Highest CO2 pressure?

[Nate]

What's the highest CO2 pressure at which you've run your home brew? We're running our Imperial Hefe at around 22 psig and it's pretty happy. I've never run a beer this high but being that it's a relatively high alcohol, big body Hefe, this pressure really works for this Frankenstein style.

Any beers that you've run your pressure high?

 

[afro_lou]

Did you force carb to that psi? That sounds incredibly fizzy... But hey! if it works, go for it!
Can't say I've run anything that high. I think I had an IPA at 15psi once, but that was operator error.

 

[Nate]

Did you force carb to that psi? That sounds incredibly fizzy... But hey! if it works, go for it!
Can't say I've run anything that high. I think I had an IPA at 15psi once, but that was operator error.

Yeah, force carb'd. It's really not fizzy and the carbonation level feels nice... about an inch of head on the pour. Body and mouth feel of a tripel with the flavor of a Hefe. This is a Franken-beer but has become one of our favorites.

 

[afro_lou]

Sounds pretty awesome!
I'm just super curious, you force carb'd at 22psi at what temp? And for how long?

 

[Nate]

Sounds pretty awesome!
I'm just super curious, you force carb'd at 22psi at what temp? And for how long?

Initially pressurized to around 30 psig and roll the keg around for a few minutes then let it sit at 25 psig for 2 to 3 days... gradually lower the pressure as it comes in. Keg temp is around 38 F.

 

[afro_lou]

Initially pressurized to around 30 psig and roll the keg around for a few minutes then let it sit at 25 psig for 2 to 3 days... gradually lower the pressure as it comes in. Keg temp is around 38 F.

Cool, cool. Makes sense. I could easily be wrong, but leaving it at 22psi may end up eventually overcarbing it...
How long has it been at serving pressure?

Or hey! Wth, I'll bet if you drink it in the next couple days, it'll be spot on!

 

[day_trippr]

our favorite carbonation table indicates the combination of 38°F beer and 22 psi CO2 pressure will eventually reach equilibrium at ~3.5 volumes - which seems pretty much in the wheel house for a nicely effervescent hefe.

As that's a full volume higher than "typical" ales - and at that dispensing temperature, a full 10 psi higher CO2 pressure to maintain the carbonation level - one would definitely want to tune the beer line length for such a boisterous beer. 22 feet of conventional 3/16" ID pvc beer line would keep most of the carbonation in the beer...

Cheers!

 

[Nate]

This is our third or fourth 10 gallon batch of this and it always seems to like about 22 psig... even after several weeks. I may experimentally bump up the pressure even more on this last keg and use the flow control faucet to control the pour. It's nicely carbonated right now but certainly not over carb'd. I'm curious to see at what point I'd call it over carb'd.

I'm definitely a heavier beer fan (stouts and porters) and this beer has me wondering what a highly carb'd stout or porter would do. I realize this current beer is just a heavy Hefe so carbonation goes well with it but has anyone tried to highly carb a stout or porter? You'd have to use flow control, long line, etc to control the pour but, again, curious. My initial thought is that it would not do well but that may just be expectation bias from drinking several truckloads of low carb'd stouts and porters in my lifetime.