Help with kegging

[Nommag]

Hi everyone,

I just finished my first brew (very proud it tastes good) and have put it in a 19l corny keg. I connected it to c02 and set to 30psi and rolled on ground for 5 minutes, then placed in fridge and left at 30psi for 24 hours. Once the 24 hours was up I lowered the psi to 5, burped the corny keg and poured with a tap attached directly to the keg (no tubing, just straight on the post) All that came out was foam. I then left keg at 5psi overnight (about 10 hours ago) and poured some this morning, again all foam.

I have turned to 10psi and am letting it sit, i'm worried i've ruined the keg worth of beer. What should i do!?

 

[bleme]

It definitely isn't ruined. One great thing about kegs is the ability to adjust carbonation, but it might cost you a few pints. I would take it off the gas completely, burp it, and try to pull a pint tomorrow. Do that each day until the carbonation is where you want it, then put it back on 10 psi gas.

If it is foamy again the next day, I'd say your serving lines are too short and you would need to address that problem. You can let the keg sit until then, or just turn down the PSI 1 or 2 a day until it pours OK. By that point, it won't be as carbed as it should be, but it will still be beer.

In the future, don't shake your keg. It is nearly impossible to hit proper carbonation that way without a LOT of failed experimentation and experience.

 

[DayLghtBreaks]

Yeah what Bleme said, not ruined, but I would attached 5-10 feet of tubing or you're probably going to keep getting foam. I carb most of my ales at 10-12psi @ 40°F with 10 feet of tubing, never have any foaming issues.

 

[bleme]

I missed the part where he attached the tap with no tubing. That is always going to cause problems unless you are serving something 'cask style'.

 

[Nommag]

Thanks for the responses. I have turned the psi to 0 and burped keg. Ill get some hose and connect the tap with a meter or two of hosing. I will set PSI back up to 10 when i connect hose and try pour? Thoughts on that strategy?

 

[DayLghtBreaks]

I think you'll be good with that, enjoy the fruits of your labor.

 

[DVCNick]

Random thoughts:
-Shaking it warm probably didn't get that much gas into it.
-You should have 10-20 feet of 3/8" line to avoid foaming with proper carbonation at a reasonable keg pressure. If the line can be chilled, that is better. If the glass is cold, that is better.
-I would actually bet that despite the foam you are seeing with the current setup (due to no line), you are actually still under carbed. You've only been chilled and under pressure for about 24 hours if I'm reading it right?

What I do after having tried various things:

-20 ft of 3/8 line
-Refrigerator temp glasses
-48 hours at 30 PSI while chilling
-Reduce pressure to 12-15 psi, wait till at least 5 days total. For me it becomes drinkable at about 5 days, better at 7+.

I don't know why, but, I read this when I started and it is the truth: When you carb really fast, you get big bubbles and head that doesn't stick around, like that on a Coke. Most of the carb comes out and you are drinking a pretty flat beer. You have to give it some time for that small bubble, thick head to develop. I don't know the physics of why.

 

[Nommag]

Hey, I'll give that a go. Ill bump up PSI to 30 for another 24 hours (already had 24), and then lower to 12 this time tomorrow. Ive had to order some stuff to add a line to the mix which probably wont be here till Tuesday so can sit at 12 till then. Thanks for the advice

*Was cold when i shook it, I have temp control and had cold crashed for 2 days

 

[camonick]

Random thoughts:
...
-You should have 10-20 feet of 3/8" line to avoid foaming with proper carbonation at a reasonable keg pressure....

What I do after having tried various things:

...-20 ft of 3/8 line...

Did you mean 3/16” liquid tubing? 3/8 is huge for short lengths.

 

[Nommag]

I went out and got two meters of 3/8 (smallest size i could get at hardware store), fingers crossed that is enough. Did seem huge, if too big I will order some smaller tubing at longer lengths.

 

[DVCNick]

YES! sorry, that is important. Good catch. 3/16.

Man I'm really sorry if you went out and bought the wrong diameter because of my post. Just spaced on that number for some reason. The diameter is very important too.

 

[Nommag]

My two local options are here: https://www.brewshop.co.nz/kegging/bs-beer-line.html - I assume the small one is 3/16, sorry i'm not very good with the conversion from mm/cms to inches/feet

 

[camonick]

I would use the smaller diameter and soak the ends in boiling water for 20-30 seconds before pushing onto your barbed fittings. Since you are using metric figures, I would recommend 4-5 meters at a minimum if you want to serve at 10 psi or above.

 

[Gulo_gulo]

You should buy beverage tubing, not the PVC from the hardware store. And from what I've experienced usually about 6 to 8 feet is good for typical setups, for being able to set to about 10 to 12 psi for serving, at about 35 to 38F for typical carbonation volume, for many styles. But length of tubing is something dependent on your setup (e.g. amount of vertical rise, diameter of tubing), temp, and serving pressure.

And I think for your first time at this, and seeing as how you're having problems, you should stop with the 30psi method and stick to the set it and forget it method. I suspect you're going to overcarb it on accident cause you're hurrying. It seems better to me that you figure a few things out first, before trying to expedite the carbing process.

And once it's overcarbed it takes a while to get the gas out of the beer. If you do overcarb, you need to take off the gas (setting the regulator to zero the build of pressure in keg will push gas and foam or liquid into the co2 bottle without a one way valve) then purge the keg using the pressure release tab/ring often, until it's offgassed enough. Not worth risking that (cause it's a pain) until you figure things out better.

 

[Alex4mula]

I read these cases and see how lucky I am to have a keezer (actually have two). I cold crash to 33-34F and keg. Then carb with a stone (7-9-11-13-15-17psi 2.5hrs rampup) at same temperature and is ready in 14-20hrs. I serve with 5’ lines.

 

[Nommag]

You should buy beverage tubing, not the PVC from the hardware store.

I had already ordered the keg connector and a barbed tap shank from store so emailed to add on 4 meters of their PVC tube.

I turned it down from 30psi to 12psi (about 2 hours after i was told to turn it back up to 30psi). I dont have a non return valve but am getting a gas distributor which splits three ways and has built in non return valve. I assume four-five days at 12psi should be enough?

I would say the keg is between 1-3 degrees atm without checking the temp.

I don't think the beer is over gassed and I suspect this because when I turned off the gas nothing came out, not even foam when I pulled the tap handle. I read over gassed beer can self pour for a time with not extra PSI added

 

[DVCNick]

I only ever over-carbed one keg trying to get it done faster, and that was four days at 30psi. It was especially foamy at first, but after that, I just fed it very little gas for a while and gas coming out of solution was enough to slow-pour it. After a while (but long before the keg was gone) it returned to looking normal and I locked it into standard serving pressure with no further ill effects.

In my experience you will need more than 4-5 days at 12PSI to get it right if you are not doing a higher pressure burst up front.

But, keep in mind also that all these little gauges aren't quite accurate (I have ones that read a couple PSI apart on the exact same keg at the same time) and every system is going to be just a little different. You can read on the internet to get in the ballpark, but trial and error on your system to get it to your tastes is going to likely be necessary in the end as well.

 

[Nommag]

4metres of tubing appears to have done the trick. Cheers for the help everyone.

 

[Day-Day]

Watch this video...



I did this with a Two Hearted clone that I over carbed by the shaking method... and did what this guy said and it worked perfect... I've since stopped using the shake method... I just put it on 30 PSI for 24-48 hours then turn it down to serving pressure and wait it out...but the method in the video will fix your foamy corny keg...

It sounds counterintutive to push more gas through the already foamy beer... but it does push the excess C02 out and leaves your beer perfectly carbed if you follow his steps exactly.