Carbonation Woes

I just finished kegging a nice blonde ale on Sunday. Prior to kegging, the beer was crash cooled at 38F for a week, cleared really nicely, and tastes great, but is still flat. I force carbonated at 30 psi for 24 hours, then reduced pressure to 10-12 psi while maintains temperature at 38F. Tonight, Friday, I pulled a few pints for friend, and it was good, just still a little flat. I'm using a 10 ft 3/16" vinyl hose length on my tap, and would love to know if there is anything I can do to get this ready for Sunday's Superbowl. I've upped the pressure to 14psi, but is there anything else I can do?

Thanks
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If you set the pressure to balance out at your target carbonation level and then shake the bejeebus out of your keg, it will carb up in no time flat. Anything settled on the bottom will have to settle back out again, of course, and some claim the shaking undercuts head retention.

Otherwise, you can keep playing with the burst carbing, though hitting the sweet spot there is an art.

Thanks Malfet. I'm trying to be patient, but time sis not on my side, I'm going to let her sit overnight, shake the crap out of her tomorrow and check it again. Also going to elevate tap more to see if that helps dramatically.

CoopersGoose said:

Also going to elevate tap more to see if that helps dramatically.

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Tap location has no bearing on carbonation.

Has relativity to backflow resistance in line. Noticed I had a decent amount of foam, but beer was a bit flat. Figure I need to raise height of tap to increase resistance a little to reduce flow and therefore foam generation some. Even at 10 psi, pour was a little fast. That's why I mentioned tap height.

CoopersGoose said:

Has relativity to backflow resistance in line. Noticed I had a decent amount of foam, but beer was a bit flat. Figure I need to raise height of tap to increase resistance a little to reduce flow and therefore foam generation some. Even at 10 psi, pour was a little fast. That's why I mentioned tap height.

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I see. Well, until you get the line balanced and a decent pour, you don't really know how well it's carbonated. It might be counter intuitive, but overcarbonated beer usually tastes flat because most of the CO2 is lost during the foamy pour. You might have perfectly carbonated beer, but it just tastes flat because of the line balancing issue.

I don't get a whole glass of foam, just a quick poor and 2-3 inches of head. Beer has very little beads effervescing out of it. Don't believe it's overcarbonated, but then again, I've been wrong before. 10 ft line should provide enough backpressure at 10-12 psi to get a nice pour based on what I've researched. Figure if there is a leak somewhere, I'd notice on my gage, but if it's at the dip tube would that have an impact? Going to re-lube my o-rings and give it another shot.

CoopersGoose said:

I don't get a whole glass of foam, just a quick poor and 2-3 inches of head. Beer has very little beads effervescing out of it. Don't believe it's overcarbonated, but then again, I've been wrong before. 10 ft line should provide enough backpressure at 10-12 psi to get a nice pour based on what I've researched. Figure if there is a leak somewhere, I'd notice on my gage, but if it's at the dip tube would that have an impact? Going to re-lube my o-rings and give it another shot.

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I'm not saying it's overcarbed, just saying that you can't really know what the carb level is if you're losing enough carbonation during the pour to create 2-3" of foam.

You wouldn't notice a gas leak by looking at your gauge until your CO2 tank was nearly empty. The high pressure gauge doesn't tell you how much gas is in the tank, it just tells you the pressure in the tank, which at a constant temperature will be the exact same until all of the liquid CO2 is gone, and all that's left is a little CO2 vapor.

While not common, the foam could be caused by a bad liquid side diptube o-ring. If it's cracked or not sealing properly it could be leaking a tiny bit of gas from the headspace into the beer line. So checking and lubing the o-rings is a good idea.

Poured a glass this evening and can notice more carbonation. I'm going to see if I can find another source of tubing and add another 5 ft, or drop pressure to 7-8 psi and see if that helps. Might just be too impatient, but it's been on the gas now for almost a week. I think the line balancing thing is where I'll focus my efforts tomorrow. Hopefully that will help. If I had another week, I'd just let her sit and see where it settles after 2 weeks, but I don't have the time. Thanks for your help. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Two weeks in the keg at 12 psi. Carbonation is just where I want it. Still have some line balancing to do. Have to reduce pressure to about 8 lbs to get a 10 second pour on 15 ft 3/16" line. It's close enough for now. I appreciate everyone's help. Here's a pic.

Can i ask why you didn't use the shake method? Two weeks is a loooooong time to wait for beer to carbonate by kegging. Half the point of kegging is for quicker carbonation.

I usually pump up the pressure to around 30lbs, shake vigorously for 8-10 minutes and then let it rest for a few hours as it chills in the kegerator. Then i vent the pressure a little (mostly due to double kegs and equalizing) then hook up the gas at 10-12psi and let it finish chilling.

As for serving, i only have 3ft lines and i keep my pressure around 12psi. I started right out with a 2 keg system though so maybe my pressure is due to having dual kegs, not sure. I sometimes struggle to get a head and have to do a proper pour in order to get it. My glasses are always visually well carbonated with plenty of effervescence though.

The set and forget carbonation method is one of the more popular and recommended methods. Yes, there are faster methods, but most of the time the beer benefits from the conditioning. The two main burst carb methods used are either shaking at the serving pressure, or turning the pressure up for a couple of days, but not both. It's just way too easy to overcarb when you shake it at higher pressures. The reason you haven't had that issue is likely that the 30psi is probably close to the corresponding serving pressure before the beer has chilled.

nogoer said:

[...]Half the point of kegging is for quicker carbonation.[...]

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Says who?

Whatever...Only 50% of the posts in this forum are of the "Help! I overcarbed my beer!" type, what's a few more every day?

Cheers!

Just my two cents but I've been in almost every situation from over carb to perfect and everything in between...that's with bottles and kegs.
My theory is you spend all this time brewing killer beer and to jack it up by being impatient is dumb. The tried and true method is set it at serving pressure and temp then walk away. Two weeks later pull a pint a enjoy.
Not throwing stones at anyone shoes got the forced thing down but I'm not screwing up a good batch just to drink early. Rather wait and have 5 gallons of killer on tap cold brew then a crappy batch of under/over carbed brew.
Again just my two cents.

What is the dispense temp? You should reach saturation of the co2 within a week at most at 38 F. You can find saturation curves out there.
I have never had to wait 2 weeks. I usually crash to about 40, then charge for at 30 psi for 24 h or so hours, then drop to 12-14 psi for about 4 days. The fridge is set to about 45. So it warms up a bit. That should release the co2 a bit. Just a thought. Saturation is a function of temperature.