Carbonation - first attempt at kegging

Greetings, I am new to this homebrewing stuff, but love it so far and the wife is extra supporting which makes it all the better... but, she is critical...
My first attempt at kegging has not went as well as I had hoped for.
The beer just lacks carbonation. When it's pored into a glass or pitcher, there appears to be plenty of head on top, but it's evident that it's not in the beer. It tastes flat...
The CO2 is a brand new cylinder
I read various threads on the process to carbonate in the keg. I put the beer in the keg, set the pressure to 10 lbs and left it sit in the frige for 6 days before tapping. Once tapped, I did not even see evidence of froth or head (kinda like marriage...) so I cranked up the CO2 to 20 lbs, shook the living daylights out of it and then cranked the C0 back down to 8 lbs. The head is evident, but the beer just does not seem to be absorbing it...

Any suggestions?

Patience. At 10psi it's going to take 2-3 weeks. Also, depending on the temp you have your fridge set to, 10psi may not be enough. You do have it in a fridge and not room temp right?

Bobby_M said:

Patience. At 10psi it's going to take 2-3 weeks. Also, depending on the temp you have your fridge set to, 10psi may not be enough. You do have it in a fridge and not room temp right?

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Thanks, yes, it's in the frige and keeping cold, not sure of the acutal temp...
Patience is one of the morals I need to work on...

Also, are you dispensing at 8psi? How long is your beer tap line? You'll need several feet at 8psi to hit the right pressure requirements at the tap. If you're dispensing 8psi or higher out of a picnic tap that's on a 3 foot leader, you're going to get a mug full of foam, some beer, and no carbonation.

TheFlatline said:

Also, are you dispensing at 8psi? How long is your beer tap line? You'll need several feet at 8psi to hit the right pressure requirements at the tap. If you're dispensing 8psi or higher out of a picnic tap that's on a 3 foot leader, you're going to get a mug full of foam, some beer, and no carbonation.

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Your not the first to mention that... at what PSI do you think I need to back it down to? I have been told as low as 2 psi. The lenght of Foam free tube is 5'. In the northern brewer supply ad it describes 10 psi dispensing pressure. But something is not quite right...

At 2 psi you are going to go flat.

You need to know the volumes of co2 for the style of beer and the temperature of the beer. Get the beer temperature by measuring with a calibrated thermometer the second pour into a room temperature glass. (draw one beer, chug it draw another in the same glass).

Try this link: http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/carbonation.html