Flat Beer

I kegged my beer approximately 6 weeks ago, I used priming sugar like usual to carbonate. I have done this before with success. I tapped this beer today, and it is flat. Does any one have an idea why, and can you give me tips on force carbonating at this point. A little additional info: It is an IPA High gravity, used a starter with additional packet of dry yeast, approximately 300 billion cells, 3 weeks in primary 2 weeks in secondary. Primed with the standard 5 oz priming sugar.

Thanks

Pop another to see if it was just a bad seal on the bottle. If its flat too then for some reason the yeast aren't doing their job. You could try to put a few grains of dry yeast in each bottle and recaping. To force carbonate you would need a kegging setup.

lol what i think beerthirty meant to say is its possible you have a broken seal on your keg. you can try pumping air into your keg and see if it holds pressure. if not its time to get a new keg.

TipsyDragon said:

lol what i think beerthirty meant to say is its possible you have a broken seal on your keg. you can try pumping air into your keg and see if it holds pressure. if not its time to get a new keg.

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WHAT??? now that's funny, yeah get a new keg! Just send me that worthless keg. LOL. ....

Seriously, sure the orings might need replacing, but first put some co2 on the keg at abou 30 psi. Purg the keg by releasing the valve on top a few times . Now disconnect the co2 and check for leaks with a soap or starsan solution. This sealing of the keg with co2 at 30psi should have been done even if you were going to prime with sugar.

If you dont have any leaks then place the keg in kegerator, hook up your co2 again , set it to 10 psi and leave it alone for atleast a week.

My mind stuck on primming sugar. Sorry bout that. Pressurize it with CO2 remove the fitting then spray star san around the lid and posts if you get any bubbling then you have a leak. When force carbing the initial shot of gas helps seat the lid seal and keep it airtight. unless you gassed it a little after sealing it then the seal probably did not seat. If the keg is cold you can force it by dialing the reg up to about 30 then shaking it as the gas enters. Shake until your arm is tired, then repeat in 15 minutes. dial the reg back to serving pressure and vent the keg. Taste the beer and repeat the proccess until its carbed to your liking. Or hook the cold keg up to 12 PSI and wait 1 week.

thanks to all who replied, no leaks are detected. I am not positive, but I think I probably did not initially pressurize the keg. I checked the keg from time to time to see if there was evidence of leakage, I didn't see any, though that doesn't mean that there wasn't. What effect do you think this will have on the beer?

If you force carb it probably none, otherwise it will still be flat.

Use your O2 to force carb check the chart and you can get your bubbles back in a few day, don't drink flat beer charge it up and replace all gaskets and seals should be under $10.00.

Is the beer a little sweeter than you would expect? Perhaps the yeasties never did they're job in the first place....

my bet it on the seal as well. Inspect it, if nothing stands out use some keg lube. I use it every time now seldom have a problem.

Also, when you keg wish suger for carbing the only pressure on the lid is the latch. If you blast some CO2 you can purge the O2 and get a bit of pressure in there to hold the seal better with internal pressure.