Help for first time Kegger

Hi everybody,

So I have been brewing for about a year and a half now and I just made the move up to kegging. Did the whole chest freezer conversion thing and I am really happy with how everything turned out. I have two Perlick that I bought off Craigs List and then another generic one I got at the brew store. I have ball lock kegs and a CO2 regulator that has two outputs.

So I was excited, I put my new lager into a keg and hooked it up and followed all of the things I have read and the beer came out but it was not carbonated. It had head but the beer itself outside of the bubbles on top tastes flat. I set the regulator to 12 psi. I have since left the keg hooked up to the CO2 (but turned the Co2 off) overnight and there is the same problem. Just not too sure how to deal with the situation.

I am trying to put pics on here but I am not sure how to do it.

I was hoping that some of the intelligent and creative people around here could help me out.

How long did you have the CO2 hooked up? and why did you turn the CO2 Off?

need some more info.

assuming a few things...it takes a while to carbonate a beer once kegged. We generally keep the system around 10-12psi and it takes approx 2 weeks to fully carb our beers.

I only had the CO2 hooked up for like 30 min. before I tried. As well, I turned off the CO2 at night because the guys at the brew store said I should turn off the CO2 when not in use as to not allow for easy leaking. That would make sense though that it takes time to fully carbonate a beer. For some reason in my head, I thought you just turn it on and it happens.

Silly me. That being said, once I keg a beer, is it possible to drink it close to immediately?

Thanks.

I have had my oktoberfest in my keg for two and a half weeks and it is almost ready to drink, not to say i have not been taking samples. There are several good threads to describe different carbonation methods. There are a couple of methods that you can use to speed it up but at a cost. Just because you can carbonate the beer does not mean it is ready to drink. When you bottle a beer you have to let it condition, and a keg is like a giant bottle.

Here is a good link that should help
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/keg-force-carbing-methods-illustrated-73328/

also my CO2 has been on and plugged in to the keg for the whole time.

lordflies said:

I only had the CO2 hooked up for like 30 min. before I tried. As well, I turned off the CO2 at night because the guys at the brew store said I should turn off the CO2 when not in use as to not allow for easy leaking. That would make sense though that it takes time to fully carbonate a beer. For some reason in my head, I thought you just turn it on and it happens.

Silly me. That being said, once I keg a beer, is it possible to drink it close to immediately?

Thanks.

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yeah 30 minutes is not quite long enough. as muse was saying there are several methods of carbonating a beer some more extreme than others. I think I have seen people claim as little as 3 days. Doing it this fast is not something you will want to do on a regular basis.

As far as turning the gas off that is a pretty terrible bandaid for a leaking system. Your system should not leak. If it does leak you need to find it and fix it. shutting the gas on and off shouldn't be necessary unless you are not using the keezer for an extended period of time (think months) even then it really shouldn't matter or you have nothing in their to carbonate.

Sounds like you have to wait just a little longer to enjoy your creation

Thank you everyone for your help. It appears that most of the issue was pure ignorance. It means alot that you are all so nice and helpful. Good luck with all your brews.

I made a similar mistake. Follow the sticky at the top of the Bottling/Kegging forum that says "Force Carbing Methods Illustrated." this is a very straight forward guide.

I've always been told if you turn off the CO2 and leave it hooked up that the beer will back up through the tube. I always just leave mine turned on, I'm still a rookie at kegging.

Here are my basic rules:

Always keep your CO2 on. Keep the CO2 valve fully opened on the tank.

If you keep your regulator at 12 PSI, expect it to take about 2 weeks to carb up.

If you want to rush it, there are a few ways. My recommended way is crank up the regulator to 30 PSI for about 2 days, (48 hrs), then drop it back down to 12 psi. Do not shake the keg, do not roll the keg.

shortyjacobs said:

Here are my basic rules:
If you want to rush it, there are a few ways. My recommended way is crank up the regulator to 30 PSI for about 2 days, (48 hrs), then drop it back down to 12 psi. Do not shake the keg, do not roll the keg.

