Proper Wheat beer Carbonation

[zephed666]

Hello:

I made my first basic wheat recipe and kegged it yesterday. I currently have the CO2 set at 19PSI at 38 degrees. I have read differing opinions on what it should be carbed at and just wanted some advice. I was going to carb it at about 25 PSI to keep it at around 3.5-4.0 but after reading some posts to just keep it the same as the Ales I was worried...

My basic recipe was:

4 LBS Wheat DME
2 LBS Pilsner DME
1 OZ Hallertauer Hops
Wyeast 3068

Should I turn up the carb level on it? I've only done ales in the past and usually keep the level at about 11PSI for those.

thanks for any help!!!

 

[Pie_Man]

I think you have two main options for highly carbonated beers although I could be wrong as I am still learning the fine art of kegging.

1. Leave the PSI the same. I would try this first and see if you feel the need to increase the pressure from there (it's a lot easier to increase the pressure than decarbonate a beer).
2. Increase the PSI, but also increase your beer line (or somehow rebalance the line). If you increase the pressure, you will likely have foam at the tap (assuming your normal ale setup is balanced). Pressure at the tap should be about 1psi. I think the easiest way to increase the pressure and maintain a balanced line is to serve your highly carbonated beers through a longer beer line (assuming the same beer line as your normal line). More info on line balancing: http://www.brewersfriend.com/2009/0...our-kegged-beer-co2-line-length-and-pressure/

Good luck

 

[chickypad]

Well the answer of course is that you can do whatever you want, meaning this is a personal preference decision really. I have 9 lines but only a single primary and one secondary regulator that I keep for low carbed beers and things going on stout faucet. I serve everything else including ciders, wheats, and Belgians at around 2.6 vols which works fine for me. If you don't mind messing with pressures and you have the lines to balance the higher carb level, go ahead and experiment. You're already sitting at 3.2 vols or so, you might just see how you like that first as Pie Man said.

Also just a terminology thing, that is an ale yeast - most wheat beers are ales.

 

[zephed666]

I think you have two main options for highly carbonated beers although I could be wrong as I am still learning the fine art of kegging.

1. Leave the PSI the same. I would try this first and see if you feel the need to increase the pressure from there (it's a lot easier to increase the pressure than decarbonate a beer).
2. Increase the PSI, but also increase your beer line (or somehow rebalance the line). If you increase the pressure, you will likely have foam at the tap (assuming your normal ale setup is balanced). Pressure at the tap should be about 1psi. I think the easiest way to increase the pressure and maintain a balanced line is to serve your highly carbonated beers through a longer beer line (assuming the same beer line as your normal line). More info on line balancing: http://www.brewersfriend.com/2009/0...our-kegged-beer-co2-line-length-and-pressure/

Good luck

When you say leave the same, do you mean where it is now at 19PSI or where I usually keep my ales at 11 PSI?

 

[Pie_Man]

When you say leave the same, do you mean where it is now at 19PSI or where I usually keep my ales at 11 PSI?

I meant where you usually keep things (11psi). For my current keggings setup, I pour everything at about 2.4 volumes of CO2 and that works pretty well, so I was suggesting you use that as a starting point and adjust up from there. I would guess that if you're going to attempt to reach 3+ volumes of CO2 that longer beer lines would be useful to reduce foaming.