First time kegging, did I under/overcarb?

[airlocker]

Hi,

This is my first time kegging my first batch. Basically, everything 1st I cold crashed the beer for 24 hours at ~40F. Transferred the beer (I brew a saison), purged the air out with 5 PSI couple of times. Then I put the pressure to 30 PSI, rocked for 1.5 minutes. Purged and repeated again. Connected the 7" beverage line, poured a pint... Regular head but it did not retain for long. Billions of tiny bubbles in a glass. I can swirl and a small head develops. Questions:

1. Did I overcarb or undercarb it?
2. Do I leave it at 30 PSI inside the fridge for a couple of days?
3. Do I dial the pressure down to 5 PSI and leave it for a couple of days?

Please advise.

Thanks.

 

[Toy4Rick]

7 inch (") or 7 foot (') beer lines hope the later. 30 PSI for a couple days after force carb for 1.5 mins twice is over carb'd IMO. I would drop the PSI to serving pressure of about 10, bleed off the excess several times over several days and let it balance out

Good luck
Rick

 

[LLBeanJ]

Sounds to me like it's not quite carbed up all the way, but is getting there. I say this because you did not get a glass full of foam, which would be a dead giveaway that you overcarbed. Turn the gas down to 10 psi and leave it there until it finishes carbing. Could take another week, but it should be drinkable now and will get better every day.

Edit: Let me also add... If you're going to burst carb doing the rocking method, do it at serving pressure (10-12 psi) and you will never overcarb it. Doing it at 30 psi is an invitation for overcarbing. The fact that you only rocked for a couple of 1.5 minute bursts is what saved you from overcarbing.

 

[liquidlunch]

Not enough carbonation yet IMO drop the PSI down and let it go another week and it will get better with time.

 

[airlocker]

Thanks! Do I keep bleeding it daily or just set the regulator to 10 PSI and leave the gas on (hopefully no leaks!)?

 

[LLBeanJ]

Just set it to 10 and leave it.

 

[airlocker]

What confused me is this statement from another thread:

If you carbonate at 17 PSI then drop to 10 PSI, the beer will release CO2 until it equilibrates with the 10 PSI...the result, after a few days, is undercarbonated beer.

(link)

Since I initially burst carbed it at 30 PSI and now it's sitting with gas on at 10 PSI, wouldn't it just level at 10 PSI and be undercarbed?

 

[theck]

Set at what you need for your temp and leave it for a week or two. Never have an issue again.

 

[Yooper]

What confused me is this statement from another thread:

(link)

Since I initially burst carbed it at 30 PSI and now it's sitting with gas on at 10 PSI, wouldn't it just level at 10 PSI and be undercarbed?

What is the temperature? At 10 psi, if it's at 36 degrees that should be about right. Mine is 12 psi, at 40 degrees.

"Burst carbing" almost never works, if you shake the keg. You have no way to know how carbed up it is, and it may foam.

If you are in a HUGE hurry, set the cold beer (no shaking!) in the kegerator at 30 psi for 24 hours, then purge and reset at the proper pressure. It will be pretty good in 36 hours that way without foaming or over- or under- carbonation issues.

The most reliable way is to set it in the kegerator at the proper pressure and wait 10 days, but I don't have time for that!

 

[LLBeanJ]

To piggyback on what Yooper added...

Here is a link to a carb chart. Most ales should be carbed to 2.3-2.5 vols.

Looking at the chart, at 40°F, you would need 10 PSI to achieve 2.3 vols of CO2 in your beer. The chart works and is pretty accurate.

The thing with carbonating with CO2 is that it takes a while for the liquid to absorb the gas. If you set it to 10 PSI per the example above and leave it there, it will take a couple of weeks to absorb fully to the 2.3 vols. When you burst carbed at 30 PSI, that effectively sped up the process, but with only a total of about 3 minutes of shaking, you didn't get up to the 2.3 vols you would like to have. If you would have shaken it longer you would have gotten there and then very likely gone way above 2.3 vols and then you would be overcarbonated. The danger with burst carbonating is that there is always the potential for overshooting, so you need to be mindful of this.

When burst carbing, the idea is to sneak up on it to the point where it's still undercarbed, but carbed enough to drink and enjoy. Then you dial it down to the pressure that will put the carbonation where you want it to be (per the chart) and let it finish carbonating over the next week or so. At that setting, it will stop carbonating when it has absorbed as much CO2 as the pressure can force into the liquid and there will be no danger of overcarbonating.

 

[airlocker]

Thank you all.