So I got a couple corny kegs and decided to keg my last brew, it’s a Blueberry Honey Ale. The taste of the beer came out perfect. The carbonation on the other hand not so much. I have let it sit at 28-30psi for over a week and the carbonation doesn’t seem to settle in the beer. It’s in my garage around 50 degrees. Is there something else I need to do to get the carbonation up? Also when I’m not drinking it do I then the psi back up or leave it down? Thanks!
Carbonation in keg
- Thread starter Jacobross
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Walk us thru your kegging process. In particular we need copious details on your headspace purging procedure. 50°F at 29 psi should give you 3.4 volumes of CO2 which is highly carbonated. Normally you want to keep the CO2 connected and the pressure set to the value that maintains your desired carbonation level.
Brew on
Brew on
Walk us thru your kegging process. In particular we need copious details on your headspace purging procedure. 50°F at 29 psi should give you 3.4 volumes of CO2 which is highly carbonated. Normally you want to keep the CO2 connected and the pressure set to the value that maintains your desired carbonation level.
Brew on
After I brew it I put it in the keg closed it off turned on the CO2 to 30lbs and released it into the tank. Let it sit for about a week. Released the pressure and turned CO2 down to 8lbs to pour. When it comes out it has a nice head actually to much foam (just read your dispensing hose needs to be about 10ft I have mine at 1, gonna buy a new hose). But the beer seems flat. I have kept the CO2 connected to the beer the whole time but disconnected my line out just to make sure CO2 didn’t leak. I read you need to shake the keg for up to a minute to get the CO2 to sink into the beer. This is only my 3rd brew so still new to it all. Thanks.
This is certainly part of your problem. If you're pouring mostly foam and then letting it settle the resulting beer will be flat (not to mention oxydized). You need to balance your system properly so that you can pour at the right speed and with jus the right amount of foam.
Is having a short hose part of the problem? I read having a 10ft hose t what your suppose to have will that make a difference at all?
I think I will start with hose length until I get a little deeper in and then start working with flow control faucets.
Is there a guide to where my CO2 pressure should be turned to during carbonation for a certain type of beer? Also during pour? I run my pours around 5psi and the shandy I made this last summer has a decent pour but this ale is super foamy.
Also, with the pours being regulated a little better will that help with the taste of carbonation in the beer or do I need to do something to fix that also?
Our host provides a handy keg carbonation calculator here that lists many styles with their corresponding carbonation levels.
There's also our favorite carbonation table which simply shows the relationship between temperature, pressure, and resulting carbonation level if allowed to reach equilibrium.
You should strive to use the same CO2 pressure for dispensing as you used for carbonation - assuming the same temperature beer. More accurately, the dispensing pressure should be set per the dispensing temperature to maintain the carbonation level at whatever you intended. So if you serve a few degrees warmer than you carbonated the keg, you'll want to adjust the dispensing pressure accordingly.
Next, you want to "tune" your dispensing system to handle the dispensing pressure. If using 3/16" ID beer line (typical) use 1 foot of line per each PSI of pressure as a rule of thumb. Or, use the only beer line length calculator worth using to get into the physics.
Fix the carbonation issue, the dispensing issue, and the quality problems may just disappear...
Cheers!
There's also our favorite carbonation table which simply shows the relationship between temperature, pressure, and resulting carbonation level if allowed to reach equilibrium.
You should strive to use the same CO2 pressure for dispensing as you used for carbonation - assuming the same temperature beer. More accurately, the dispensing pressure should be set per the dispensing temperature to maintain the carbonation level at whatever you intended. So if you serve a few degrees warmer than you carbonated the keg, you'll want to adjust the dispensing pressure accordingly.
Next, you want to "tune" your dispensing system to handle the dispensing pressure. If using 3/16" ID beer line (typical) use 1 foot of line per each PSI of pressure as a rule of thumb. Or, use the only beer line length calculator worth using to get into the physics.
Fix the carbonation issue, the dispensing issue, and the quality problems may just disappear...
Cheers!
This is the most helpful video I found when learning to force carbonate beer in a corny keg.
The Brew and Grow folks also have some good videos about the Mash and Boil system if you use that.
I use the 35 psi twice a couple days apart and then leave for 2 weeks at room temp method. I don't like leaving the co2 canister in the fridge to keep pressure on and follow the chart for temp and volumes desired etc. I just wanna dose it and leave it til its done. I got plenty of beer to drink in the meantime so - no hurries. If you wanna do it faster, he covers that too.
**Snuffy
The Brew and Grow folks also have some good videos about the Mash and Boil system if you use that.
I use the 35 psi twice a couple days apart and then leave for 2 weeks at room temp method. I don't like leaving the co2 canister in the fridge to keep pressure on and follow the chart for temp and volumes desired etc. I just wanna dose it and leave it til its done. I got plenty of beer to drink in the meantime so - no hurries. If you wanna do it faster, he covers that too.
**Snuffy
Thanks for the charts! One last question, am I able to recarbonate the beer after it has been somewhat carbonated or is it a lost cause?
Great video thank you. I’ll definitely look into there other ones. I had to force carbonate this one in about a day and a half to have it ready for Xmas.
Have you tried his hooking the gas line to the out valve at any point? I don’t have a kegerator or keezer just put it on ice when we have people over or in growlers. Does taking it off of ice and going back to around 50 degrees mess with the carbonation?
Once I get beer cold, I try to keep it that way or drink it up. Letting it warm up again may or may not affect the beer but I just avoid that if possible. I keep kegs in the fridge. I use short 2.5 gal kegs that fit under the shelves. I also recharge the keg w/co2 if it starts losing fizz.
I never did the swapping connectors and charging via the liquid tube. Seems like a great way to get co2 in solution but also a great way to get beer in your regulator.
**Snuffy
I never did the swapping connectors and charging via the liquid tube. Seems like a great way to get co2 in solution but also a great way to get beer in your regulator.
**Snuffy
Perfect. Thanks for your help!
You can always raise the carbonation level of a keg. You can also lower it. The beer won't care (though you will
)Cheers!
Having to drop pressure to pour is a definite sign of an imbalanced system. Plus, when you take a highly carbonated product and suddenly drop the pressure, CO2 will start escaping from the beer all throughout the system to reestablish an equilibrium pressure. This causes CO2 breakout in your lines, creating foam. The foam creates nucleation sites releasing more CO2 and creating more. And so forth. In short, it doesn't fix the problem, just makes it worse. And it's part of why the beer in your glass is flat afterwards.
If you're keeping your kegs at 50, set your pressure for ideal carbonation at 50 (top of my head I'd say somewhere 20-25 PSI, consult the chart for the right answer though). Then leave the pressure there. Do not drop the pressure to pour. To pour at that temp and pressure, you'll probably need a much longer line than 10 ft.
Also, if you decarbonate a beer, you're gonna take aromatic volatiles with it. Wouldn't do that unless I absolutely had to.
If you're keeping your kegs at 50, set your pressure for ideal carbonation at 50 (top of my head I'd say somewhere 20-25 PSI, consult the chart for the right answer though). Then leave the pressure there. Do not drop the pressure to pour. To pour at that temp and pressure, you'll probably need a much longer line than 10 ft.
Also, if you decarbonate a beer, you're gonna take aromatic volatiles with it. Wouldn't do that unless I absolutely had to.
