bustincaps
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- Jan 25, 2015
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Hi All,
First time posting, I love the forums, you've all taught me a lot, everything from A to Z of my homebrewing experience.
This is my third batch, first time kegging. I know there are a lot of CO2 leak discussions on here, but my question is more regarding timing/psi during force carbonating. Apologies for the long post.
After transferring my 6 gal lager batch to my keg, I decided to go for the 30 psi for 36 hour method of force carbonating and hooked up everything to my 5 lbs CO2 tank (this was at about 1PM Saturday). I put the tank and keg in the fridge at 38F (my serving temp). I was in a bit of a hurry and clearly did a bad job checking for leaks because I woke up Sunday to find an empty tank. I unhooked the coupler and put the keg back in the fridge. As there are were no shops open today to refill my tank, I will not be able to get the keg back under gas until around 7PM Monday after work. Once I get home Monday evening I will re-attach the tank, check for leaks with Starsan and ensure everything is up to standard before giving carbonating another shot.
Now, between the time I found the tank empty on Sunday (1PM) and 7PM on Monday, I'm looking at AT LEAST 30 hours during which the 30 psi pressure in the keg is slowly dropping as the CO2 dissolves into the beer. Considering I was not able to check the CO2 readings Saturday during the day, I'm not quite sure how long the keg was actually under constant 30 psi before the tank ran out.
My best guess is that the tank lasted around 8-10 hours which would put the timeline at 8 hours of 30 psi & 46 hours of psi dropping as it dissolves into the beer. I'm basing this off of a conservative estimate - no real evidence to back up my hypothesis. In fact the range could be completely different for all I know.
SO - considering the above, how long and at what pressure should I be force carbonating considering the damage I have already done? I'm aiming for 2.5 volumes of CO2.
I'm inclined to take it slow - purge and set to 20 psi on Monday night for 12 hours, sample the beer, then purge and drop to 14-18 psi for another 12 hours depending on how close it seems. My thought process here is to avoid overcarbonating.
Is this the right way to go about this? Does the multiple changes in pressure affect the beer? Should I just go back up to a constant 30 psi for another 16 hours?
I'd like to have the beer ready for Super Bowl Sunday next weekend so I'd like to avoid converting to a set-it and forget it psi of 11 and waiting several weeks at this point (not sure if that is even recommended at this point)
Learning for next time: ALWAYS check for leaks. Check your CO2 readings frequently. Be patient - maybe the set it and forget it method is better for next time.
I know I'm definitely going to get some head shakes for this one. I'm also pretty angry with myself for these dumb errors considering I was almost home-free.
Thanks for the help guys!
First time posting, I love the forums, you've all taught me a lot, everything from A to Z of my homebrewing experience.
This is my third batch, first time kegging. I know there are a lot of CO2 leak discussions on here, but my question is more regarding timing/psi during force carbonating. Apologies for the long post.
After transferring my 6 gal lager batch to my keg, I decided to go for the 30 psi for 36 hour method of force carbonating and hooked up everything to my 5 lbs CO2 tank (this was at about 1PM Saturday). I put the tank and keg in the fridge at 38F (my serving temp). I was in a bit of a hurry and clearly did a bad job checking for leaks because I woke up Sunday to find an empty tank. I unhooked the coupler and put the keg back in the fridge. As there are were no shops open today to refill my tank, I will not be able to get the keg back under gas until around 7PM Monday after work. Once I get home Monday evening I will re-attach the tank, check for leaks with Starsan and ensure everything is up to standard before giving carbonating another shot.
Now, between the time I found the tank empty on Sunday (1PM) and 7PM on Monday, I'm looking at AT LEAST 30 hours during which the 30 psi pressure in the keg is slowly dropping as the CO2 dissolves into the beer. Considering I was not able to check the CO2 readings Saturday during the day, I'm not quite sure how long the keg was actually under constant 30 psi before the tank ran out.
My best guess is that the tank lasted around 8-10 hours which would put the timeline at 8 hours of 30 psi & 46 hours of psi dropping as it dissolves into the beer. I'm basing this off of a conservative estimate - no real evidence to back up my hypothesis. In fact the range could be completely different for all I know.
SO - considering the above, how long and at what pressure should I be force carbonating considering the damage I have already done? I'm aiming for 2.5 volumes of CO2.
I'm inclined to take it slow - purge and set to 20 psi on Monday night for 12 hours, sample the beer, then purge and drop to 14-18 psi for another 12 hours depending on how close it seems. My thought process here is to avoid overcarbonating.
Is this the right way to go about this? Does the multiple changes in pressure affect the beer? Should I just go back up to a constant 30 psi for another 16 hours?
I'd like to have the beer ready for Super Bowl Sunday next weekend so I'd like to avoid converting to a set-it and forget it psi of 11 and waiting several weeks at this point (not sure if that is even recommended at this point)
Learning for next time: ALWAYS check for leaks. Check your CO2 readings frequently. Be patient - maybe the set it and forget it method is better for next time.
I know I'm definitely going to get some head shakes for this one. I'm also pretty angry with myself for these dumb errors considering I was almost home-free.
Thanks for the help guys!