HELP!!! Beer didn't carb

[tonymctones]

So I tried carbing my beer in a keg for the first time. I'm not quite sure what went wrong, maybe my refrigerator is too cold...iono.

The problem is that now I have keg full of beer that actually tastes pretty damn good except for the fact it's not very well carbonated.

Can I try to carb in bottles after I've tried to force carbonate in a keg?

I didn't filter the beer so I imagine there is still yeast floating around although it has been probably 2 months since I pitched the yeast.

 

[Sammy86]

So I tried carbing my beer in a keg for the first time. I'm not quite sure what went wrong, maybe my refrigerator is too cold...iono. Unless your fridge is below 32° F I doubt it CO2 absorbs better in colder condition

The problem is that now I have keg full of beer that actually tastes pretty damn good except for the fact it's not very well carbonated.

Can I try to carb in bottles after I've tried to force carbonate in a keg? Again, no...you risk oxidation transferring it and besides this is an easy fix.

I didn't filter the beer so I imagine there is still yeast floating around although it has been probably 2 months since I pitched the yeast.

What PSI and Temp are you at? More info will be extremely helpful!

 

[woo_pig]

Keep at it you will get it .It's not trashed yet. Keep it in high pressure . Like 45 psi. It could care in 24-48 hours. I might be wrong. I have only been doing this for a couple months .But it works for me .

 

[obsessedbrewing]

Check out this handy-dandy force carb chart to see if you set your regulator and temperature properly.

Your setup and process might vary, but here's a good start:

1. Chill beer in keg to 35°F.
2. Hook up CO2 to keg and open any valves to allow constant gas supply to keg.
3. Adjust CO2 regulator to 12-14psi.
4. Allow keg to sit with gas supply ON for 5-7 days.
5. Hook up beer out line and sample on day 5 to test carbonation level. If it's how you like it, then you can turn off the constant supply of gas to your keg.
6. To maintain your carb level, you'll need to open the CO2 supply into the keg after each pour.

There are faster ways to carb, but 99% of beers will taste better after a week in the keg anyway, so there's really no rush to taste it before then, unless you're rushing it to pour at an event or something like that.

 

[tonymctones]

What PSI and Temp are you at? More info will be extremely helpful!

Hi Sammy, so I originally started with 15 PSI for a week but after I tried it bumped it up to 20PSI and let it sit for another week.

Unfortunately I'm brewing in an apartment so I only have my full size fridge that doesn't have a temp gauge. I think it's pretty close to freezing though bc I make crystal light and put ice in the container and it will stay there for a few days before finally melting.

I have one of the last straw fillers which allows me to purge the bottle with CO2 before filling so I think I would be ok on the oxidation portion.

 

[tonymctones]

Check out this handy-dandy force carb chart to see if you set your regulator and temperature properly.

Your setup and process might vary, but here's a good start:

1. Chill beer in keg to 35°F.
2. Hook up CO2 to keg and open any valves to allow constant gas supply to keg.
3. Adjust CO2 regulator to 12-14psi.
4. Allow keg to sit with gas supply ON for 5-7 days.
5. Hook up beer out line and sample on day 5 to test carbonation level. If it's how you like it, then you can turn off the constant supply of gas to your keg.
6. To maintain your carb level, you'll need to open the CO2 supply into the keg after each pour.

There are faster ways to carb, but 99% of beers will taste better after a week in the keg anyway, so there's really no rush to taste it before then, unless you're rushing it to pour at an event or something like that.

Hey obsessed, this is pretty much exactly what I did and it's still not carbed very well.

I kept the supply line open though while pouring my test pull though

 

[RedlegEd]

Tony,
What happens when you pull on the purge ring (assuming you have ball lock kegs?) Do you get a nice long, loud hiss of CO2 escaping or a short little burst? It sounds as if your keg isn't holding pressure, and therefore not carbonating your beer.

 

[tonymctones]

Tony,
What happens when you pull on the purge ring (assuming you have ball lock kegs?) Do you get a nice long, loud hiss of CO2 escaping or a short little burst? It sounds as if your keg isn't holding pressure, and therefore not carbonating your beer.

Hey redlegEd, so I'm not sure exactly what it should sound like but I got what I would consider more of a short burst for a second or two and them it reduced to a pretty low hiss.

I noticed that the 5lb CO2 tank which was full is down quite a bit especially considering this was the only keg I've used it for

 

[doug293cz]

Hi Sammy, so I originally started with 15 PSI for a week but after I tried it bumped it up to 20PSI and let it sit for another week.

