Carbonation Halt!

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Guigsy

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Hopefully this won't be a problem but I will share it with you guys anyways. I kegged a porter on Sunday and have it hooked up to the C02 (using the set-it and forget-it method) and hoped it would be ready by Superbowl Sunday. Unfortunately, the C02 ran out what looks like on Tuesday, it is now Thursday and I'm afraid that going from carbonation -> no carbonation-> back to carbonation might screw up the beer. I'll be stopping at my local beer distrib after work to get it refilled.


Thoughts?
 
From what I know there should be no problem with the beer's flavor.

If you need help carbing it in a hurry, elaborate on that.
 
cheezydemon said:
From what I know there should be no problem with the beer's flavor.

If you need help carbing it in a hurry, elaborate on that.

No, you elaborate on that!! lol

What's your suggesting for carbing in a hurry?

Thanks.
 
From what I know.....you can roll it in your lap at 30lbs or so.........

Really I am just replying to get you to the top of the heap again so someone more knowledgeable will elaborate on that!
 
Dammit, lol here you go.

"The best way requires patience, but is the easiest. Connect your chilled keg to gas, set it to 12 psi and wait a week.

If you want the speed method, you need to chill the keg before trying to carb it. Once it is chilled, you can crank it up to 30 psi while you roll the keg for about 10 minutes. Put it back in the fridge and let it sit for while. Disconnect the gas, dial down the PSI to serving pressure, vent the keg, reconnect the gas, and serve beer.
__________________
Cheers,

EdWort"
 
There is no problem with recarbonating the beer, so don't worry about that.

Unless you have a leak in your system, the beer will not lose any carbonation it already had. That's not to say that it's fully carbonated. Rather, it got as far as it did before the tank ran out, and then it stopped. It did not backtrack.

Speed carbonating at high pressure is a bit tricky in that it leads to unpredictable results. Typically, though, it leads to overcarbonating the beer. Once you get your tank refilled, I recommend hooking it back up to the keg and pouring yourself a sample at the serving pressure. Just see where you are before you take any other steps.

If you think the beer is undercarbonated, take the keg out, change the gas line fitting to a liquid line fitting, attach the gas line to the liquid post, and shake or roll the keg around (at the "set it and forget it" PSI) until you no longer hear CO2 bubbling up through the beer. That'll get you nearly all the way toward your desired carbonation. Then, remove the gas line from the liquid post, switch the fitting back to the gas fitting, reattach the gas line to the gas post, put the keg back in the fridge, and chill out. With the couple days you have until the Super Bowl, you should nail your carbonation. If not, you'll be very close. It'll all be good. :)

I "speed" carbonate all my beers by the procedure in that last paragraph. It saves me a few days waiting or more without overshooting the carbonation I wanted in the first place and going through all the mess to get it back where I want it.


TL
 
TexLaw said:
There is no problem with recarbonating the beer, so don't worry about that.

Unless you have a leak in your system, the beer will not lose any carbonation it already had. That's not to say that it's fully carbonated. Rather, it got as far as it did before the tank ran out, and then it stopped. It did not backtrack.

Speed carbonating at high pressure is a bit tricky in that it leads to unpredictable results. Typically, though, it leads to overcarbonating the beer. Once you get your tank refilled, I recommend hooking it back up to the keg and pouring yourself a sample at the serving pressure. Just see where you are before you take any other steps.

If you think the beer is undercarbonated, take the keg out, change the gas line fitting to a liquid line fitting, attach the gas line to the liquid post, and shake or roll the keg around (at the "set it and forget it" PSI) until you no longer hear CO2 bubbling up through the beer. That'll get you nearly all the way toward your desired carbonation. Then, remove the gas line from the liquid post, switch the fitting back to the gas fitting, reattach the gas line to the gas post, put the keg back in the fridge, and chill out. With the couple days you have until the Super Bowl, you should nail your carbonation. If not, you'll be very close. It'll all be good. :)

I "speed" carbonate all my beers by the procedure in that last paragraph. It saves me a few days waiting or more without overshooting the carbonation I wanted in the first place and going through all the mess to get it back where I want it.


TL

Thanks Tex, but what is the reasoning behind hooking the gas line to the liquid disconnect? I didn't have it like this before.
 
Guigsy said:
...What's your suggesting for carbing in a hurry?

Thanks.[/FONT]
I'm always in a hurry.

But I'm too lazy to shake and don't want beer in my gas lines.

For a completely flat beer:

1) Set PSI to 35 (Beer is cold right?)
2) Wait 36 hours
3) Cut gas, bleed excess pressure from keg, set PSI to 8 and taste test.
4) If necessary, return PSI to 30 and test every 2-3 hours.

This is what I do with every keg I have, except my lower carb'd beers like Bitters & stouts. Then its more like 24 hours in step 2.

I can keg on Thursday night and be 100% confident that it will be ready to serve (without being over carb'd) by Saturday night.
 
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