Flat Beer First time kegger

Ok sop 18 days ago i kegged my agave wheat with 3/4 of the priming sugar.. i hit the corny with a quick 30psi shot to seal it up and let her marinate. today io hooked it all up to the co2 and tap and took a first pour.. very flat.. almost no carbonation. i pretty sure the co2 didnt leak out. how to fix..? if i leave the keg hooked up and crank the psi up to maybe 15 or so and let it sit for a week wiill it force carb or does it have to be disconnected from the tap and lines?

First, you don't need to add priming sugar to a keg. All that does is make for a heavier layer of yeast on the bottom. To fix your current problem, turn up the gas to 30 psi and leave for a day. Check the level of carb. If that's not enough, go another day, then check. Keep doing this until it is where you want. Shouldn't take more than a mac of three days. There are many threads on here about how to properly carbonate a keg. Do a search...

franklinswheat said:

Ok sop 18 days ago i kegged my agave wheat with 3/4 of the priming sugar.. i hit the corny with a quick 30psi shot to seal it up and let her marinate. today io hooked it all up to the co2 and tap and took a first pour.. very flat.. almost no carbonation. i pretty sure the co2 didnt leak out. how to fix..? if i leave the keg hooked up and crank the psi up to maybe 15 or so and let it sit for a week wiill it force carb or does it have to be disconnected from the tap and lines?

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Well, 18 days isn't very long for it to carb up. I've never tried it before three weeks at 70 degrees, and it's carbed up then, so maybe a few more days would help. Are you 100% sure you don't have any leaking around the posts or lid?

Did you chill it before you hooked up the co2? If you did, you could keep it at 12 psi or so and it'll be carbed up in a week to ten days at 40 degrees.

ok thanks.. so to specify.. can i leave it hooked right up to the tap.. also i have read on here in several threads that you can carb with the priming sugar as opposed to force carbing.. is this not true?

i actually didn't let it chill before first pour.. would that matter?

JonK331 said:

First, you don't need to add priming sugar to a keg. All that does is make for a heavier layer of yeast on the bottom. To fix your current problem, turn up the gas to 30 psi and leave for a day. Check the level of carb. If that's not enough, go another day, then check. Keep doing this until it is where you want. Shouldn't take more than a mac of three days. There are many threads on here about how to properly carbonate a keg. Do a search...

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I don't understand this- of course you could prime a keg. No reason not to. It allows you to have the keg carb up at room temperature as well as aging a bit before going into the kegerator. MANY people do that with great results.

I'm not a fan of "supercarbing" or burst carbing beer. If you turn the gas up to 30 psi, you could have some foaming or overcarbing issues. Make sure you don't leave it up that high for more than 2 days if you choose to go that route.

My preferred method is to stick the beer in the kegerator and the same pressure as all my other kegs, generally 12 psi, and allow it to sit and carb up over a week or two, but I have primed kegs with good results, too.

franklinswheat said:

i actually didn't let it chill before first pour.. would that matter?

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Maybe. A warm pour may be foamy and that will knock out the co2 that would normally be dissolved in the beer. Does the beer seem flat completely, with no foam, or is it foamy?

yeah it was pretty foamy.. so it would it theory carb up just hanging out in the fridge at 12psi connected to the tap and everything?

franklinswheat said:

yeah it was pretty foamy.. so it would it theory carb up just hanging out in the fridge at 12psi connected to the tap and everything?

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Yes, as long as you had no leaks.

The only way I have ever force carbed is by turning it up to 30-35 psi and shaking it back and forth about 100 times, or even just putting it on the ground and rolling it iwth your foot. I did this the other day with my Oktoberfest then let sit at 30 for an hour or so, then turned it down to 15........was drinkable that night. If you have a keg and CO2, not sure why you would waste time trying to prime and naturally carb, but thats just me.

I know its hard to do but with kegs and bottles alike, you will have a lot better beer by chilling it for at least a week before drinking it. The time allows the carbonation to saturate/dissolve into the beer. Carbonation can make or break a beer. Your IPA won't be as floral in the smell without it, your Stout won't have the right mouthfeel, etc... Just be patient.

lostboysbrew said:

If you have a keg and CO2, not sure why you would waste time trying to prime and naturally carb, but thats just me.

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well, one reason is that your kegerator is full and you have a great pipeline going with beers that are almost ready to drink but no room on gas. I prime w/ sugar often as I only have room for two on gas.

boostsr20 said:

I know its hard to do but with kegs and bottles alike, you will have a lot better beer by chilling it for at least a week before drinking it. The time allows the carbonation to saturate/dissolve into the beer. Carbonation can make or break a beer. Your IPA won't be as floral in the smell without it, your Stout won't have the right mouthfeel, etc... Just be patient.

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Right. Sure, you can shake a keg and get it carbed up. But I prefer my beer completely clear and sediment free, perfectly carbed and without chill haze. A boost-carbed beer can often have a carbonic acid bite to it.

