1st Time Kegging, Trouble with carbonation

[imp81318]

As the thread title says, I just kegged my first beer. I put the fermenter and the CO2 tank in the (unheated) garage Friday evening. I'd guesstimate that the garage was between 40 and 50 degrees overnight, and the plastic fermenter was sitting on the cold concrete floor. Saturday morning I transferred the beer into the keg and pressurized. The beer was at 70 degrees before moving it into the garage.

To carbonate, I pressurized the keg to 20 psi and rolled it back and forth on the floor gently for about 10 minutes. Then I put it in the fridge for a few hours to let the foam settle down, released the pressure, set regulator at 10 psi and poured a beer. I had a little bit of head on it and it was lightly carbonated. So I pressurized it back up to 20 psi and let it go overnight. I also pulled it out and rolled it for 10 minutes 2 more times throughout the day yesterday. Today, around 24 hours after initially pressurizing the keg I turned it down to 12 psi. I just poured another beer, about 6 or 7 hours after turning it down to 12 psi (and after setting it to 12 psi) and it was completely flat - it had even lost the little bit of carbonation that I had yesterday.

Is it likely that the lack of carbonation is due to having pulled mostly the beer that was in the line that was barely carbed to begin with? Is it likely that if I would pour another beer or two that they'd be more carbonated since I'd be getting into the beer in the keg?

After pouring that beer I turned the pressure up to 30 psi and rolled it on the floor for another 10 minutes, and have it sitting upright in the fridge at 30 psi.

 

[Rockn_M]

If you can go a week or so I'd set the keg at we serving temp and psi and let it sit.

 

[day_trippr]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=73328

 

[imp81318]

Thanks. I had read through some of the stickied thread and based on what I read there and elsewhere, I expected my beer to have at least some carbonation which is why I started thus thread.

 

[raouliii]

Has the keg been in the fridge and attached to the CO2 tank throughout this exercise?

 

[TheMadKing]

I suspect that temperature is your problem. The colder your beer is, the better it absorbs CO2 so if it carbed up slightly when it was cold and then warmed up at all, the co2 will just come out of solution and you get flat beer.

I usually get my beer cold, between 33-40 degrees, set the PSI at 45 for about 18 hours. Release the head pressure, then set it at 12 and leave it alone for 3-4 days. Seems to work well for me.

 

[barnaclebob]

Yes, I have found that the beer in the lines won't get carbonated without waiting for a long time. I've also seen my beer's drop in carbonation, twice that was due to me forgetting to open the valve on the regulator...

 

[imp81318]

The keg has been in the fridge since Saturday morning. The temp inside the fridge has been around 41 degrees, but I just lowered it about an hour ago. I've been leaving the keg pressurized, but I've left the bottle turned off and just opened the valve to re-pressurize every few hours. I think I have a slow leak at the pressure release valve but I'm not positive - sometimes it bubbles slowly when I spray it with starsan, other times it seems fine - so I've bee leary of leaving gas on and potentially emptying my gas bottle.

 

[TheMadKing]

The keg has been in the fridge since Saturday morning. The temp inside the fridge has been around 41 degrees, but I just lowered it about an hour ago. I've been leaving the keg pressurized, but I've left the bottle turned off and just opened the valve to re-pressurize every few hours. I think I have a slow leak at the pressure release valve but I'm not positive - sometimes it bubbles slowly when I spray it with starsan, other times it seems fine - so I've bee leary of leaving gas on and potentially emptying my gas bottle.

If your keg is leaking, that explains your problem right there. I would set your PSI at 30 and try to track down and fix the leak first and foremost.

Once the leak is fixed, then you can leave your gas on and have one less thing to worry about.

 

[imp81318]

Is there an easy way to check the pressure in the tank? I have a shutoff valve after the regulator that I've been using to turn the gas on and off rather than shutting it off at the tank, which is convenient but that valve keeps the regulator from reading the pressure in the tank until I open the valve.

 

[TheMadKing]

Is there an easy way to check the pressure in the tank? I have a shutoff valve after the regulator that I've been using to turn the gas on and off rather than shutting it off at the tank, which is convenient but that valve keeps the regulator from reading the pressure in the tank until I open the valve.

There's not a good way to know if your keg is holding pressure vs whether the CO2 is just being absorbed into the beer that I can think of.

You'd have to empty your keg, charge it with CO2 to 30 PSI or so, then shut the CO2 TANK off, but leave the regulator open. If the pressure is steady for several hours you don't have a leak, if it drops, it's leaking.

You really need to be able to leave the gas on to carb your beer.

 

[imp81318]

Like I said, I know that the leak is in the pressure relief valve. Unfortunately, o haven't been able to find the right style valve to replace it with.

 

[raouliii]

..... I've been leaving the keg pressurized, but I've left the bottle turned off and just opened the valve to re-pressurize every few hours. ........

Like I said, I know that the leak is in the pressure relief valve. Unfortunately, o haven't been able to find the right style valve to replace it with.

That method will take a VERY LONG time if combined with a leaky keg.

 

[imp81318]

I bought a new lid and switched it out last night. Checked with starsan and couldn't find any leaks so I left the bottle turned on with pressure set at 30 psi overnight. We'll see how it is doing when I get home from work tonight.

 

[imp81318]

I backed it down to around 15 psi overnight last night and left it there all day today. Backed it down to 9 psi and poured myself a nicely carbonated beer to have with dinner. Thanks for the feedback and help everyone!