Unfortunately I'm brewing in an apartment so I only have my full size fridge that doesn't have a temp gauge. I think it's pretty close to freezing though bc I make crystal light and put ice in the container and it will stay there for a few days before finally melting.

I have one of the last straw fillers which allows me to purge the bottle with CO2 before filling so I think I would be ok on the oxidation portion.

Did you leave the CO2 valves open the whole time? There was a thread yesterday from another newbie kegger who pressurized and then shut off the gas, not realizing that it had to be left on for the carbonation process to work.

Brew on

 

[Sammy86]

Hi Sammy, so I originally started with 15 PSI for a week but after I tried it bumped it up to 20PSI and let it sit for another week.

Unfortunately I'm brewing in an apartment so I only have my full size fridge that doesn't have a temp gauge. I think it's pretty close to freezing though bc I make crystal light and put ice in the container and it will stay there for a few days before finally melting.

I have one of the last straw fillers which allows me to purge the bottle with CO2 before filling so I think I would be ok on the oxidation portion.

Tony, I wouldn't move it it bottles just my .02...at fridge temps and that PSI you should be near carbonation levels...what type of keg are you using and length of line to serve? Maybe you need to up the PSI for serving???

Keep us posted brew brother!

 

[tonymctones]

Did you leave the CO2 valves open the whole time? There was a thread yesterday from another newbie kegger who pressurized and then shut off the gas, not realizing that it had to be left on for the carbonation process to work.

Brew on

Hey Doug no I kept the gas on at all times. I'm fairly new to brewing and very new to kegging but I have a lot of experience with paintball guns both CO2 and high pressure so I feel pretty confident in dealing with the keg, regs and fittings.

 

[tonymctones]

Tony, I wouldn't move it it bottles just my .02...at fridge temps and that PSI you should be near carbonation levels...what type of keg are you using and length of line to serve? Maybe you need to up the PSI for serving???

Keep us posted brew brother!

Thanks for the input Sammy, my issue is as this is my normal fridge and not one set aside for just brewing I've been down to 2 shelves for 2 weeks now LOL it's beginning to be a pain in the ace.

It's a ball lock corny keg I got from norther brewer along with the 5lb co2 bottle and dual reg.

I may try and give it a few more days though

 

[MapleGroveAleworks]

How long since you first began carbonating it?

 

[maazak]

You can can carb warm by the way. Look at the force carb chart posted earlier in this thread. No need to use fridge space until a few days before you are wanting to serve. Without a dedicated fridge j would set my regulator to 25 and put it in a closet for a week.

 

[doug293cz]

Hey Doug no I kept the gas on at all times. I'm fairly new to brewing and very new to kegging but I have a lot of experience with paintball guns both CO2 and high pressure so I feel pretty confident in dealing with the keg, regs and fittings.

Ok, another possibility is overfilling the keg. Physics says the beer has to carbonate eventually if the partial pressure of CO2 in the headspace is adequate. The rate of CO2 absorption by the beer is proportional to the interface area between the gas in the headspace and the beer. If you fill above the cylindrical portion of the keg, the headspace interface area starts decreasing rapidly. If you decrease the diameter of the headspace interface by 2, the area decreases by 4, the rate of CO2 absorption decreases by 4, and it will take 4 times longer to carbonate.

Brew on

 

[atoughram]

Another option....

Boil 2.5oz of table sugar into a couple of cups of water and dump into the keg of flat beer. Seal it up and keep it at room temperature for a couple of weeks....

Carbonated beer...

 

[idiotsinc]

You said the CO2 tank went down in a short time. Sounds like a leak. Don't know of anything that would cause a substantial CO2 loss except a leak. Spray some sanitizing solution around all the fittings to find the leak. I've read the other options but I'm a firm believer in the KISS theory of problem solving. Then again my SWMBO says I'm an idiot.

 

[doug293cz]

...

I noticed that the 5lb CO2 tank which was full is down quite a bit especially considering this was the only keg I've used it for

I see you have the tank in the fridge. If you first looked at the tank pressure while it was still warm, and then looked later after it had cooled, that explains the big pressure drop. A CO2 tank at 70˚F will have a pressure of 853 psi, and a tank at 30˚F will be at 491 psi, as long as there is some liquid CO2 in the tank. No CO2 loss needed to get this pressure drop.