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Just out of curiosity why not shake/roll your keg?

muse435 said:

Just out of curiosity why not shake/roll your keg?

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Because it's a big variable. How much/long/violently one person shakes a keg compared to another is a big problem, and can lead to one guy saying, "dude, I shake my kegs and carb them perfectly", to the other guy saying, "shaking overcarbed my kegs!", and 9 times out of 10 an overcarbing problem is due to shaking.

However, every time you put a warm keg into a cold fridge, crank it to 30 PSI, and wait 48 hours, you'll get the same result. That's what I do, and I have yet to overcarb a keg. It's a much more stable process, whereas one shake too many can overcarb you, the only way to overcarb it with overpressure alone is to forget about the keg and leave it on the high pressure gas for more than 48 hrs.

Ok....stupid question but isn't that the point of these. You are all smart and I turn to you for guidance.

Once the beer is carbonated and good, the CO2 still needs to be attached to push the beer out...correct? Once you put the beer in the fridge to carbonate it, it should always be at 12 psi or another psi that depends on the type of beer.

lordflies said:

Ok....stupid question but isn't that the point of these. You are all smart and I turn to you for guidance.

Once the beer is carbonated and good, the CO2 still needs to be attached to push the beer out...correct? Once you put the beer in the fridge to carbonate it, it should always be at 12 psi or another psi that depends on the type of beer.

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Yes you need to keep the CO2 connected in order to push the beer out of the keg. No, The psi is based on the style, there are several different places to find the appropriate Vol of CO2 (carbonation) for your beer. I personally use BeerAlchemy, it tells me what to use.

shortyjacobs said:

Because it's a big variable. How much/long/violently one person shakes a keg compared to another is a big problem, and can lead to one guy saying, "dude, I shake my kegs and carb them perfectly", to the other guy saying, "shaking overcarbed my kegs!", and 9 times out of 10 an overcarbing problem is due to shaking.

However, every time you put a warm keg into a cold fridge, crank it to 30 PSI, and wait 48 hours, you'll get the same result. That's what I do, and I have yet to overcarb a keg. It's a much more stable process, whereas one shake too many can overcarb you, the only way to overcarb it with overpressure alone is to forget about the keg and leave it on the high pressure gas for more than 48 hrs.

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Why not just shake the keg at serving pressure? There is no chance of overcarbing, but you will get the CO2 in faster than if it just sat there.

IffyG said:

Why not just shake the keg at serving pressure? There is no chance of overcarbing, but you will get the CO2 in faster than if it just sat there.

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Oh yes, this works just fine...but your arms will fall off before it's fully carbed. I've tried this before...after five or ten minutes of shaking, I figure it was about half carbed. If you look at a carbonation curve though, you'll see it rises quickly, then asymptotically approaches the equilibrium carbonation pressure. Getting it fully carbed while shaking I'm sure could be done, but I'm guessing we're talking in the range of hours of shaking.

Think of those carbonation corny lids, that have a post going to an airstone at the bottom of the keg. The amount of surface area exposed to the beer is much more on the order of what you'd see with shaking, in that case, and it still takes a day or two to carb up.

shortyjacobs said:

Oh yes, this works just fine...but your arms will fall off before it's fully carbed. I've tried this before...after five or ten minutes of shaking, I figure it was about half carbed. If you look at a carbonation curve though, you'll see it rises quickly, then asymptotically approaches the equilibrium carbonation pressure. Getting it fully carbed while shaking I'm sure could be done, but I'm guessing we're talking in the range of hours of shaking.

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I'm aware of that, but it certainly get's you carbing faster without the risk of blowing past your desired volumes of CO2. That being said, I use the set it and forget it method because most of my beer still tastes super green 2 or 3 weeks after kegging, so I'm in no rush to drink it.