Commonwealth
Well-Known Member
My fellow brewers I come to you in my darkest hour of desperation and confusion. I am no professional but have about a decade of brewing experience with over half of that spent kegging, I am guessing I have sucessfully kegged well over 100 cornies in that time, until now! I brewed a Caramel Amber Ale recipe that i found in the wonderful HBT recipe forum. Long story short the beer while tasty was lighter in body and much drier than I wanted. After a little research on post fermentation body building and sweetening i boiled up some lactose and racked the beer onto a 1/2 pound dissoled in a pint of water per 5 gal during the kegging process. I had some beer gas (70% Nitrogen 30% CO2) laying around for my nitro tap and used it to purge the keg of air after filling. I am pretty sure I opened the relief valve to make sure there was no pressure on the beer from the gas, then It sat in my garage at about 50 degrees for a week not connected to my gas. Next i put it in my beer fridge and had a taste before carbing. Pre-carbing tate test yielded a sweeter and fuller bodied beer
Then I did what i usually do and hooked that keg up to my CO2 in my kegorator which is an old fridge. i keep it around 40-42F and the CO2 set at 25 psi for about 36 hours. Then i lower the pressure down to my dispensung pressure of 8-10 psi, purge my keg to faucet line and take a taste. If i want more carbonation i raise the pressure up for another 1/2 day and check it again and repeat as needed. Like I said this has always worked great for me.
Well this amber ale had no carbonation at all after 4 days. So i did some research thought i may have over carbed. Vented the keg completely and repressuized to 25 and left it for several days with no luck again. I have had it at 25 psi for 5 days and not even a bubble. Does the post fermentation affect a beers ability to be force carbonated? Or does beer gas exposure affect a beers ability to be carbonated with CO2?
Then I did what i usually do and hooked that keg up to my CO2 in my kegorator which is an old fridge. i keep it around 40-42F and the CO2 set at 25 psi for about 36 hours. Then i lower the pressure down to my dispensung pressure of 8-10 psi, purge my keg to faucet line and take a taste. If i want more carbonation i raise the pressure up for another 1/2 day and check it again and repeat as needed. Like I said this has always worked great for me.
Well this amber ale had no carbonation at all after 4 days. So i did some research thought i may have over carbed. Vented the keg completely and repressuized to 25 and left it for several days with no luck again. I have had it at 25 psi for 5 days and not even a bubble. Does the post fermentation affect a beers ability to be force carbonated? Or does beer gas exposure affect a beers ability to be carbonated with CO2?