First time bottling in years

[movet22]

So I made myself one of those DIY beer guns made out of a cobra tap and racking cane. Because of this, I bottled a batch of Pumpkin Porter, and am nervous I didn't carb it enough before bottling. I had a shockingly small amount of foam. I think it could be because I was operating around 3 psi b/c my tank was dying.

I have to go get my tank filled tomorrow, should I hook my beer up and carb longer/more and bottle the rest? Thankfully I only got through 1/4 of my case, so if I messed up thus far, it won't be the end of the world. Or was the small amount of foam really just a product of my low flow PSI?

FWIW: I force carbed ~30-35 psi, let it sit for 24 hrs on the gas, took it off and rolled it for ~10 min. Then hooked the gas up at the aforementioned 3-ish psi and started bottling. (when I did the "shake before capping" step, I did have some vigorous foamage then)

Thanks for any and all help!

 

[mattlsull]

Assuming the beer was chilled down between 38F-42F, it sure seems like you did enough force carbonating.

I just kegged up a Pumpkin Ale where I chilled to 38F before I racked to the keg. Then I CO2 burped out all the air, and, at around 12psi rolled the keg for 10 minutes. I had a pint about 8 hours later and it tasted sufficiently carbonated to me. It is tasting even better the longer I let it condition over time @ 8-10 psi. Normally I would let it condition longer, but, I was out of beer!

Foam may be also contributed to the ingredients. I’ve made plenty of beers that had little or no head, but carbonate just fine. For better head retention through ingredients, I usually use a dextrine aka Carapills.

When I bottle I use a Blichman Beer gun. I don’t use a lot of PSI when pushing to the bottle specifically so it doesn’t foam. Foam while bottling is messy. And the CO2 usage in the beer gun is really just for pumping the beer, you’re not doing any sort of carbonation with a beer gun. Also, before pushing the beer through the beer gun, I give the bottle a couple of shots of CO2 to expel the air out of the bottle so when the beer goes in and is bottled, it won’t oxidize over time.

I say the best test is drink one and see if it is carbonated to your liking.

To quote Charlie Papazian, “Relax, have a homebrew!”