Co2

[johnsonbrew]

Bare with me, this may get wordy and I have no idea how else to describe and ask this question.

I am kegging my beer. The first full keg I brewed went great up until the last few pints. I notices a metalic taste that was left behind. I discovered through the help of some of you that it was over carbonation that was doing it. The next batch I was very careful not to over carb the beer when the kegs were getting low......good to the last drop....thanks again for the advice.

This last batch I decided to experiment. I decided not to have CO2 constantly on my beer while in the keg. I would purge the CO2 before pouring a pint, then hit it with 6-8lbs of pressure to get it to pour. This created a "perfect" pour. Gave me a good head on the beer and the beer seemed to have plenty of cabonation. So now I am left wondering about the following issues?

1) Do most of you keep a constant pressure of CO2 in your kegs at all times? If so, why? I ask because if you do not have a leak in your keg, then once your keg is filled to the pressure that the regulator is set at, it will remain at the presurre until you purge it....right?

2) Is releasing the gas before pouring necessary? I have found that the first pour is always more foamy than the rest, but after that first pint, the rest have been good pours. I do not have more than 8 lbs of pressure in the keg except for when I initially force carb the keg. Not having your CO2 constantly on seems like it would help your CO2 last longer and you dont run the risk of over carbonating.

3) Am I missing something on the whole carbonating thing. I admit, I am not a veteran at this at all, I am on batches 5&6 and still trying to figure this all out. And now that my keezer is complete, I am trying to dial in my serving method and carbonating routine. I have read all kinds of info on how long hoses should be and what diamater and things like that, but the first few initial pours have been "OK", still trying to find the perfect balance, which will change again next week when the 6th batch gets added to the mix and I use my gas distributor to get gas in the kegs, but I am thinking maybe it was not necessary to buy that splitter since for now I am only planning on keeping a constant pressure on my keg when I first carb the beer, after that step is done, I will no longer need gas running in the kegs.

Any advice you guys could give would be great!

Thanks guys!

 

[day_trippr]

1) My keezer is set to 12psi. It never changes.
2) I never release pressure for serving. All kegs still gassed at 12psi, always.
3) Not sure where the question was here.

I can think of two possibilities for your issues: you don't have enough resistance in the beer side of your system, or your CO2 regulator low-pressure gauge isn't accurate and you're actually charging your kegs to a higher pressure than indicated.

If the former...10 foot 3/16" ID beer lines can fix a lot of serving problems.
And tbh I don't know how you would diagnose the latter short of obtaining a gauge that could be connected to a gas line.

fwiw, I do all my carbonation using a separate CO2 setup in one of my beer fridges, with the intent to deepen the "ready to serve" pipeline by a couple/few kegs. Even so, that system is set to 12psi and is rarely changed...

Cheers!

 

[thargrav]

Bare with me, this may get wordy and I have no idea how else to describe and ask this question.

I am kegging my beer. The first full keg I brewed went great up until the last few pints. I notices a metalic taste that was left behind. I discovered through the help of some of you that it was over carbonation that was doing it. The next batch I was very careful not to over carb the beer when the kegs were getting low......good to the last drop....thanks again for the advice.

This last batch I decided to experiment. I decided not to have CO2 constantly on my beer while in the keg. I would purge the CO2 before pouring a pint, then hit it with 6-8lbs of pressure to get it to pour. This created a "perfect" pour. Gave me a good head on the beer and the beer seemed to have plenty of cabonation. So now I am left wondering about the following issues?

1) Do most of you keep a constant pressure of CO2 in your kegs at all times? If so, why? I ask because if you do not have a leak in your keg, then once your keg is filled to the pressure that the regulator is set at, it will remain at the presurre until you purge it....right?

2) Is releasing the gas before pouring necessary? I have found that the first pour is always more foamy than the rest, but after that first pint, the rest have been good pours. I do not have more than 8 lbs of pressure in the keg except for when I initially force carb the keg. Not having your CO2 constantly on seems like it would help your CO2 last longer and you dont run the risk of over carbonating.

3) Am I missing something on the whole carbonating thing. I admit, I am not a veteran at this at all, I am on batches 5&6 and still trying to figure this all out. And now that my keezer is complete, I am trying to dial in my serving method and carbonating routine. I have read all kinds of info on how long hoses should be and what diamater and things like that, but the first few initial pours have been "OK", still trying to find the perfect balance, which will change again next week when the 6th batch gets added to the mix and I use my gas distributor to get gas in the kegs, but I am thinking maybe it was not necessary to buy that splitter since for now I am only planning on keeping a constant pressure on my keg when I first carb the beer, after that step is done, I will no longer need gas running in the kegs.

Any advice you guys could give would be great!

Thanks guys!

1) Yes

2) The foam might be caused by the beer shank in your tower getting warm between pours. If this is the case then you need a beer tower cooler to push cold air into the tower and keep the shank cold.

3) Keep the CO2 turned on. If you turn it off after carbonating your beer will go flat.