Pressure in keg keeps rising

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DoubleAught

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Ok, so I kegged two beers this last weekend (an IPA and a Kolsch). I initially set both kegs at 30 psi for about 24 hrs, then dropped the IPA to 8 psi, and the Kolsch to 12 psi. The Kolsch is holding steady at 12 psi for the last 48 hrs, however the IPA keeps gradually rising back up to 30psi. I released all the pressure in the keg, set back to 8 psi, then a few hrs later it's back up to 30.

I took the top off tonight just to look inside and the kegged beer has a head, is this normal? I put the lid back on, took it to 8 psi, released it to remove any O2, then turned off the gas completely. A few hrs later...30 psi, anyone have any recommendations to get it to remain at my desired 8 psi?

Thanks!
 
It has individual release valves on each line at the regulator, is that what you are meanng?
 
DoubleAught said:
Ok, so I kegged two beers this last weekend (an IPA and a Kolsch). I initially set both kegs at 30 psi for about 24 hrs, then dropped the IPA to 8 psi, and the Kolsch to 12 psi. The Kolsch is holding steady at 12 psi for the last 48 hrs, however the IPA keeps gradually rising back up to 30psi. I released all the pressure in the keg, set back to 8 psi, then a few hrs later it's back up to 30.

I took the top off tonight just to look inside and the kegged beer has a head, is this normal? I put the lid back on, took it to 8 psi, released it to remove any O2, then turned off the gas completely. A few hrs later...30 psi, anyone have any recommendations to get it to remain at my desired 8 psi?

Thanks!

What was your final gravity? Are you sure it was completely fermented out? Sounds like you may still be producing CO2 and building pressure or it could be a problem with your gas system regulator.
 
It was 1.012 and solid for days. I'm curious if it's some thing with the regulator too. Could it still be the regulator if I turn the gas off and it still rises?
 
Do you have check valves? I had the same issue until I put a small check valve in each gas line, and that fixed it.

Did it actually fix the problem or did it just hide it since the pressure could no longer "get" to the gauge?
Sounds like the beer might be overcarb'd and off gassing the extra CO2 that won't stay in solution at the lower pressure. It is weird that it is getting back up to 30 PSI though. Just thinking about it I based the above on the fact that bottle was turned off, but there would still be a bit of high pressure CO2 in the HP side of the reg that could bump it back up.

Can you try (to eliminate or confirm the leaking reg) now that the keg is purged, turn the bottle off and drop the pressure in the IPA keg to 0 PSI. Both the LP gauge and HP gaige should be reading 0 PSI now. Check to see if the LP gauge rises.
If it does your beer is overcarb'd and off gassing,
If it doesn't you regulator is sticking and slowly letting CO2 past.
 
DoubleAught said:
It was 1.012 and solid for days. I'm curious if it's some thing with the regulator too. Could it still be the regulator if I turn the gas off and it still rises?

Well the pressure has to come from somewhere. Either the beer or the CO2 cylinder. If the FG is stable then it has to be coming from the gas. And as fast as it is rising, it sounds like you have a faulty regulator.
 
mattd2 said:
Did it actually fix the problem or did it just hide it since the pressure could no longer "get" to the gauge?
Sounds like the beer might be overcarb'd and off gassing the extra CO2 that won't stay in solution at the lower pressure. It is weird that it is getting back up to 30 PSI though. Just thinking about it I based the above on the fact that bottle was turned off, but there would still be a bit of high pressure CO2 in the HP side of the reg that could bump it back up.

Can you try (to eliminate or confirm the leaking reg) now that the keg is purged, turn the bottle off and drop the pressure in the IPA keg to 0 PSI. Both the LP gauge and HP gaige should be reading 0 PSI now. Check to see if the LP gauge rises.
If it does your beer is overcarb'd and off gassing,
If it doesn't you regulator is sticking and slowly letting CO2 past.

This is what I use. The left regulator is the IPA, the keg is purged and the reg valve is off, and you can see it is already to 10 after 30 mins or so.

