Carbonation Issues

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Virginia_Ranger

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So I brewed an Oktoberfest and have been using my typical carbonation method on it (carb stone on the corny keg lid). For some reason I just can’t get it to taste full carbonated. It’s weird like on the tongue there is some carb bite and it’s got a LOT of head but it still just on the initial sip does not taste fully carbonated. Keg is at 40, I’ve kranked it up to 12-16 psi (that’s after the wetting PSI of 4 for the stone) trying everything and it just doesn’t seem to be working. Any advice or anyone had a similar issue?
 
O.G. Was 1.053 and F.G. 1.013. Carbonation stone usually only takes 48 hours to carb but after initial 48 hrs it’s been sitting on gas for another 8-9 days. I just purged it let it sit for 10 min and now it tastes very carbonated. Possibly it’s over carved and the line is too short gassing it via foam?
 
Yeah, given your usual 48 hours was extended to 10-11 days I'd say your notion of overcarbing is likely the problem.

There's only so much CO2 dissolved in beer and the more you use making "head" the less left to hit the tongue.
Indeed "flat beer" from excessive foaming is one of the more frequent complaints with kegging.

A dispensing system should be "tuned" to allow the desired carbonation to be maintained at the desired temperature.
The "tuning" is typically done via line ID and line length (though "flow control" faucets can simplify that to a degree). But a solution that works ideally at, say, 11 psi, is probably going to start foaming with another 3 or more psi (ie: overcarbed keg).

You might reference our favorite carbonation table to dial in your carbonation/dispensing process (pick your desired serving temperature on the Y-axis, run across that row to your desired carbonation level - expressed in Volumes of CO2 where 2.4 is typical for many ales - then run up that column to find the recommended pressure to hit and maintain that carbonation level.

Then use the recommended pressure to come up with a beer line length solution with the only calculator worth using.

Put them together and you should have an ideal dispensing system...

Cheers!
 
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