I forgot to purge the air before I force carbonated

[North_of_60]

I made a Chocolate Porter and everything was going too good. I hit my OG and FG within a point or two. There was more trub than I expected so I only got about 4.5 gallons in the keg, but only .25 gallons short of target. I didn’t cold crash so the wort was at 70 degrees. I hooked up the Co2 and set it at 30 psi and shook it, brought it up to 30 psi and repeated this about 6 times before I put it in the kegerator. The following day I realized that I had forgotten to purge the air before I started to force carbonate. I let most of the pressure off and then set the regulator to 12 psi.

Before I force carbed the keg, I force carbed a plastic bottle and put it in the fridge for about 6 hours to cool. It tasted real good in spite of the fact that it had only been aged for 2 weeks in the primary and 6 hours in the fridge. I thought, it can only get better now.

Did I ruin ruin a good beer?

 

[Frogger42]

Learning lesson! Was it transferred close loop or siphoned into the keg? Either way if you need some help with disposal let me know.

 

[Boomer]

You’re good.

 

[North_of_60]

Learning lesson! Was it transferred close loop or siphoned into the keg? Either way if you need some help with disposal let me know.

I siphon from the bucket to the liquid post on the keg.

I even purge the keg when I make sparkling water for my wife. Duh!

 

[Smellyglove]

You’re good.

Why would you say he's good? He shook air into the beer? If the keg was just "purged" as in a few cycles of o2, then pulled the PRV for every time, there's still a lot of oxygen in that keg.

 

[Boomer]

Because people make way too big of a fuss about it. Tap it and drink it.

 

[SleepyCreekBrews]

Just drink it like you stole it man !
I doubt you’ll notice the difference within 2 months

 

[North_of_60]

Just drink it like you stole it man !
I doubt you’ll notice the difference within 2 months

Good point, 2 months is about right for the life expectancy of a keg. It should be fine for that long.

 

[BeerChemistWhiskey]

I've forgotten several times. My beer is still always awesome and one even won silver in a competition earlier this month.

Oh and I even cold crash with a s-type airlock which gets some suck back. Never had a ruined batch, but maybe I'd be more careful if I were making NEIPAs?

 

[Smellyglove]

Because people make way too big of a fuss about it. Tap it and drink it.

Yeah, tap it and drink it, don't keep it. If it's just about the ABV then no probs.

 

[North_of_60]

Thanks to all for the input. I guess it’s wait and see. If it turns terrible I’ll dump it, if not I’ll drink it.

I hope it’s a lesson learned and I that won’t make that mistake again. But, I’m sure there will be other opportunities for other mistakes.

 

[Boomer]

Drink it fast if you’re worried about it. I wouldn’t be, though.

 

[North_of_60]

It’s been in the kegerator at 35 degrees at 12 psi for over two weeks and it has very little carbonation. It tastes great but not carbonated.

Could this be caused by the oxygen that was in the head space?

Should I turn the pressure up a bit for a while?

 

[wilserbrewer]

Lack of carbonation has nothing to do with you not purging.

Set and forget sometimes takes a while, and sometimes your regulator gauge may be wonky as well.

I prefer to force carb at 30 psi for 36 hours to get a head start, then turn to serving pressure. Sometimes if rushed, may do another 24 hours at 20 psi.

You do have the gas valve on?

I have found shaking a keg to force keg a hassle, the beer needs time and shaking a keg saves only a day or so vs higher pressure burst carbing for a day.

I had the exact experience as you shaking a non purged keg, thought I ruined the beer and couldn’t really tell any difference fwiw.

 

[North_of_60]

Thanks, Wilserbrewer. It sounds like more patience is required then.

 

[Packerjh]

Somewhat similar situation here... Forgot to purge but haven't shaken... Been sitting under 12psi co2 for a few days. I'm thinking I could purge now and should get rid of the plain old air that was in the headspace on the keg. Since I didn't shake it it shouldn't be in solution, correct?

I'm not overly concerned after reading the posts above but if its worth my few minutes of time I'll do it.

