Improper keg carbonation?

[res0prw2]

I'm not sure if the original post took so if this is a duplicate (or wrong forum) please excuse it.

So I just recently kegged my first brew session and I might've messed up. After a 14 day primary I then transferred my fermentor to a chest freezer (future fermentation chamber) in order to cold crash prior to racking into my corny. I did a 5 day cold crash at 35 deg F and then went to rack into my keg. After cleaning, sanitizing and prepping everything, I transferred into my keg and began to pressurize to 30 psi with the intent of holding that pressure at 35 deg for 3 days and then lower to 12 psi for 2 days in the keggerator before enjoying my first home brewed beverage. Here is where I think I messed up.

I went to try my first glass yesterday (after waiting the planned number of days) and it had only a little head on it. It did not taste flat but it also did not taste like there was much carbonation in it either. The second glass had almost no head at all, and again, it did not taste like it was properly carbonated. After re-reading some posts/articles on forced carbonation, I realized I never swapped the posts on my keg so that the co2 would filter through the beer, nor did I shake the keg either as some suggest.

So here I am at work for the next 4 days and I was hoping the time sitting under 12 psi in the kegerator may help carbonate the beer, but now I'm thinking I might have to redo the forced carbonation when I get home. For general info it was a simple APA recipe I got online, and everything else seems to have come out right (although that is another story for another day ). Any and all help and advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[acidrain]

First question... is the beer cold? C02 will not devolve easily in warm beer.
I don't shake or bubble C02 through the out post. I set it at 30psi @ 34 deg F (with very little head space), and leave it alone for 48 hrs.
Then I turn it down to 12psi (10 foot x 3/13" lines), purge the higher pressure, and take a sample. Usually it requires a bit more carb, but it's always at least close.
Once I'm happy with the carb level, I set it and leave it alone.

 

[doug293cz]

I'm not sure if the original post took so if this is a duplicate (or wrong forum) please excuse it.

So I just recently kegged my first brew session and I might've messed up. After a 14 day primary I then transferred my fermentor to a chest freezer (future fermentation chamber) in order to cold crash prior to racking into my corny. I did a 5 day cold crash at 35 deg F and then went to rack into my keg. After cleaning, sanitizing and prepping everything, I transferred into my keg and began to pressurize to 30 psi with the intent of holding that pressure at 35 deg for 3 days and then lower to 12 psi for 2 days in the keggerator before enjoying my first home brewed beverage. Here is where I think I messed up.

I went to try my first glass yesterday (after waiting the planned number of days) and it had only a little head on it. It did not taste flat but it also did not taste like there was much carbonation in it either. The second glass had almost no head at all, and again, it did not taste like it was properly carbonated. After re-reading some posts/articles on forced carbonation, I realized I never swapped the posts on my keg so that the co2 would filter through the beer, nor did I shake the keg either as some suggest.

So here I am at work for the next 4 days and I was hoping the time sitting under 12 psi in the kegerator may help carbonate the beer, but now I'm thinking I might have to redo the forced carbonation when I get home. For general info it was a simple APA recipe I got online, and everything else seems to have come out right (although that is another story for another day ). Any and all help and advice is greatly appreciated.

Three days at 30 psi and 35°F should have resulted in overcarbonated beer. So, something doesn't add up here. Was the beer at 35°F the entire three days, and was the CO2 tank on the entire time?

It's not necessary to push CO2 into the beer out post to get accelerated carbonation. 36 hrs at 30 psi at around 39°F, followed by a couple of days at about 12 psi works for many people. If beer isn't cold when you apply pressure, then you might want to put the beer in the cooler and go for 48 hours at 30 psi.

If you want to carb faster than that, then cool the beer to about 39°F, and pressurize at about 12 psi. Then shake or roll the keg until you no longer hear gas entering the keg. Repeat the agitation every half hour or so until you don't hear and gas flow when you start agitating. Let the keg sit for a few hours before pouring. Don't try this method without a check valve between your keg and regulator.

Some people recommend the agitation method with pressures 2 - 3X higher than equilibrium, in order to carbonate even faster. Doing this has a high risk of overcarbonating, as it is a pretty much uncontrollable process. If you want to carb this way, learn how to fix an overcarbonated keg.

Brew on

 

[res0prw2]

Yes the beer was kept cold the whole time. I realized right after posting this duplicate post o) that due to lack of room in my kegerator, I only charged the keg and then removed the gas line in order to store it in my ferm chamber (which I was using to keep it cold at 35 deg). Rookie mistake.

Thanks for all the help though guys. I am going to let it rest at 12 psi, in the kegerator now, till next Friday and then I'm thinking it should be good to go.

 

[Natdavis777]

I agree with doug that 3 days would result in overcarbed beer. For most beers, I always do 30psi for 24 hrs then 12psi for the remainder and end up with a perfect pour/carb. I forgot about my hefe and let it go 36hrs @ 30psi and it was all foam.

Sounds like you may have a leak. When I was carbing my sour, it was still flat-ish around 36 hours so I investigated and found a small leak in my line. Fixed the leak, and fixed the carb issue.

I dont like the shake method as its not a "constant" . Each keg can vary. I also used to carb through the dip tube, but found out I got the same results carbing through the "gas" side. Therefore, I feel that is not a valuable way to carb.