Severe overcarb and carbonic bite

dubiouschewy · Oct 29, 2011

So I was reminded that I'm still pretty new to kegging after severely overcarbing a dubbel...

The carbonic acid is insane, and makes it more or less undrinkable in it's current state (about 2-3 weeks in the fridge after primary... at 30 PSI).

I took it out of the fridge, and have bled the pressure a couple of times. I plan to let it condition at 55 for another month, tasting and bleeding pressure occasionally, before trying to dial in the carb again.

Anything else I can do?

Anyone else have experience losing the carbonic bite from a super overcarbed beer, or advice on avoiding too much carbonic acid in highly carbonated styles?

Schlenkerla · Oct 29, 2011

You need to use a carb calculator. See this link. The key here is set the regulator pressure to the style specific volume of Co2, then wait for the carbonation to settle into the beer. This takes two weeks.

For a dubbel at 45f it should be on gas with the regulator set at 7.8 - 13.7psi

The beer should get vented if you want to push the beer out without a bunch foam then dial the regulator down to the lowest setting that gives you good flow.

http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator/carbonation.html

Schlenkerla · Oct 29, 2011

I think you could vent it chilled at the serving temperature for a day then try it. It will give up the gas that it can't absorb. Then carb at the right pressure. In every case time for dissipation is needed.

triangulum33 · Oct 29, 2011

I accidentally overcarbed 3 kegs recently when I switched out an empty tank and left it at 25psi for a week. It took a few weeks of periodic venting and pouring to get the foam down.

dubiouschewy · Oct 29, 2011

I understand how to carb correctly, I just screwed it up in this instance-- I was trying to carb quick and forgot I had bumped it up to 30psi. That said, I wasn't TOO far off because I like my dubbels and other belgian strongs highly carbed, in the 3 to 4 volumes range, which I believe is in the neighborhood of 20-25 psi at 39f.

Anyway, I know I can depressurize it and decarb it by bleeding, but I'm concerned about the off flavor of "carbonic bite", in this case an almose overwhelming sourness/astringency caused by carbonic acid, which comes from C02 dissolving in the beer.

I'm trying to figure out:

a) if the carbonic acid dissipates quickly once the carb level is reduced ( I think yes), and more generally

b) How does one avoid/reduce carbonic bite in highly carbed beer styles. Certain highly carbed styles like hefe's are supposed to have a certain tartness to them, which I think is at least partially due to carbonic acid, but others, like dubbel and golden strong, are not. Is it just a matter of age/conditioning or is there some other process involved?

Schlenkerla · Oct 29, 2011

Theoretically, over carbed beer will go back to its soluble state at zero pressure. So 1.0 volume at 52F

At 45 F you will get 1.25 volumes of co2 venting to atmosphere.

Regardless of pressure I think the bite will dissipate with time. i'm making this statement if the temperature and pressure is reasonable for serving.

I would vent it to atmosphere chilled then re-carb. And wait for it to mellow.