Lost all my carbonation

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yehaww

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I was carbing in my keg with sugar. I left it go for about 10 days. Today I hooked up a tap and poured a nicely carbonated pint. So I stuck it in the fridge to chill. I think amidst the jostling the picnic tap connection to the QD unscrewed a bit and all the co2 slowly leaked out. I went to pour another one tonight and beer just dribbled out. Some beer had leaked out around the connection as well. Now it appears I have a flat keg. Total bummer. I'm running co2 off a hand charger so I know force carbing isn't really an option. What am I to do? Pull it back out, add some sugar and let it sit for another 10 or 15 days?
 
Do you have the CO2 on? Even naturally carbonated still needs CO2 set at serving pressure for the beer to pour. And if your QD was loose for 10 days I suppose the CO2 could have leaked out. I guess with your CO2 hand charger situation (BTW - what is that? I've never heard of one before) the only thing to do is add some more priming sugar. Good luck! :mug:
 
If you don't have a kegerator setup or a way to put the keg in a frig with a CO2 tank, I don't see any other way to re-carb it. You could do it at room temp with a CO2 canister (and regulator) but you'd have to have the pressure up around 30-40psi. I think it is time for you to upgrade to a kegerator. Re-naturally carbing is going to change the taste of the beer BTW.
 
It can't go flat in a day. If it was carbed for one beer, then the rest of the beer is carbed also. But whenever you pour a beer, you have to put the co2 back into it. Those hand chargers only work very short term. They can be used to pour a keg of carbonated beer over a day or two, but won't work long-term.

What happens when you pour a beer is that the co2 "pushes" out the beer. The co2 comes from the headspace. You have to replace it, in order to push more beer out. The beer will eventually go flat, or be overcarbed, without a regulator to put in the correct amount of co2 that is displaced. That's why those chargers are only for a day or two to push out the beer.
 
Well, I'm not sure Yooper. When I poured the test beer yesterday, it had a nice "cascade" and a nice frothy head on it. Then The next time I poured one, about 10 hours later, it just dribbled out and I noticed the leak. So I re-tightened everything and recharged it with co2 and now it just pours flat beer. I guess I just need to invest in the tank. I was just trying to NOT drop 500 on all this stuff right away! I'm sure that's a line uttered by most people when they first decide to try kegging.
 
Do you have the CO2 on? Even naturally carbonated still needs CO2 set at serving pressure for the beer to pour. And if your QD was loose for 10 days I suppose the CO2 could have leaked out. I guess with your CO2 hand charger situation (BTW - what is that? I've never heard of one before) the only thing to do is add some more priming sugar. Good luck! :mug:

The QD wasn't loose for 10 days. It held pressure through my 10 day carb, at least I assume it held pressure based on my first pour. What was loose was the picnic tap connector to the QD. It's the screw on type and just unscrewed a bit while I was moving the hose around.

Hand charger
http://www.cornykeg.com/catalog.asp?prodid=668627
 
Thanks for the link.. got it now. To be honest those things sound like a quick pressure source to pour beer at a kegger where if some beer get's lost to foam. So what. Everybody is there to party and have fun.

For a homebrewer who wants to serve beer at a set pressure with little to no maintanence after things are all set, this little CO2 charger set at 600 psi is more trouble than worth.

Pay a decent chunk of money for a CO2 tank, a 5 pound one will last through force carbing and serving 6-7 kegs. YMMV. You can go bigger than 5 and if I knew then what I knew now; I'd of gone with at least a 10lb or 15lb tank because a 10 pound tank is not twice the price of a five pounder and a 15-20lb tank is not a huge difference more. Plus, when you go to fill them up it really is cheaper per pound for bigger tanks. There is a reason for this that I've heard of but am not going to quote. I just look at the actual differences in price between filling my 5lb tank and another guy paying for a 15lb tank filll. Of course his cost more but his price per pound is a bit cheaper. Just my long winded 2 cents. Cheers! Kegging is great!
 
Did you pour the first beer from a warm keg then chill it?. That could be your problem.. Cold beer holds a lot more CO2 than warm beer.. 10 days is a short period of time to naturally carb too. I let mine go for about a month.
 
I have accidentally flattened a full half barrel over night via a loose fitting, leaking only a few pints and coupled w a slightly warmer temp. Force carbing is tricky, but you should invest in a tank and regulator regardless. Hey, drink the beer however you can push it.
 
Did you pour the first beer from a warm keg then chill it?. That could be your problem.. Cold beer holds a lot more CO2 than warm beer.. 10 days is a short period of time to naturally carb too. I let mine go for about a month.

Yeah, it was warm. I usually get decent carbonation in 10-14 days when I used bottles. I'm sure I jumped the gun a bit since this was my first keg.

Well screw it, I'm just gonna drop the cash and get a co2 tank. This venture got expensive real quick.
 
Well I got a tank and carbed it up and it turned out pretty nice. I split the line and ran to an amber I have in a second keg. It's strange, the amber seems to stay kind of flat while the Ipa is perfect. I have the line split with 8psi going to each keg. I cranked up to 12 for a week but other than shooting out the tap faster, I don't really notice a change in carbonation. I guess maybe I could have some sort of leak on the amber keg. It would be a very slow leak though. It's all been hooked up for 3 weeks and I still have co2 in my tank.
 

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