Overcarbed Keg? Here's an INSTANT SOLUTION!

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goaticus said:
This seems overkill. I just release all the pressure from the keg, then over the course of a half hour/hour, I poor beers off of the pressure from the carbonation itself every 5-10 minutes. I get a buzz and my beer comes back to correct carb level. But, then again I am not one to obsess over how many volumes of gas are dissolved for this or that style. I just carb it til it tastes/feels right.
Click to expand...

So to recap - goaticus doesn't like the instant solution, and prefers the slowly release his CO2.
 
doublehaul said:
So to recap - goaticus doesn't like the instant solution, and prefers the slowly release his CO2.
Click to expand...

:mug: LMAO!! I like a lot of 'Instant' things. And this does look cool, but it doesn't appear 'instant' at all. In fact, it looks like once you've realized that you needed it, and rounded up, and hooked up what was needed, it is going to be comparable time wise, but a lot more work. I have and instant solution as well requiring no special equipment. If I need to drink my beer right NOW and can't afford a whole half hour (in which you are drinking beer anyways as I described), release the pressure, open the corny, stir gently with sterilized object for 30 seconds-ish, seal it back up, hook up the serving pressure back up, purge, and serve. Done. :rockin:

Not to mention;
-Waste of gas
-More equipment hanging around
-If your keg is really full, you'll lose beer out the IN (I hate wasting great beer I could have drank)
-To quote the OP "OK, now vent the CO2, but do it slowly and gradually." "Repeat steps 4 & 5 3-4 times." "Perfect pour 30 minutes later."

hmmm, did he say 30 minutes...? Doesn't sound instant or faster than purge-n-pour.

I wan't trying to poopoo the OP's idea, just stating that it might be over-kill and thought that we could have and objective conversation about it.

To the OP; Great write-up, very innovative solution! Thank you. I appreciate anyone's effort to share an idea, and hope you don't mind me discussing other alternatives on the topic at hand.
 
goaticus said:
:mug: LMAO!! I like a lot of 'Instant' things. And this does look cool, but it doesn't appear 'instant' at all. In fact, it looks like once you've realized that you needed it, and rounded up, and hooked up what was needed, it is going to be comparable time wise, but a lot more work. I have and instant solution as well requiring no special equipment. If I need to drink my beer right NOW and can't afford a whole half hour (in which you are drinking beer anyways as I described), release the pressure, open the corny, stir gently with sterilized object for 30 seconds-ish, seal it back up, hook up the serving pressure back up, purge, and serve. Done. :rockin:

Not to mention;
-Waste of gas
-More equipment hanging around
-If your keg is really full, you'll lose beer out the IN (I hate wasting great beer I could have drank)
-To quote the OP "OK, now vent the CO2, but do it slowly and gradually." "Repeat steps 4 & 5 3-4 times." "Perfect pour 30 minutes later."

hmmm, did he say 30 minutes...? Doesn't sound instant or faster than purge-n-pour.

I wan't trying to poopoo the OP's idea, just stating that it might be over-kill and thought that we could have and objective conversation about it.

To the OP; Great write-up, very innovative solution! Thank you. I appreciate anyone's effort to share an idea, and hope you don't mind me discussing other alternatives on the topic at hand.
Click to expand...

Just jerking your chain! Thought it was funny. I just depressurize, flip mine over, open the tap for 60 into a pint or pitcher, flip back over and wait about 10 or 15 minutes. No extra equipment. If you can't wait 15 minutes for a beer you sir have a drinking problem. Hahaha
 
Used this process last night and I am blown away how fast it works. About a month ago, I carbed two kegs of a German hefe. Im not sure why, but one keg (the one I tapped first) was overcarbed. The other keg was perfect, so I decided to use that one first, take the gas off the over carbed one, and over the course of time purge the headspace and see if it helped. Well it didnt. So today I switched my fittings, did this process 3 times, and boom, no more 3/4 glass of foam. Hats off the OP!
 
dude i was skeptical as F ive been screwing with my IPA for a week to get the carb down... one flip and a bit of wasted co2 later 1st good pour ive had since i kegged it
 
I ran out of CO2 the other day after I kegged 2 cornies. I had a cylinder of Nitrogen/CO2 mix lying around so I went ahead and hooked that up thinking that it might give me a bit of creamyness at 10 psi. This did not happen and I have a keg of uncarbonated beer with nitrogen in it. To solve this I filled up my CO2 cylinder and then pumped co2 into the keg. This didn't solve the problem. I think I need to try to get the nitrogen/Co2 mixture out and then recarbonate. Do you think the process described in this thread will work for what I need to accomplish?
 
