1st Keg - No carbonation after 4 days

[DKershner]

Hey there,

I have been brewing beer awhile, and just bought a kegerator setup, a chest freezer that can hold 4-5 cornies. I kegged up kegs #1 and 2 this past weekend, and dialed the pressure to 11 PSI.

4 days later, Tuesday, I tried both the Gluten free ESB and the Apfelwein in each keg, and neither seem to have any carbonation at all (granted the ESB was mostly yeast). I am re-testing the temperature, but last time I did it was 40 degrees in there. I have looked at a carbonation table and that seems to put me in the sweet spot for ~2.5 volumes of CO2.

I have dialed the PSI to 12 now, and like I said, am rechecking the temperature currently, but any ideas what I might be doing wrong here?

Thanks,
Derek

 

[Poindexter]

What happens when you hit the tap? Does beer flow and the CO2 tank start rattling?

Four days is pretty early for force carbing at 11-12psi in my limited experience. usually the folks that force carb start at like 30psi for the first day and then ~20psi on day two, and then drop to servign pressure and wait a coupel more days.

Can't be much more help, I nat carb in kegs on priming sugar and wait the three weeks.

 

[dontman]

Let them sit for 17 more days. They will be kegged perfectly. You are putting them at "set and forget" pressure so you need to set it and forget the kegs for a while.

I wondered when I started kegging how much shorter the conditiong period would be for me to get well rested and carbed beer. I was surprised to find out that it took the same exact three weeks that bottle conditioning takes.

Yes you can set the pressure at 30 lbs for 24 hours and shake the crap out of the keg a few times over the course of that time but what you end up with in my opinion is carbed green beer. But it will be carbed. Since these are your first kegs I know you are anxious to try out the new system so by all means try this force carbing but be prepared for some see sawing as you overshoot the carb and then undershoot on the way to perfectly carbed beer.

 

[Captain_Bigelow]

Sounds perfectly normal. I kegged a cream ale last week. 4 days flat, then by 6 days it was nicely carbonated with a nice head. I had it set to about 10-12 for the whole time.

Ideally you should leave it at least a week if you use the "set and leave" method.

 

[DKershner]

OK, thanks guys. I was under the impression that after 3 days it should be adjusted to the pressure given, good to know that everything is normal. When I hit the tap, it comes out, no real foam to speak of...but we are talking about a sorghum beer and an apfelwein, so I think that's OK.

Checked the temp, checked the PSI, guess I will just wait. =) Thanks again.
Derek

 

[Bobby_M]

This is what you're looking for https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/keg-force-carbing-methods-illustrated-73328/

 

[Arkador]

This is what you're looking for https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/keg-force-carbing-methods-illustrated-73328/

I agree with the graph, no matter what method you use to carb it, 3 weeks for ideal beer.

Establish a pipeline, so that you can give your beers 3 weeks to carb up, or naturally carb them in advance, your taste buds will thank you.

 

[dontman]

Thanks for reminding me of that graph Bobby. I remember reading that thread when I first starting kegging, before I had any empirical evidence of my own.

I distinctly remember thinking "nah, can't take 3 weeks for the beer to reach its peak"

So now I've kegged right around 20 batches and I am actually still a little surprised each time when the beer starts to be okay at the end of week one but just not quite right. Then I start to worry that maybe I brewed a less than stellar batch. It then continues like this until, magically it seems, right at day 20-21 I pull a pint and it is perfect.

 

[Bobby_M]

It really doesn't matter how long you've been brewing or how disciplined you think you are. You will taste your beer too soon. You will worry that it's not going to age out well. You will be surprised how good it got with a little time. Beer that is burst carbed has a lot of carbonic acid bite to it also. It's just better to lay off it. Some people don't care about it, but I don't get that mentality. Presumably people homebrew to get the best possible beer out of the deal. If you half ass it, you might as well buy Natural Light.