Post stuck natural carbonation problem

[austin_hubbell]

This is my first batch in my new kegging system. The beer is an extract based stout just for reference. I brewed the stout and got it through fermentation fine just like I have done with bottling but replacing the secondary with a corny. I decided to naturally carbonate the beer since in order to save on Co2 since I am in college and a little short on funds and already had priming sugar from my bottling days. The beer went two weeks in the keg with the sugar and I decided to put it in the fridge and cool her down. Before I cooled it I wanted to check the PSI in the keg just for reference on how the natural carb was going. I made sure my bottle was off and hooked up the gas line to the keg so it would show the pressure. It showed around 7 PSI. When I took the line off the poppet on the gas peg did not shut all the way and blew off all the pressure in the keg. I tried to mess with it and thought it was fine but it happened once more later on so the keg has been depressurized twice. The poppet now seems fine. My problem is now that the beer is getting cold and I pull a sample it is under carbed. I was thinking just force carb it to get it back up but am not sure how much and for how long since it was already carbonated naturally. Any suggestions would help.

 

[DUNDASJ]

I have never naturally carbonated a beer in a keg yet. But if I did I would put some c02 in the keg to pressurize it too insure the seal was tight on the keg because sometimes just clamping down the lid doesn't seal it up. Did you do this? I've Only done 3 kegs so far. If you say the beer is compltely flat I would force carb it. The way I've done it has been bump the psi up to 30 and let it sit in the fridge for a day or two. Then leaving it at 30 take it out of the fridge and put the keg on its side and rock it back and forth (you should hear bubbles inside the keg) for 2 to 3 minutes. After that you can sit the keg upright and let it settle for a day but if you're impatient like me put a towel over the top of the keg because beer is going to foam out and bleed all the air out. Adjust you're psi to serving pressure Hook it up and you should be good to go.

 

[austin_hubbell]

I didn't know I needed to hit it with co2 to seal it up I didn't find that out until it was too late, I will do that in the future. However even with this it still built pressure. I left the keg on 10 psi all last night but I guess I will try it when I get home and then if still too low bump it to 30 psi tonight and let it sit. If that doesn't sound right or if anyone has a better strategy please let me know all help would be appreciated I just. dont now want to over carbonate it by pumping to much into it since it was already carbed naturally.

 

[audger]

if you naturally carbonate it, and then have a leak, then all the carbonation is gone and you are essentially starting from scratch (just with slightly more alcohol from the priming sugar). so just do the normal force-carb method. set it at your serving PSI, put it in the fridge connected to CO2, and forget about it for a week or two.

if you happen to overcarbonate a beer, you can always just vent the pressure and the carbonation level will go down.

 

[austin_hubbell]

Ok sounds good so I should stick with 30 psi for around two or three days then, or as you said aroud 10 psi for a week or two.

 

[austin_hubbell]

Ran 30 psi over night (about 24 hrs total) and am happy to say that after letting a little pressure out, getting it back to serving pressure instead of 30 psi, it is pouring great and tastes awesome with a good amount of carbonation and head. I am even more excited because the recipe is from the site the Irish Boondock stout and it tastes just as good as people advertised.

Thanks for the help .