Did I over carbonate?

[mhobs126]

My last two beers have poured foamy the whole keg through. Even multiple pours in one session doesn't change anything. The head stays for a while too. OK. Here's my carbonation procedure. After kegging, I hook up to the gas side and fill and purge with like 10 psi a few times to remove any 02. Then the last time I don't purge to seal my keg. I then disconnect and connect to the beverage side. I then turn my bottle on and here gurgling. I slowly increase my pressure each time the gurgling slows to a psi of 30. I leave the bottle on and connected for 3 or 4 days. I disconnect and either let it hang out till I get around to drinking or put directly in my kegerator. I might add that all of this is done at a temp of 35F or so and I keep my kegs stored at this temp while and after carbonating. I serve at 7Psi. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[BrewingGunner]

I would say, yes you overcarbonated. I chill my beer and then after it's cold use the carbonation chart, or app, to tell me what pressure I need to use for the proper volume of CO2 for that style. It's usually fairly carbonated in 7 days, but takes about 2 weeks to be fully carbonated. You are already waiting the 3-4 days, why not do it the correct way? I say correct because if you do it in the suggested manner, you will never have overcarbonated beer. Also the extra week will get rid of some of the green flavors as well.

 

[JuanMoore]

30 psi and 35° for 3-4 days will result in a lot more carbonation than the 2.24 vol you're set up to serve. So yes, you overcarbed your beer. Disconnect the gas, and pull the pressure relief valve every time you think of it for a day or two to reduce the carbonation.

 

[erikpete18]

I would guess that you're probably overcarbing them leaving them for a few days at 30psi. Do you have a keg on hand that is foamy to test it with? If you do, pull the keg out of the fridge and allow it to warm up, venting the pressure every now and then. After a while, that should alleviate some of the overcarbing problem. Then you can move the keg back to the fridge, let it cool, and hook it back up at 7psi and see if it foams less. For what its worth, this is why I tend to just leave it at serving pressure until its carbed. Having to deal with a couple of over-carbed kegs was enough to force me to wait for an extra week or two. If you aren't serving them right away, you could also naturally carb them with a little priming sugar (less than you would for bottles, check on amounts to be sure). That way since they're sitting at room temp for a bit as it is, let them carb up naturally and save some of your CO2 for pushing.

Its also possible that you haven't overcarbed your beers and have something wrong with your setup. How long are your lines? 7psi isn't that high, but if you were using really short lines with slight overcarbing, that could be the problem. Since its happened to a couple of kegs its probably not the kegs fault, but a loose piece of hop debris in a poppit can create enough of a disturbance to cause a bunch of foam, so doing a thorough cleaning on the kegs wouldn't be a bad idea. Just some thoughts, hope it helps!

 

[BrewingGunner]

30 psi and 35° for 3-4 days will result in a lot more carbonation than the 2.24 vol you're set up to serve. So yes, you overcarbed your beer. Disconnect the gas, and pull the pressure relief valve every time you think of it for a day or two to reduce the carbonation.

+1

The other problem is that there is no way to tell when the proper carbonation will be in your beer now either, and it will take a long time to get it right.

The Wizard at BYO outlined the proper way to carbonate a keg in this article:

http://byo.com/kegging/item/1601-what-is-the-proper-way-to-force-carbonate-a-keg-of-homebrew

The method I outlined in my previous post follows this method and explains the problem with carbonating the way that you describe. It's a good read and the results speak for themselves. Hope this helps.

 

[day_trippr]

It absolutely makes no sense to carb beer at one pressure and serve it at another.

Just sayin'...

Cheers!

 

[mhobs126]

Thank you all. The easiest thing for me to do is disconnect my current keg and let it warm pulling the valve once Ina while. I'll report back. I use to carb by taking my kegs to the kegerator and testing after 1 week. I left them hooked up at serving pressure and after a week or so it was fine.

 

[mhobs126]

Ok, I left out to warm, unhooked, for 12 hrs purging as necessary. I returned to refrigeration and still left off the gas for 36 hrs. I just hooked back up to gas and beer is pretty much flat. I guess that was the prob. I will leave in the kegerator at 5 Psi , testing daily. I guess this is what I should have done all along.

 

[Echoloc8]

For most beer styles 5 PSI is pretty low for serving pressure. 10-12 PSI is more like it. Or did I misunderstand?

-Rich

 

[Hopper5000]

ya, prolly over carbed. Try 30 20 10 (over 3 days) and then set it to the serving pressure. Or just set it according to the chart...

 

[mhobs126]

I know. I used to use the chart and all went well. I was just getting impatient ,