Keg force carbing time- beer vs sparkling wine

[badmajon]

Hello all, I have been kegging my beer for several years now and I always do the same thing- 3 days at 30 psi and I always get carbonated beer.

5 days ago I kegged some white wine in hopes of making sparkling wine. I did the usual thing and set to 30 psi. Well, it’s been 5 days and the wine is barely carbed at all.

What gives? Is there a scientific reason why my wine would resist carbonation? My taprite regulator says 30 psi. I’m sure it’s been 5 days. Is this a known issue? Science please someone!

 

[mredge73]

Carbonation is related to pressure and temperature.
30psi at 65F will get you 2.5vol, perfect for beer.

What level carbonation do you want the wine at?
If you want it higher carbonated than beer you will need to drop the temperature or increase the pressure.

Also, make sure you have some head space in the keg; the more surface area the less time it takes.

This chart only goes out to 30psi:
http://www.kegerators.com/carbonation-table.php

 

[balrog]

Quick Google, from here,

Here are some rules of thumb:**
Beer = 2 to 4 volumes, or 2 to 6 g/L.
Seltzer = Around 4 volumes, or 6 g/L.
Champagne = Around 6 volumes, or 8 g/L.

And
Another thing to keep in mind: carbon dioxide is more soluble in alcohol than it is in water, which means it takes more grams per liter of CO2 to produce the same tingle.

 

[doug293cz]

Also, beer typically has about 0.8 volumes of starting carb if kegged from the primary fermenter. I'm not a winemaker, but I believe it's common to do multiple rackings and secondaries with wine, so the starting CO2 level would be lower, thus requiring more time to reach full carbonation, all else being equal.

Brew on