Poor Carbonation

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Boba Fett

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Hi Everyone,

I've had my first brew in a keg for almost a month now, and although the taste is improving the beer is not clearing and it has no head. I've checked the keg for leaks around the lid, and there doesn't seem to be any. What can I do?

Cheers guys your help is appretiated.
 
It would help to see your recipe, or at least tell us what yeast you used, etc, etc. Getting your beer clear depends on many things: what type of beer you made, how fast did you get it cooled from your boil to pitching the yeast. Did you use any clarifiers like Irish Moss, etc?
As far as the carbination goes, I bottle and don't keg. But if I had primed the beer and a week went buy with no carbination at all, not even a little, I'd get concerned.
So tell us exactly how you made your beer, and you'll get some better answers.
 
I used a real ale kit which did not need any sugar except for priming your barrel. I used a cupful of ordinairy sugar for 5 gallons of beer. My keg has a pressure release valve and a bottom tap. Sorry I cannot give anymore details than this as I used a kit. Hope you can still give me some ideas where I have gone wrong.
 
Sounds like you used a pressure barrel, either a budget barrel or a king keg bottom tap. Note that with pressure barrels you are going to get a very low level of carbonation, as is normal with real ale.

A cupful of sugar is more than enough to prime a 5 gallon batch, in fact I would use half that.

Is the beer just coming out very slowly of the tap or is it gushing out pretty fast?

If it's coming out slowly either there is a leak coming from the top (make sure the lid is screwed on as tight as you can get it, and use vaseline on the rubber sealing ring to get a tighter seal). I would imagine all your priming sugar has been used up so you may need to re-prime. It is also possible that your keg was just too cold to prime, it should be kept at 20C or more for at least a couple of weeks.

If it's rushing out fast and you want to clarify it, try putting the keg in a cooler area to help drop the yeast out of suspension.
 
Thanks for the advice. If I reprime will that make the beer taste sweeter? How much sugar should I use to reprime?
 
2oz's of plain sugar is fine. It won't get sweeter at all - the yeast will ferment the sugar and turn it into alcohol & CO2 to push your beer out. Keep it in a warm place and try it after a week.
 
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