Keg Carbing..need advice/help

[dammBrewer]

I have a question about keg carbing and could use your quick opinions here, thanks in advance. First, a little backstory....sorry.

I have been kegging my homebrew for a few years now, never had this issue before. But, I made a brew, crashed it, cleared it, and kegged it. Then put 5 psi Co2 on it for a week or so at room temp. Then put it in a chest keezer just to keep it chilled. Well, the temp probe fell off the keg "froze" not solid, but close. I thawed the keg at room temp for 2 days and all was back to "normal".

Problem now, and my question is, why can't I get this thing to carbonate? I have it in my keezer, 44ish degrees, sitting on Co2 just like the other 3 kegs in there with it. But this one won't carbonate. I have turned the valves off on the other 3 and cranked this one up to 25 psi for 3 days (honestly expected over carbing at that point). But when I poured a pint last night, nothing. Very little head, thin body, and no mouthfeel. Good taste but nothing past that. I have checked for gas leaks, none found. The tank itself isn't loosing pressure (still at 750ish) so no regulator leak. All the other beers in there were treated very close to the same way when they were "tapped". Is it possible that when the keg "froze" that the left over proteins or whatever is needed went away and the Co2 can't grab onto enough to carb the beer? Seems odd to me but yet it seems to be the only thing that is different than "normal".

Anyone else ever experience this? Thanks in advance everyone.

 

[billl]

Nothing needs to "grab on" to CO2. You can carbonate plain water if you want. If the beer isn't carbed, it wasn't actually exposed to 25 psi for 3 days.

Have you tried venting the keg and then making sure it refills? You could have gotten some gunk in the poppit or tube

 

[dammBrewer]

Nothing needs to "grab on" to CO2. You can carbonate plain water if you want. If the beer isn't carbed, it wasn't actually exposed to 25 psi for 3 days.

Have you tried venting the keg and then making sure it refills? You could have gotten some gunk in the poppit or tube

Thanks for the post, yeah, i didn't think there was anything to "grab onto" but I just couldn't think of anything else as to why it wouldn't work. Yes, I have carbonated plain water before too lol.

I did bleed it off and it did in fact refill again with "25psi" and didn't show any signs of leaking. Could be a bad poppit though too...didn't check that part (just checked it for leaks). I will check that tonight. Thanks.

This is all very perplexing IMO Perhaps I should just RDWHAHB...oh wait....I can but it's going to be flat .

 

[55x11]

I have a question about keg carbing and could use your quick opinions here, thanks in advance. First, a little backstory....sorry.

I have been kegging my homebrew for a few years now, never had this issue before. But, I made a brew, crashed it, cleared it, and kegged it. Then put 5 psi Co2 on it for a week or so at room temp. Then put it in a chest keezer just to keep it chilled. Well, the temp probe fell off the keg "froze" not solid, but close. I thawed the keg at room temp for 2 days and all was back to "normal".

Problem now, and my question is, why can't I get this thing to carbonate? I have it in my keezer, 44ish degrees, sitting on Co2 just like the other 3 kegs in there with it. But this one won't carbonate. I have turned the valves off on the other 3 and cranked this one up to 25 psi for 3 days (honestly expected over carbing at that point). But when I poured a pint last night, nothing. Very little head, thin body, and no mouthfeel. Good taste but nothing past that. I have checked for gas leaks, none found. The tank itself isn't loosing pressure (still at 750ish) so no regulator leak. All the other beers in there were treated very close to the same way when they were "tapped". Is it possible that when the keg "froze" that the left over proteins or whatever is needed went away and the Co2 can't grab onto enough to carb the beer? Seems odd to me but yet it seems to be the only thing that is different than "normal".

Anyone else ever experience this? Thanks in advance everyone.

Does it really feel like it's under 25 psi when you pull the gas release ring (or just press gas in poppet)? You can probably tell by now the difference between 5psi and 25 psi.

Freezing shouldn't affect anything.

What temperature are you carbing at 25 psi? Are you sure it's actually cold? (as in - is the beer coming out as cold as you think it should be?)

Thin body/mouthfeel should be a different story from lack of carbonation (even though CO2 greatly affects how the beer is perceived, taste-wise).

Also - when you say "tank itself isn't loosing pressure (still at 750ish)" - that's not really a good check because the secondary gauge is measuring CO2 gas pressure, while it's the CO2 liquid inside, so you could be losing CO2 - that gauge will remain at the same level until you completely run out of liquid CO2, at which point the tank is basically empty.

Even if you are losing CO2 - the real question is - does CO2 get into your keg at 25 psi and sub-40F temperature. If so, it should be carbed in a day or two.