Flat keg brew

[VillageBrew]

This is my first attempt at homebrewing and it has been madness after the fermentation process.
I syphoned out the beer, without disturbance, into my keg and saw that it was not at the full level. Added room temp water to bring up the volume. I then hooked it up to the CO2. I gave it a few shakes that evening, but in the morning I found that I had a CO2 leak and was completely empty. I couldn't get a new tank until the next evening. Fixed the leak, or so I thought. Hooked that new tank up and found that the pressure was dropping after several more hours. Closed the valves and had to wait until the next evening to get replacement parts. Tank is now holding pressure, but the beer is flat after being on the CO2 for two days. The keg has been in the frig. at approx 40 degrees the whole time. The beer is a Hefeweizen kit.

In a nut shell;
Wednesday evening- beer went into keg.
Thursday- found CO2 tank empty and had the leak fixed.
Friday evening- attached new tank.
Sunday night- beer is still flat tasting. No head at all when beeing poured from keg tap. Decent taste, but really flat.

I was told that I did not need to add any priming sugar. Am I rushing this a bit?

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

How much co2 for two days? I can get a beer carbed in 48-72 hrs using 30psi and no shaking. But it takes a week or two at say, 10 psi to carbonate.

 

[badhabit]

You are fine, the beer is clean...you got the inital CO2 in, now you just have to finish what you started. You got one day in now just do the rest of what ever your plan was in the first place.

 

[VillageBrew]

When I was inquiring about kegging my first batch, the amount of psi pressure never came up. I have had it at 10 psi. I will turn it up when I get home. Thanks!

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

Ten psi will carb it, it just takes awhile. It's called the 'set and forget' method. 30 psi for two or three days should carb it. Make sure you back off to ten psi after that though or you'll overcarb. And remember, even after blast carbing for a couple days and having carbed beer, give it another week or so at ten psi and it'll be great.

 

[hough77]

How much co2 for two days? I can get a beer carbed in 48-72 hrs using 30psi and no shaking. But it takes a week or two at say, 10 psi to carbonate.

+1, that's my current method, I'm drinking a nicely carbed beer in 3 days, compared to shaking the keg and wasting beer because you are pouring pure foam for a week!
Plus you had a leak the whole time, should go a lot smoother now that the leak is fixed.

 

[Bobby_M]

Read the sticky in the bottling/kegging sub forum.

 

[bannonb]

don't add tap water, just live with smaller volume.

There's enough alcohol to kill bacteria probably, but why dilute your brew that you worked to hit gravities and hop bittering values?

My 2 cents.

Beersmith tells you exactly how many lbs to carb with. I have been kegging for 2 years and still don't have the accelerated carbing down to a science...but I use 20 lbs for 2 days then down to the recommended amount (12-15 usually) for the rest of the week.

Have fun.

 

[Yooper]

don't add tap water, just live with smaller volume.

This. In my opinion, very few beers would taste better watered down. No one I know adds water to a perfectly good beer, as it's better to have 4.5 gallons of a good beer than 4.5 gallons of beer plus .5 gallons of water. Anyway, it's too late now but I wouldn't recommend ever doing that again!

If you can fix your co2 leaks, you'll be all set. Sometimes the leaks are hard to find, and require some soapy water squirted everywhere. Once you fix them, though, you shouldn't go through co2 so fast.

Setting the regulator at 12 psi at 40 degrees should carb up the beer just fine, but it will take about 10 days. If you're in a huge hurry, you could set it at 30 psi for 36 hours, purge by pulling the pressure relief valve, then reset to 12 psi. That should take about 3 days total. I'm not a fan of burst carbing by shaking the keg, as I hear mostly about foamy beer from that technique.