Rhizome
Member
Hey folks,
So, after doing both force carb and natural carb on my kegs, I've decided I like natural carb better (there are endless threads on this, I know, but just my preference). To better monitor when it's complete, I bought a bleeder valve with a pressure gauge on it that attaches to the gas in stem of the keg. This allows me to watch the pressure increase as it carbonates. In the past, I've seen that once it hits 30 psi at room temperature and levels out, the beer ends up perfectly carbonated when chilled and delivered at 10 psi. This has always made sense to me because 30 psi is the equilibrium pressure for about 2.5 volumes of CO2 at 74 deg, and 10 psi is the equilibrium pressure for that same 2.5 volumes at my approximate serving temperature of 40 F.
Now to the question--my most recent keg has been sitting at about 15 psi for 3 weeks now (basically equal to the head pressure I put on it to seal the lid). This makes me think it didn't carbonate. On the one hand, my first thought is a leak in the keg, but it also seemed unlikely that the pressure would sit at virtually the same reading for 3 weeks with the leak being exactly the same rate as the carbonation that's being added from the conditioning. Thoughts?
I plan to chill the keg and try it and if it's indeed flat, I'll put 10-12 psi on it and do the shake-shake force carb method. So long as I don't over-pressure it, the keg should reach the same 2.5 volumes of CO2, yes?
Thanks in advance.
So, after doing both force carb and natural carb on my kegs, I've decided I like natural carb better (there are endless threads on this, I know, but just my preference). To better monitor when it's complete, I bought a bleeder valve with a pressure gauge on it that attaches to the gas in stem of the keg. This allows me to watch the pressure increase as it carbonates. In the past, I've seen that once it hits 30 psi at room temperature and levels out, the beer ends up perfectly carbonated when chilled and delivered at 10 psi. This has always made sense to me because 30 psi is the equilibrium pressure for about 2.5 volumes of CO2 at 74 deg, and 10 psi is the equilibrium pressure for that same 2.5 volumes at my approximate serving temperature of 40 F.
Now to the question--my most recent keg has been sitting at about 15 psi for 3 weeks now (basically equal to the head pressure I put on it to seal the lid). This makes me think it didn't carbonate. On the one hand, my first thought is a leak in the keg, but it also seemed unlikely that the pressure would sit at virtually the same reading for 3 weeks with the leak being exactly the same rate as the carbonation that's being added from the conditioning. Thoughts?
I plan to chill the keg and try it and if it's indeed flat, I'll put 10-12 psi on it and do the shake-shake force carb method. So long as I don't over-pressure it, the keg should reach the same 2.5 volumes of CO2, yes?
Thanks in advance.