Compared to CO2, Nitrogen barely dissolves in beer.
Besides, per the gas laws Nitrogen isn't going to affect the actual carbonation level in beer.

Most likely, your problem is time...

Cheers!
 
This is exactly why I think HBT is the best resource ever for home brewers...yes I overcarbed my latest brew....struggled with it for a few days, and then realized all I had to do was ask HBT what to do about it. Voila!! this thread appears, and in 30 minutes I'm enjoying a perfectly carbed brew

Thanks OP, thanks HBT
 
I don't even think that's possible. Fermentation alone will leave a good Volume or more of carbonation behind, so I imagine the absolutely insane worst case would bring you back to the end of fermentation...

Cheers!
 
Did this today because i was heading to a party and my "quick carb" with shaking the keg etc had way overcarbed my keg. Took 2 passes of about 60 seconds but it sure worked a treat. Thanks!
 
So My kegs have hard cider in them, they are both overcarbed. This was my first batch of anything, including kegging.
I didn't have refrigeration to start off with and was carbing per the chart at room temperature, close to 25-30psi (forget)
I got a mini fridge and put them down to 12 psi in there for a few days to let things settle
They came out almost all foam and flat tasting, from what I read that was a sign of overcarbination
I read about and tried this method, did a good 6-10 purges on both kegs, then let it sit overnight
Its still really foamy coming out of a picnic tap and the taste is still "off" a bit, but not as bad as it was
Should I do this procedure again? Under the assumption I didn't do it enough the first time?
Or is there something else I should be aware of?
Thanks-
 
Alberti said:
Iv'e had overcarbed kegged brews meant for a wedding of a friend and I was really worried, this technique worked fantastically! Thanks!

Collin did you also consider your beverage tubing length (resistance) and the serving pressure at which you attempted to pour?

Hope this might be useful:
http://www.mikesoltys.com/2012/09/17/determining-proper-hose-length-for-your-kegerator/
Click to expand...

Thank you, that is a great link
I've tried a few things but haven't gotten a longer hose yet
I tried adding on a hose to my existing one to make it 10 ft but I think the coupling between the hoses causes too many issues, going to go pick up a longer hose tomorrow and try it

Is there anything bad about too long a hose?
 
If your hose is too long too much resistance from the hose will likely reduce the flow rate. You can use the link above to input your data and see what length of beverage line will make for a good pour with the amount of carbonation you apply to your kegged beer, the temperature it's at, and the serving pressure you apply.

Iv'e got some leaky kegs so sometimes i'm forced to over-pressurize them to get them to seal, but normally I let a beer carbonate at 10 psi and around 39F for a week (there are faster, a little more involved ways of carbonating), and serve at the same pressure or slightly lower. My lines are 6 feet with an inner diameter of 3\16".

Hope this helps.
 
I don't chime in very often any more....But when I do its going to be epic advice...

Over carbed your keg you say???

Solution:
Wack that Mother****er (the keg) with a rubber mallet hard...Wait 10seconds and bleed the pressure off. Now you have a perfectly carbonated beer.

Cheers!!!
 
Just commenting to say the method in this thread worked like a charm. A lot of foam out of the pressure release, but perfect pours after.
 
Glad I found this thread!

Just took a overcarbed keg, flipped it over with the beer line on, opened the tap (with a pitcher beneath it), left it open until there was no action. Shook it and repeated 2 times.

Once I reattached to the gas line, I got a bit more foam followed by a perfect pour!
 
I cannot wait to get home and try this with my very first keg. I regret to say I've wasted a lot of my precious Dead Guy clone trying to get the foam to stop, after reading this I know it's overcarbed. I went by what my LHBS told me to force carb, lots of shaking and pressure as high as my gauge will go (25psi) for 3 days. Can't wait to get home and have some of my best! Thanks OP!!!
 
And it worked! Fast too! Currently enjoying my now perfectly carbed Dead Guy clone. Now I just need to kill this keg so I can keg my new IIPA.
 
Does hooking gas up to OUT, or just flipping keg risk getting beer into the gas lines? I do have one-way valve by regulator so I'm not concerned about wrecking that, just getting beer to sit and rot in my gas lines after this. Once I was pressurizing a water can fire extinguisher that was filled with water too high and I got water in my air lines. Thoughts?
 
Mad_Milo said:
With no head pressure in the keg, you are essentially agitating the beer with co2 (important as you won't oxidize the beer) and the beer vents the co2 to the head space as it degasses. By venting the excess pressure each time, the head space returns to atmospheric pressure.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't it be just easier to agitate the keg, vent it and repeat until the carbonation gets under control?
 
