Just over a week under pressure and no fizz!!

[Brewing Clamper]

[rant]I kegged two brews a week ago Saturday, put them in my 'rator (40F) under 14PSI. I go to pull a pint and nothing but flatness from both. I have 50+ people showing up here for a party saturday. What gives!?! I guess I'm gonna have to do the old 30PSI & shake like mad trick... I just didn't want to do that... [\rant]

 

[gresc]

I can sympathize ; I have the same problem for every bloody ale I've ever brewed. Same conditions that you've described and always flat after a week. I finally gave up and cranked the CO2 up and force carbed it. The only thing I do is check it often to make sure I don't over do it. I've let an ale stay @ 13psi and it took about a month b4 it was carbed, same temp. I'm just too impatient to wait, it was quite good though.

 

[malkore]

force carbing is when you put beer on gas. period. you can do it slow, or fast.

the issue is that your keg carbs from the top, down...but draws beer from the bottom.

you can bump the psi up a little more, but first take it off the gas, vent it, and open the lid. use a sanitized spoon to gently stir the beer in a lifting motion...mixing the carb'd top with the flat bottom.

the less gentle option is to crank it to 30psi, and shake it a few times for a day, then back it down to 10-12psi and wait.

also keep in mind the beer in your tap/draft lines is not carbing, so you might get a pretty flat first beer, but the second might be a lot closer to ready.

 

[RichBrewer]

You can bump the pressure to 30PSI and rock the keg gently on your knees for about 5 minutes. The beer will then be carbonated but will need to rest a day so you don't get all foam. When the beer covers the gas in tube you can gear the bubbles entering the keg
I keep the gas in side of the keg up to prevent beer from getting into the CO2 line.

 

[Bobby_M]

That's why a lot of us have been giving it a little boost on day one. 30 psi, aggitate keg until no more gas flows, then leave it 24 hours. Now drop it to 12psi and wait a few more days. Perfect.

 

[shafferpilot]

I accidently figured out a slightly easier way. 60psi is as high as my regulator goes, and I carbed a keg in about 10 minutes with that pressure and a little rocking of the kegs inside the kegerator. Admitedly, the next day, it was WAY overcarbed and required some venting to make it right again. I only did this because a leak in the system had emptied my bottle and flattened all of my kegs and a party was only a few days away. That's one of the only times that my frustrated out-lashings worked out

 

[BrewPuppy]

I go to 25psi and roll the cold keg quickly back and forth on the floor (gas in port on top) for 10 minutes. I disconnect the CO2 and it goes back into the fridge (without discharging any CO2). The beer is ready to go the next day.
I have also just let it sit that way in the fridge for weeks without a problem. I just have to remember to relieve the pressure before the keg goes on line.

 

[BierMuncher]

Please don't shake, rock or roll that keg. You'll loose what precious clarity you've acheived in the last week.

Set your PSI to 35 and leave it. Check it every 6 hours (make sure when testing it, you shut off the gas, bleed excess pressure from keg, and draw a glass at 5PSI)

My normal MO for force carbing is: 35PSI for 36 hours. Reduce gas to 10-12PSI and within a few hours it's spot on.

Don't worry, you have plenty of time to get a good beer ready for Saturday.

 

[Brewing Clamper]

Thanks guys for the pep talk! Thanks BM too, that's pretty much what I did. I was too tired last night to deal with it so I just cranked it up to 30PSI and dropped the temp to about 35F. I was planning on checking it later today. I do totally agree with the clarity issue. It was pretty darned clear when I racked to the keg, but once it cools there's always some more stuff that drops out. Hopefully I'll be good and ready to go soon.

 

[Brewing Clamper]

Yeap, Just pulled a nice pint of my version of the hob gobblin and it's now perfectly carbed. That's what 32"F and 30PSI will do in a day and a half! Sah-weet!

 

[TexLaw]

I'm glad BM came on and told you not to shake carbonate a beer you want clear for tomorrow!

In the future, try this after you first keg: Chill the beer down to whatever temperature you will store the beer (which I usually do before kegging), put a liquid fitting on your gas line, set your regulator to your desired final pressure (here, 14 PSI, I guess?), hook the gas line to your liquid post, shake the keg until you no longer hear gas bubbling up through the beer, unhook the gas line and replace the liquid fitting with a gas fitting, hook the gas line to the gas post.

That gets you faster carbonation at your desired steady state. You won't have to mess with bleeding and all the other mess that comes with overcarbing, and you won't have to babysit the beer while it carbonates.


TL