Carbonation for Ordinary Bitter

[rpatton]

Hi, I keg and carbonate with CO2, set it to serving pressure for a week etc. I brewed my first ordinary bitter, and when looking up what pressure to use on the CO2, to my surprise the answer was 0. According to both charts and the tastybrew.com calculator. So.. ok, basically at about 1 volume it really isn't carbonated at all, but now how do I actually serve it without carbonating it??? I guess it makes more sense that it is often pumped in pubs, but I don't have that option. Just looking for advice from those who make this style and keg it.

Should I just go with a low pressure to serve, like 3 psi and deal with the 1.3 volumes? (50F temp).

Thanks!
Rob

 

[david_42]

I use 2 psi for my "cask" ales and still ciders. It's enough to push it, although the pour is slow.

 

[ajf]

I don't carbonate my bitters either. I give the keg a blast of CO2 to seat the lid, then bleed off the pressure, and wait till it's ready to drink.
To dispense, I use a pressure of 2 - 3 PSI, add a few seconds of gas, and then turn the gas off. I then dispense beer (which is slow as David said). If I run out of pressure, I just give it another few seconds of gas. I never bother to bleed off the extra gas after dispensing as it makes no difference that I can detect.

-a.

 

[speter]

I set mine between 2 and 3 psi, and when I served it to our English friend a few weeks back, he said it was a perfect level of carbonation. (He's from Durham, FWIW. I understand there are different preferences between the north and south.)

 

[rjwhite41]

2-3 here as well.