First time kegging and I overcarbed, didn't know what to do, but this fix it really easily!! Great tip!
 
What if you don't switch out the posts on he keg? What if you put your white gas "IN" disconnect on the "OUT" side and same with the beer (black) disconnect fitting on the "OUT" side?
 
Nebraskan said:
What if you don't switch out the posts on he keg? What if you put your white gas "IN" disconnect on the "OUT" side and same with the beer (black) disconnect fitting on the "OUT" side?
Click to expand...

You run the risk of getting your disconnects stuck on the posts if you swap them like this - they are very slightly different sizes. Spend a couple bucks on MFL fittings and your life will be much easier!

I just tried the instructions from the OP... I have MFL fittings on all of my disconnects (gas and beer) so it was easy for me to unscrew them and then screw the gas line onto the beer disconnect, and screw the beer line onto the gas disconnect. After a few blasts of CO2 through the beer disconnect and venting with the release valve I started getting foam through the valve. That's when I realized I could open the tap to vent and drain foam. Of course, getting foam through the gas post and disconnect means I have to take them apart and clean them good now (didn't think of this when I started!)Next time I'll probably just take the gas disconnect off entirely instead of connecting the beer line to it.

I'm currently letting things settle for a little while and will report back with results!

EDIT: seems to have worked for my two beers that got over carbed. One of my beers was still pouring a bit foamy so I had to go back and repeat the process another 3 times or so. Less foam during the venting and now its pouring good.
 
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I tried both the shake and vent method and this upside down CO2 bubbling method. The CO2 bubbling method works faster as some poster mentioned - you are creating nucleation sites.

I remember some years ago I was transferring beer from one half-keg to another half keg, and I did this by connecting the two "outs" together with a valve in between and pressurizing one keg with CO2. I had the lid off the receiving keg to watch the level, and everything was perfect and calm until the first keg ran dry unexpectedly and bubbles of CO2 entered the bottom of the second keg. I had a mentos bomb of beer - I estimate it shot out about 3 feet above the keg and there was no stopping it. Once it was all said and done, I had 1/6 of a keg left. It was much more dramatic than simply shaking the keg.
 
passedpawn said:
[moved to bottling/kegging, and stickied]
Click to expand...

Thanks, me (I stickied this thread 6 years ago, and knew that some day I'd need it). Ready to use it for the first time. Somehow, due to carbonating at different temperatures, I've got a pilsner that is very overcarbed and shooting nothing but foam. Gonna give it a try in a few minutes...
 
I just bottled 15x 750ml from a 19L corny, as I have before (using Biermunchers counter pressure method), was planning on just drinking the rest from the keg. I just bought a .5um carb stone, and carbed up (about an hour!) @ 12psi. Was a perfect head for 'Gladfields ESB'.
But... as I bottled at a lower psi, and didnt change the connection off the carb stone to gas port, same result. The head pressure in the keg dropped (as the carb stone limits CO2 flow), I de-carbonated my beer to 3/4 flat. Same principle, a tonne of tiny bubbles at low pressure. So, if you're using a carbonation stone, it's easier just to purge pressure and blow CO2 through the stone. It's a very quick dissolved CO2 reduction without up-ending your keg!
 
I use a liquid (black) ball lock and attach my 30 psi co2 to the liquid post when I force carb. That way the co2 comes in at the bottom and bubbles up through the beer. If it gets overcarbed I do the same... Just slowly pull the relief valve and pour beers without it being hooked up to gas.
 
This just ended weeks of frustration. I had 8' semi rigid lines, 5 taps, in my kegerator. I kept getting an inch of beer and 5" of foam. I swapped out all the lines to 3/16 beer line, now 10', and no improvement. Fridge holds 1-2C, so temp wasn't issue.
I think at some point I had overcarbed, 4 of the 5 kegs are on a manifold and share the same regulator set at 12psi pressure. 5th is for sparkling water at 25psi, on another regulator. Maybe at some point I set the regulators wrong and had overcarbed. I had tried simply shutting off the co2, and opening the blow off valves a few times, but that didn't help much (I realize now it would take a really long time to do it that way).
This immediately solved them, thanks!
 
Worked like a dream. I have a fridge for carbonating and I think the regulator for it is FUBAR. IPA that I moved to serving fridge is super-overcarbed. Put off the "medicine" for a week or two, but finally got around to applying the remedy described in this thread and it was immediately successful.

Woot!
 
I used this procedure once myself years ago and it was as effective as advertised.
Just have to be prepared for the potential volcanic reaction, particularly when applied to a full keg.
Guessing as much I ran a vent line from the gas post to a bucket :)

Cheers!
 

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