Im going to try you advice and I close the co2 tank valve, and purge the keg. Which gauge is the HP and LP?

ForumRunner_20120730_214945.jpg
 
The HP gauge is the one with the higher pressure read out. It is your gauge for your tank pressure, the one with the red on it.

The LP gauge is the one reading out the keg pressure.

I'd suspect your beer is overcarbed. My IPA is doing the same thing. I put it at 30 for 2 days, and turned down to 10/11 PSI, and for the last week, has acted like it wants to creep a little. I just purge the keg of pressure, and make sure the reg is set at what I want it, and leave it be.

I put a breakfast stout online yesterday evening at 7/8psi, and left it be. Gonna wait on it anyways, so no need to rush it. It hasn't moved.
 
The HP gauge is the one with the higher pressure read out. It is your gauge for your tank pressure, the one with the red on it.

The LP gauge is the one reading out the keg pressure.

I'd suspect your beer is overcarbed. My IPA is doing the same thing. I put it at 30 for 2 days, and turned down to 10/11 PSI, and for the last week, has acted like it wants to creep a little. I just purge the keg of pressure, and make sure the reg is set at what I want it, and leave it be.

I put a breakfast stout online yesterday evening at 7/8psi, and left it be. Gonna wait on it anyways, so no need to rush it. It hasn't moved.

Ok thanks, that makes sense. I originally was thinking over-carbed, but with the other tank doing right it had me concerned. I have all valves off and all gauges are at 0 right now, so I'll see what I have by morning.

I'm sure I'm making a bigger deal out of it than what it really is.
 
Did it actually fix the problem or did it just hide it since the pressure could no longer "get" to the gauge?

The beer was shooting out of the taps and was extremely foamy before I installed the valves, since then (3 or 4 kegs) I haven't had a problem and the gauge hasn't moved off 8 PSI.
 
If you have pressure with the regs off, chances are you've got pressure coming back from the kegs, giving you a reading of the pressure in the keg, not really what it's putting out. The regulator should hiss when you move it up to whatever pressure, and then slow and stop the flow of gas when it reaches that point.

Say you set it at 20, it'll move till it gets to 20, then stop. If the keg was over carbed to 30, and you have it on 20, then the keg has more pressure that you are allowing the bottle to put to it. It won't equalize unless you release the keg pressure to under 20, at which you should hear the reg hiss and push the gas till it reaches 20psi.

Turn the gas off for the night, turn the regulators down, and leave them hooked to the kegs and see what you have in the morning.
 
One thing I would chime in on. It doesnt look like you have any check valves. Carbing the way you do can cause the beer to foam up when taking your pressure down. Regulators will off gas excess pressure. That can cause foam to come back up the CO2 line and into your regulator. This is bad and can ruin your reg, if you have a bad regulator this might be why. Sanke taps have these built in but Corny kegs do not.

example:

http://www.micromatic.com/draft-keg-beer/gas-equipment-pid-1600CAB.html
 
One thing I would chime in on. It doesnt look like you have any check valves. Carbing the way you do can cause the beer to foam up when taking your pressure down. Regulators will off gas excess pressure. That can cause foam to come back up the CO2 line and into your regulator. This is bad and can ruin your reg, if you have a bad regulator this might be why. Sanke taps have these built in but Corny kegs do not.

example:

http://www.micromatic.com/draft-keg-beer/gas-equipment-pid-1600CAB.html

When I removed the keg lid tonight the beer was indeed foamed, but this is only the 2nd time using this system. Still a possibility of damaging the reg?

Would you recommend just setting at serving pressure with this system?
 
Yes, regulators are not made for liquid. Then you take sticky beer and put it in there you are asking for trouble.

Your regulator could be just fine. but if you are going to carb that way I would definitely recommend a check valve. If you dont want to risk it, I wouldn't (regs are expensive) Just carb at serving psi and give it a week.

Check valves are cheap10-12 bucks a piece. geta few then continue on. Chances are that your LHBS has them.
 
