Beer won't carbonate in keg.

[Xzarfna]

Hi there.
I recently made 25l of beer from a brupaks kit. It all went well until i put it into a pressure keg. I added 200g of sugar (too much i know but i misread the label :S) to the keg and siphoned the beer into it after 1 week of fermentation in the bucket. The keg was only about 2/3 full of beer due to sediment and amount of beer made in the first place. It looked promising - there was a lot of foam produced in the keg and everything was sealed - I used vaseline on the threads of the screw of the Lid and tap to prevent leakage.
However, 3 weeks later i went to test the beer - It was flat as anything - not just like ale - but like tap water, and still tasted sweet and was cloudy. I left it another 2 weeks and there was no change.

I took a gravity reading the first time i tested it and another the second and there was no difference whatsoever.

How can i prevent this from happening my next time?

P.S the barrel does not have any sort of valve for injecting more co2, only a safety valve on the cap to release high pressure.

 

[chickypad]

What temp was the keg conditioning at?

 

[Hex23]

The keg was only about 2/3 full of beer due to sediment and amount of beer made in the first place.

This is part of the problem With that much head-space some relatively large portion of the CO2 does not have to be in the beer.

It looked promising - there was a lot of foam produced in the keg

I have to ask ... how do you know this? I assume this is a metal keg. Did you check it at the end of conditioning, or were you opening it along the way.

 

[Xzarfna]

The keg was conditioning around 20C.
I was able to see the foam simply through the side - the plastic isn't entierly opaque, being quite a cheap keg, and just shining a light through from the back i could see.
My problem is the keg is 25l and so is my fermentation bucket - but 25l in the bucket is literally to the lip, so a couple of litres have to be sacrificed to prevent spillage.

 

[amandabab]

no way to add more CO2?
clear enough to see through?

are you repurposing some large plastic barrel into a keg? i don't think its anything we'd call a keg. Even newer plastic kegs are opaque and have gas/beer ports.

if your trying cask condition a sealed barrel, 2/3 full will never pressurize high enough even with a perfect seal

 

[wailingguitar]

Post a pic of the thing so we can understand.


As to having no way to get CO2 in, where does the pressure to dispense come from? You should be able to hook the keg up to CO2 that you would use to dispense and let it set for a week or two at serving temp and it will carb on it's own

 

[Xzarfna]

The keg was bought as a pressure beer keg, although without a gas port - the pressure from dispensing comes from the secondary fermentation in the keg itself. The item did come with the option on the website to add a cap with a co2 valve but it was very overpriced (2x the original keg) so i just went for the basic model as i am a newb in terms of beermaking.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Home-Brew...-gram-pin-valve-/280831397458?var=#vi-content

thats the model of keg, but mine does not have a pin valve - only a plastic safety release.

the plastic is opaque but beer level/foam can still be seen through with a light shining from behind.

 

[acidrain]

Ah, you're in the UK... your signature doesn't say. No wonder we've never seen one of those.
The head space allowed Co2 to escape the beer instead of being kept in solution.
Honestly, it seems like there is no way that's gonna work as a serving keg. 25L is a lot of beer, and without a way to charge it and keep it carbonated, it will go flat before it's consumed.
Good luck is all I can say.

 

[TheMerkle]

Are cornelius kegs not available in the UK?

 

[Xzarfna]

yeah they are but cost about 3 or 4 times as much.
I tried a tip a friend gave me, i dumped a sachet of champagne yeast into the beer and resealed it all. It has been VERY happy and in just 2 days i was able to pour a glass with pressure behind it and a nice head. Seems like the yeast from the beer kit died for some reason and didn't carbonate, but the champagne yeast went to town on the excess sugar i added and did something to the beer yeast, cos it doesn't taste anywhere near as yeasty as it did before.

 

[Hopper5000]

IMHO, that thing doesn't look like it would really be able to hold pressure. I don't think those plastic valves on the bottom are really meant for that... further, your beer probably will be super foamy serving out of that thing.

 

[Xzarfna]

yeah in all honesty, im gonna use it for one purpose - Siphon into it from fermentation vessel then use the tap to bottle it XD