It takes about 7 days to get a carbed up keg with the "set it and forget it" method. No foaming, sediment, cloudy beer, overcarbing, carbonic acid bite, etc. Plus then I can dry hop in the keg at the same time. It's really an ideal way to do it.

Yooper_Brew said:

Right. Sure, you can shake a keg and get it carbed up. But I prefer my beer completely clear and sediment free, perfectly carbed and without chill haze. A boost-carbed beer can often have a carbonic acid bite to it.

It takes about 7 days to get a carbed up keg with the "set it and forget it" method. No foaming, sediment, cloudy beer, overcarbing, carbonic acid bite, etc. Plus then I can dry hop in the keg at the same time. It's really an ideal way to do it.

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Yeah i used to shake to to get the beer ready fast but I really don't think it's a good idea. In addition to shaking up all the sediment, you also run the risk of getting beer in your gas lines. I had this happen and it eventually lead to contamination in one of my kegs.

Yooper_Brew said:

Right. Sure, you can shake a keg and get it carbed up. But I prefer my beer completely clear and sediment free, perfectly carbed and without chill haze. A boost-carbed beer can often have a carbonic acid bite to it.

It takes about 7 days to get a carbed up keg with the "set it and forget it" method. No foaming, sediment, cloudy beer, overcarbing, carbonic acid bite, etc. Plus then I can dry hop in the keg at the same time. It's really an ideal way to do it.

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+1 to avoiding carbonic acid bite. Before I built my keezer, I used to use the shake method. I could never hit carb level just right. Low temperature carbing at a steady psi is the way to go.

Yooper_Brew said:

Right. Sure, you can shake a keg and get it carbed up. But I prefer my beer completely clear and sediment free, perfectly carbed and without chill haze. A boost-carbed beer can often have a carbonic acid bite to it.

It takes about 7 days to get a carbed up keg with the "set it and forget it" method. No foaming, sediment, cloudy beer, overcarbing, carbonic acid bite, etc. Plus then I can dry hop in the keg at the same time. It's really an ideal way to do it.

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I haven't done dry hopping in a keg yet. Do you just throw them in whole or do you contain them in a mesh bag?

I've not had positive experiences dry hopping in the keg. Well, actually, I only tried it once and it didn't work out for me. I have not reworked my process yet to try again.

I put them in a mesh bag (pellet hops). My pellets promptly soaked up a bunch of beer and the whole thing sunk to the bottom, It rested against my dip tube and until I realized what was happening, every draw was harshly bitter. I had to fish out the bag with a sanitized spoon after about a week.

I've heard of other people putting them in a bag and using some fishing line or something similar to tie it low enough on the dip tube that it stays in the beer, but high enough to keep it away from the opening. Some vendors (morebeer.com I think) sell a keg lid that has a hook on the inside that you can attach your line to.

Others use sanitize diffusers (like you would use for loose tea leaves). I assume they use similar methods to keep them away from the dip tube opening.

I would think you'd avoid tossing loose hops into the keg. As they become saturated, I think you run the same risk of having them sucked into the dip tube

phatuna said:

well, one reason is that your kegerator is full and you have a great pipeline going with beers that are almost ready to drink but no room on gas. I prime w/ sugar often as I only have room for two on gas.

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well of course, that is a completely understandable and legitimate reason. I cannot blame you for that one

boostsr20 said:

I haven't done dry hopping in a keg yet. Do you just throw them in whole or do you contain them in a mesh bag?

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Oh, they HAVE to go in a bag or they'll clog your diptube in record time! I've used a hops bag for pellet hops, and a "tea ball" type stainless ball for leaf hops and it works great! I don't fish them out, just let them sit in the keg. They seem to float, because I've never had any problem with the bag clogging up my diptube. Kegs don't last too long at my house (Bob drinks it all ) so I've never dryhopped longer than about 3-4 weeks in a keg.

Yooper is one of the most knowledgeable and helpful posters on this site, and has given you the best advice around. Unless you have no space in your kegerator, it is much easier to throw it on 12 psi and forget about for a week. Sure fire way to get great carbonation every time without over-complicating things. In this case, simpler is better.

Yooper_Brew said:

Kegs don't last too long at my house (Bob drinks it all )

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Does Bob help brew? My wife is going to have to start helping with the heavy lifting if she doesn't back away from the keezer

Back to the OP's post, I only advocate priming the keg if you have pipeline issues like the poster above. Gas is cheap and easy to use. With proper temperature control, custom carbonating (i.e., set co2 saturation level) is much easier to achieve. And to Yooper's point, your beer can be cleared, sometimes to a fault. I have an American hefe that's been on tap for about 2-3 weeks that is almost crystal clear now. Artificially carbed beers made with more flocculant yeasts will be almost as clear as a commercial filtered beer after a couple of weeks in a keg at serving temp.