Hi guys, new subscriber to the site but I've been coming here for advice since I started homebrewing 4 batches ago. I didn't see anything on here that gave me a good answer to my question, but I honestly didn't look too hard, so if this has been asked before, my bad. So, without further adieu, I present to you the question:
I made my first attempt at kegging with my last batch, and IPA. I do not have the system yet to force carbonate, so I naturally carbonated with....1/4 cup of table suger, I think. I have it written down at home, but I am not there ATM. I left it carbonating for 15 days and drew a couple pints last night. There was clearly a lot of CO2 in the keg, evidenced by the foamy mess I got in my glass. I would fill a glass with about 1/5 beer, 4/5 foam. When I let the foam settle in the glass, the leftover beer was essentially flat. This begs the question:
Is my beer undercarbonated or overcarbonated? At first I thought I just needed to let the keg sit longer to allow the CO2 to absorb, but I am not so sure that is the issue after doing a bit of reading. Is it possible that my beer is carbed just fine, but when I spit it out in a foamy mass it loses its CO2? If I drop the CO2 level to a more serving friendly pressure, is it possible that will also resolve the issue of having flat beer?
I made my first attempt at kegging with my last batch, and IPA. I do not have the system yet to force carbonate, so I naturally carbonated with....1/4 cup of table suger, I think. I have it written down at home, but I am not there ATM. I left it carbonating for 15 days and drew a couple pints last night. There was clearly a lot of CO2 in the keg, evidenced by the foamy mess I got in my glass. I would fill a glass with about 1/5 beer, 4/5 foam. When I let the foam settle in the glass, the leftover beer was essentially flat. This begs the question:
Is my beer undercarbonated or overcarbonated? At first I thought I just needed to let the keg sit longer to allow the CO2 to absorb, but I am not so sure that is the issue after doing a bit of reading. Is it possible that my beer is carbed just fine, but when I spit it out in a foamy mass it loses its CO2? If I drop the CO2 level to a more serving friendly pressure, is it possible that will also resolve the issue of having flat beer?