Priming sugar in Corny??'s

After researching here, I used 1/2 the sugar amount recommended for bottling and let the keg sit for 3 weeks at 66 degrees.

Went to tap it last night and it was FLAT!!!

So was it that I didn't use enough sugar? The temp was too cold? Both?

Also why would naturally carbing in a keg require less sugar than bottling?

Thank you!

I use the same amount as with bottle carbing.

Did you seal the keg with a little CO2? Maybe the lid wasn't sealed fully...

I would think 66 degrees would be fine for natural carbing.

I did give it a blast of CO2. Before I put it on the tap last night I checked the relief valve and there was pressure.

When you say half, how much sugar actually was used?

I use 1/4 of a cup of table sugar for English ales and 1/3 cup for American ales. It works great. One thing you want to remember is to put lubricant on the seal gasket and then hit it with some CO2, so the lid is sealed.

The kit comes with 5oz for bottling, so I used 2.5oz.

They were new seals and were lubed and they were holding pressure.

Seems like I just need to use more priming sugar.

You use less sugar because the amount of head space in 40-50 bottles is much more than the head space in a single keg, so you need to generate less CO2 to carb the same amount of beer.

You absolutely must lube and seal the keg with a shot of CO2. If you had the keg sealed, and sitting for 3 weeks, it should still have the CO2 used to seal the keg inside. If you pulled the relief valve and your CO2 used to seal isn't there, then you had a leak and lost all of your gas. Give the keg a nice blast of CO2 and check for leaks -- I bet you have one.

rhamilton said:

Give the keg a nice blast of CO2 and check for leaks -- I bet you have one.

Click to expand...

I'll check again, but the keg had pressure, I pulled the relief valve right before I put it on the tap and got a nice "hiss" out if it.

Thanks for the info on head space.

Anyway of preserving the carbonation when transferring beer from the keg to the growler. Tried it tonight --lots of carbonation coming from the keg. Fizzed in the bottle/growler--waited, filled it up more, waited filled it up more--secured the top on tightly when full --then refrigerated it. Opened the bottle and it was flat? Any suggestions to keep more of the carbonation--type of bottle to use? method of pouring? type of beer to use?