Keg not carbonating.

[Suthrncomfrt1884]

Hey guys! It's been awhile since I've been on here, but I've run into an issue I'm stumped by.

The last two beers I've kegged don't seem to carbonate. I've been running the same setup for the past 5-6 years with various upgrades over that time. I've never run into this problem.

Kegs have always been carbonated at around 12-15lbs of pressure continuous. They are usually ready to go after two weeks.

The last two kegs have sat for much longer with zero carbonation. The first keg was on for at least two months. The current has been two weeks. Both kegs are holding pressure steady and I have plenty of co2, but no carbonation. Both kegs were cleaned prior to legging and o-rings replaced very recently.

I took the first keg to my dads house and hooked it up on his kegsrator... it was carbonated in under a week at the same pressure im using.

I was worried it may be my regulator showing the wrong pressure so I replaced it. Still nothing.

Is there such a thing as bad co2? Any other suggestions?

 

[Horseflesh]

Are you sure that gas is getting in to the keg? Maybe there is a problem between the regulator and the gas in post. If you pull the purge on the keg, does the regulator dump in more gas?

It's hard to imagine what that problem might be, though...

I guess bad gas is possible but that is also hard to imagine. Does your tank pressure look correct? Can you feel the liquid co2 sloshing?

Weird, man.

 

[Suthrncomfrt1884]

Tank has plenty of co2 and it's getting into the kegs. Just seems like it's not dissolving.

 

[IslandLizard]

Very curious!
Is there indeed CO2 in the tank or possibly something else? Does the tank's weight feel like it contains liquid CO2? Tare weight vs. actual weight.

If there's pressure in the keg, the gas gets dissolved or adsorbed into the beer until there's a balance.

 

[Suthrncomfrt1884]

Exactly my thoughts too. Before these two, I carbonated 3-4 other kegs without issue...but I don't brew near what I used to and this tank is probably well over a year old. My gauges state its half full. Haven't weighed it yet, but it feels like it's got some in it. I took my regulator off and opened the tank...it still bleeds gas out.

 

[day_trippr]

Any chance that's a cylinder of 75/25 beer gas?

btw, your gauges don't show volume, they show pressure, and it's pretty darned difficult to correlate cylinder pressure with %fill remaining...

Cheers!

 

[MidAtlanticBrew]

So when you lift the pressure relief valve on the keg itself, you can here gas excape?

 

[Suthrncomfrt1884]

Yes, gas escapes when I pull the pressure release valve. And I don't think the distributor I use for co2 offers beer gas.

 

[Suthrncomfrt1884]

And the gauge shows 1000lbs of pressure.

 

[Minky]

It's a long shot I suppose, but if you suspect that the gas may not be CO2, you can test it by bubbling it into limewater. Here's how to make limewater. If it's CO2, it will make the limewater cloudy.

http://www.hometrainingtools.com/a/making-limewater-solution-science-teaching-tip

 

[Suthrncomfrt1884]

I'm positive it's co2. The other beers I used it on previously carbonated fine. I'm really wondering if co2 goes bad.

 

[skraeling]

I'm positive it's co2. The other beers I used it on previously carbonated fine. I'm really wondering if co2 goes bad.

Na it doesnt go bad. I had a keg that I used literally off and on for years (wasnt brewing much and kegging even less often). Still worked just fine.

There is something going on here. Any chance you can borrow someone elses tank? Give that a try and see if anything changes.

If still no carb ok its not a tank issue move on.

Try setting one keg to ~35psi for about 14hrs or so. You should see SOME carb at that even that soon.

Basically start eliminating things down the line.

also weigh the tank. check that vs its tare weight. if its really really low it may not have enough liquid in it to carbonate anything but still enough to push beer.

 

[doug293cz]

Any chance the kegs are overfilled? The rate of carbonation is proportional to the surface area of the beer exposed to the headspace. If you overfill, the surface area can drop dramatically due to the curvature of the top of the keg. You never want to fill a keg above the straight side walls for this reason.

Another possibility is too much air in the headspace. If the headspace is 100% CO2, the absolute CO2 pressure at 12 psi gauge pressure will be 26.7 psi, which is what it really takes to carbonate. If you didn't purge the headspace, then you have 14.7 psi of air pressure and 12 psi of CO2 pressure. You will not get carbonation with a CO2 absolute pressure (more correctly CO2 partial pressure) of 12 psi. Also, with any significant air in the headspace, your beer will oxidize. You need to purge (pressurize and vent) the headspace multiple times to get the air out. (And if you really want to minimize O2, it takes ~12 purge cycles @ 30 psi to get sub ppm levels of O2.)

Brew on

 

[Goforthegusto]

Put a black beverage ball lock connector on the gas line and put the CO2 on the "out" side of the keg for 24 hours, so the CO2 is bubbling through the beer instead of trying to dissolve it into the beer in the headspace. I started doing that, and it carbonates much more effectively initially. First few times, I did it with 30 psi for 3-4 days, and overcarbonated. Now, 15 psi for 2 days or so, and it gives it a nice start. As stated above, your goal is to dissolve into the liquid, and this helps facilitate that. You may want to release the pressure currently in the headspace with the pressure relief valve on the tank lid, so that will have a pressure differential when you connect to the out side of the tank. Also, be sure you have a 1 way check valve on the gas line so that beer can't get blown back up into the regulator (a mistake you'll only make once). CO2 in a tank does not go bad.