My CO2 tank is not connected to any kegs at the moment, gas is off at the cylinder and at the line from the regulator to the gas quick connect. I also see the pressure rising on the regulator and suspect that it is a result of the CO2 warming up to a temper higher than the CO2 was at (in the regulator) the last time I used it. Heat causes gases to expand and with nowhere to go it causes the pressure rise, which I would guess is what you are seeing.
 
Could be a bit of crud in your regulator causing it to not seal properly and thus leak a little CO2. Had a similar problem last year. Disassembled and cleaned the regulator -- all better. Most regulators for relatively low pressure use like this are quite simple and do no require special tools.
 
FYI,

Regulator issues, and over carbed beer aside. Your regulator system according to an e-mail I just got from Midwest, does indeed have check valves after the regulators. I thought they did, I have the same regulator set up as well. They are there to keep the back flow of fluid from the regulator. They just don't have the integrated on/off attached to them like the model linked above.

I'd rule out that issue, unless one is stuck open with crud.
 
It had risen to 10psi overnight with all valves off. I turn the bottle back on this morning but left the reg valve off. I'll see what it is after work tonight.
 
Well here is what happened....

As previously stated, overnight with all valves turned off the reg gauge was reading 10psi this morning. I turned the bottle on before work, but left the reg valve off, and after work it was reading 25 psi.

I'm thinking regulator but am not sure. In fact thinking back to the first beer I had in there last month when it was all new, it did the same thing. I didn't notice as it was a a high carbed hefe, but remember it rising daily. Think I'm going to call the vendor and see if they can do anything about it.

Look like regulator to anyone else?
 
I remember a while ago there was a bunch of regs from a supplier that all had the same issue of slow creep. The problem was put down to crud in the poppet valve which stopped it from completly closing. They had a generic email rsponse for anyone that asked on the issue which detailed the cleaning procedure (and i think it was posted here too). From memory all that had the problematic regs found the cleaning worked.
I'll see if I have time later to search for it on HBT :)
 
I"d suspect it was overcarbed beer. Hard to tell since you opened the bottle and it continued to rise over the course of the day. I'd suspect that the beer was overcarbed to begin with, and you are dropping it to serving pressure.

Does the beer foam when you serve it?


Raising it up to 25, makes sense if you carbed it at 30 and it became over carbed.

Turn the gas off for a whole day and bleed the keg till it reads 0, or close to it on the reg. Leave it be for the whole day till you come home from work. See what it says then, and write it down. Whatever it is, bleed it, and do it again for another day... That will let you know for sure without having to do a whole lot of work.
 
I"d suspect it was overcarbed beer. Hard to tell since you opened the bottle and it continued to rise over the course of the day. I'd suspect that the beer was overcarbed to begin with, and you are dropping it to serving pressure.

Does the beer foam when you serve it?


Raising it up to 25, makes sense if you carbed it at 30 and it became over carbed.

Turn the gas off for a whole day and bleed the keg till it reads 0, or close to it on the reg. Leave it be for the whole day till you come home from work. See what it says then, and write it down. Whatever it is, bleed it, and do it again for another day... That will let you know for sure without having to do a whole lot of work.

I'll give it a try, just curious why the other reg isn't doing this. I carbed both kegs the same, and it's holding the lower pressure perfectly.
 
can you swap out the CO2 lines on the kegs? If it still creeps it probably the regulator. If it doesn't and the other gauge does it is overcarbed.

That will be my next step, thought about doing that earlier.
 
I had the same issue. Sorry if someone already adequately responded. There is a blockage in the reg on the side where the pressure is creeping. pull off the hose, crank the pressure up, give a few puffs of air, and then reconnect.
 
I didn't see check valves on your regulators. It could be that the IPA is still fermenting.
 
Blowing out the reg has appeared to fix it. It held steady at 10 psi all night. Thanks everyone for your help!
 
Home from work and it's still holding steady! Thanks again for all the help, this place is invaluable.
 
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