Brew on

 

[doug293cz]

Another, even less likely, possibility for failure to carb is forgetting to purge the air from the headspace. The carbonation charts and calculators assume that the headspace is 100% CO2, so that if the gauge pressure is 15 psi, the CO2 partial pressure (and absolute pressure) is 29.7 psi. If the headspace wasn't purged, then the air partial pressure would be 14.7 psi, and the CO2 partial pressure would be 15 psi, which is equivalent to 0.3 psig of pure CO2. You won't get much carbonation from that.

Brew on

 

[obsessedbrewing]

The first thing you should check for is a leak somewhere in the system. Could be the keg, but also check the hose connections at the regulator and also at the quick disconnect. You can spray Star-San on the suspect areas and see if it bubbles. Report back after you've done the leak tests and we can help you out from there.

 

[doug293cz]

The first thing you should check for is a leak somewhere in the system. Could be the keg, but also check the hose connections at the regulator and also at the quick disconnect. You can spray Star-San on the suspect areas and see if it bubbles. Report back after you've done the leak tests and we can help you out from there.

A leak will not cause failure to carb, unless the leak is so fast that the appropriate CO2 partial pressure cannot be maintained in the keg headspace. If the CO2 partial pressure in the headspace is correct, the beer will carb eventually.

Brew on

 

[Yooper]

How are you dispensing? The reason I ask is that if you are using a picnic tap, with a short serving line, the beer comes out really fast, and will get a big head of foam, while the beer itself seems very low in carbonation. That's because there isn't enough restriction in the serving line, and so the c02 comes out as foam instead of staying in the beer properly. And sometimes, people pinch the tap to try to slow down the pour, but that makes it worse as it's like pinching a garden hose (which then shoots harder).

Make sure you open the tap fully and completely, and have at least 10-15 feet of 3/16" serving line for a psi of 15.

 

[obsessedbrewing]

A leak will not cause failure to carb, unless the leak is so fast that the appropriate CO2 partial pressure cannot be maintained in the keg headspace. If the CO2 partial pressure in the headspace is correct, the beer will carb eventually.

Thanks for the info, but there are a lot of unknowns and assumptions you're making. Regardless of the rate of leak, the OP should still determine if there is a leak to prevent problems in the future, right? We're just trying to help him run through basic troubleshooting steps. Start with the easy stuff to fix and then move on to more complex issues.

 

[doug293cz]

Thanks for the info, but there are a lot of unknowns and assumptions you're making. Regardless of the rate of leak, the OP should still determine if there is a leak to prevent problems in the future, right? We're just trying to help him run through basic troubleshooting steps. Start with the easy stuff to fix and then move on to more complex issues.

Yes leak testing is a good idea, but it is a separate item (almost always) from diagnosing carbonation issues. Normally a leak manifests itself by all of your CO2 disappearing in a few hours or days.

Brew on

 

[obsessedbrewing]

Yes leak testing is a good idea, but it is a separate item (almost always) from diagnosing carbonation issues.

"Almost always" doesn't mean never. It's a possibility and should be checked to eliminate it from concern.

Normally a leak manifests itself by all of your CO2 disappearing in a few hours or days.

OP reported a drop in CO2 tank pressure.

I don't know you, so maybe you're really nice and good at solving problems in your brewery. However, this is pretty much troubleshooting 101 here in that we start with verifying/correcting the basics and simple things first, then work our way deeper into more complex causes. It's really not helpful to have someone on a thread answering for the OP when they don't have all the facts, especially when you're disagreeing with possible causes/solutions.

For example, a bar I just visited said a beer was pouring foamy all day and they blamed the brewery for over carbing the keg and wanted a refund. I pulled the tap and it poured foam, but it was more like beer with huge bubbles out of the tap, not sputtering or pouring tall standing creamy head. I looked in the fridge and saw that the beer line I had just pulled was empty. I pulled it again and it cleared the air and then started foaming again. I quickly looked at the line and watched as the beer sunk back down into the keg. It told me that the problem was a leak somewhere between the tap and the keg letting air in, not over-carbonation. I pulled off the sanke coupler, ran my finger around the gasket, then reattached it and pulled the tap. Boom, beer stayed in the line, no foam. It was as simple as someone not properly seating the coupler. Sure, it could have been other things, but it would have taken a lot longer if I had pulled out a calculator and started trying to figure out the volume of the keg, serving pressure, temperature of the fridge, partial pressure in the head space, etc. instead of checking the simplest solution first.

Troubleshooting 101: start with the simple things.