Sorry to hijack but I thought it was similar enough of a situation.

 

[North_of_60]

I think your right, the CO2 is heavier than air. You have a CO2 barrier between the beer and the air. Just purge it out.

 

[schematix]

I think your right, the CO2 is heavier than air. You have a CO2 barrier between the beer and the air. Just purge it out.

100% no. Doesn’t work that like. Gases of different density in a closed container mix, not stratify.

OP probably oxidized the piss out of his beer. But truth is it was probably oxidized well before this point. Won’t be bad necessarily, but it will be oxidized. FWIW force carbing alone oxidized a batch beyond the flavor threshold.

 

[doug293cz]

Lack of carbonation has nothing to do with you not purging.

...

Not true. Carbonation is based on the "partial pressure" of CO2, and the tables assume that the headspace is 100% CO2. The charts also convert the CO2 partial pressure, which is absolute pressure, into gauge pressure, so they are easy for us to use. The difference between the gauge pressure and absolute pressure is 14.7 psi at sea level. If you don't purge the headspace prior to pressurizing, then you have 14.7 psi of air pressure in the headspace. If you then pressurize to 12 psi (gauge) with CO2 the total pressure is 26.7 psi absolute, but 14.7 of that is from air, and the CO2 partial pressure is only 12 psi. To get the expected carbonation from the chart for 12 psi, the CO2 partial pressure needs to be 26.7 psi. The effective gauge pressure of the CO2 is actually -2.7 psi (find that on your chart!) Using a formula for temp and CO2 pressure (that may, or may not, be accurate at this low pressure), the carb level for -2.7 psig (12 psia) @ 35°F is only 1.22 volumes, instead of the expected 2.73 volumes.

The OP's situation is a little more complex than the no-purge, set and forget case analyzed above. I'd have to think some more about how to properly analyze the OP's case.

Brew on

 

[Boomer]

Just drink the floccing beer and don’t do it again.

 

[North_of_60]

Lack of carbonation has nothing to do with you not purging.
.

You are correct. It just needed a little more time.

 

[North_of_60]

It’s been two months since I kegged this beer. It keeps getting better tasting each week. I’m not suggesting that you don’t purge your keg befor carbonation, just saying that so far it hasn’t ruined the beer. I’ll report back in another month, if it lasts that long.

 

[North_of_60]

For what it’s worth, it’s been a little over two months since I kegged this beer and it’s still getting better each week. This keg will be empty within a week so I’ll never know how long it would take for the oxygen to ruin it.

Tomorrow I’m going to fill a 750 ml bottle and put it the refrigerator and see how it is in about 2 more months.

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

I experienced a severe oxidation event that was particularly untraumatic because it happened to a bottle of beer that was just there for me to test carbonation and see how the finished beer would taste. I drank my highly oxidized test beer and expected it to be ruined, especially because it had gone 5 SRM shades or so darker than the other bottles.

It tasted great. In fact I had a “good” one a week or so later and the oxidized beer seemed as good or better than the “good” beer. So while I will make an effort to rack to my bottling bucket gently and from the bottom as well as make every attempt to keep my syphon into the bottles from gurgling, I think all this purging with Starsan and CO2 pressure closed transfer stuff is a big waste of time and energy on a homebrew level.

 

[North_of_60]

I’m not saying that a person shouldn’t make every effort to prevent oxygenation. What I am saying is that if or when something goes wrong in your process it won’t necessarily ruin your beer.

I’ll never know how this would have tasted had I purged the keg properly before force carbonation. As it is, it’s a very nice and enjoyable Porter. I like it, my friends like it, my son likes it. My wife says it’s ok, and she doesn’t like Porters or Stouts. That's the biggest complement she has ever given to one of my Porters or Stouts, or, to one that is commercially brewed.

All my fret and fears were wasted. What’s the saying? RDWHAHB.

 

[divrack]

If it was me, I'd probably have killed myself and everybody else.

 

[Packerjh]

Didn't hurt my batch any.... In fact is already gone...lol