only beer comes out. Any ideas...solutions? Do I continue this burping regimen and eventually it will get worked out?

Also, after speaking with another "specialist," I was told since it was so overpressurized, that the keg will never be fixable. I was told it was way overcarbonated and that was that, nothing I could do. Is this true?

Your specialist is short bus special...

Do what day trippr said above. Gas off...vent. Wait. Vent. Test. Repeat until it is where you want it and turn the gas back on.

HAHA...thanks for the info. I have one more question for you. I have been doing this routine for that past couple days and I have not been able to get over 6 psi or the pint will be mostly foam. I have it set at 5 psi right now and it is pouring great. My question is, when I buy my new keg tomorrow to add to the keezer, how will this affect the new beer? I understand that the beers I will have in the keezer require a psi of 10-12(normally), so with the new beer added, will it pour correctly at such a low psi? Or, should I continue this burping routine until I can get the psi setting back to around 11 before I add the new keg?

Leaving it at 5 psi the over carbed and new brew will both pour fine for a day or so but then the low serving pressure will eventually make both brews undercarbed.
You want the gas off so the co2 can come out of the brew. Continue to vent or pour a couple times with the gas off. If it starts to seem undercarbed then it is time to turn on the gas to the correct serving pressure.

brewingmeister said:

Leaving it at 5 psi the over carbed and new brew will both pour fine for a day or so but then the low serving pressure will eventually make both brews undercarbed.
You want the gas off so the co2 can come out of the brew. Continue to vent or pour a couple times with the gas off. If it starts to seem undercarbed then it is time to turn on the gas to the correct serving pressure.

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Without pressure, there is not way for the beer to make it out of the tower set up I have. Can I not keep the psi where it is for a day or so, then when the beer seems to be undercarbed, then turn up co2 as needed, which will carbonate the beer?

Sure that should work. If nothing happens when you pour with the gas off it sounds like it isn't over carbed anymore. I mentioned pulling a few with the pressure off because I had a commercial keg that had a case of regulator creep and that method helped me out.