Kegged rootbeer not carbing?!?!

[Rhys79]

I have a keg of rootbeer (rainbow extract) I made, oh, last fall I think. It's been under pressure the entire time in the fridge, and still has very little carbonation. I just cranked the system up to 40PSI to see if it would help, and still nothing.

I know I don't have a leak, I've been running off the same 20lb CO2 tank for even longer than this keg's been on, and it still has plenty of CO2 in it.

I'm at a bit of a loss here as to what could be going on. Anyone else have an idea?

 

[Yooper]

If the soda is under about 35-40 psi, it'll seem flat. Believe it or not, you need about 35 psi to get the right carbonation for rootbeer, at 40 degrees. Because of that, I had to use 30 feet of line to serve it, because of the foaming with a shorter line. With about 35-40 psi, in a week it'll be perfect.

I bought the line from McMaster carr- it's only about $.10/foot, so I bought 50 feet just for soda.

 

[david_42]

I run my primary regulator at 35 psi for the soda keg and use secondaries to drop that to 10-12 for the beers. I suspect most people would want 40 psi, but I like my soda with less carbonation. As YB says, it takes a long line to prevent losing the CO2.

 

[Rhys79]

As I said, I have it at 40psi. It has been sitting at 30psi for months. I have about 30ft of line hooked to it. All the other sodas I've done (including rootbeer before) carbed up fine at 30psi. This one is beginning to drive me nuts. It doesn't foam when I poor it either, just comes out looking like Guinness without the head. Once the micro bubbles go away (less than a minute), there's still no head and it is nearly flat.

 

[Kauai_Kahuna]

Rhys79 - How much head space do you have in the keg? If it is filled to the rim it can take forever. If the keg is cool and you have 40lbs pressure I could recommend shaking the keg on your knees, or if you want a real workout shake free hand over your head for 5 minutes, hit with c02 again, shake again. That should mix enough up.

 

[Rhys79]

It's got several inches of headspace. I tried a bottle of Sprecher's rootbeer this weekend (Menard's has it in bottles on sale), and it seemed to have a similar carbonation level as my keg, I just don't get the creamy head... Sooooo, I guess it's not undercarbed really, just doesn't seem as carbed as I'd expect a soda to be... I haven't had rootbeer in ages though either.

 

[Yooper]

It's got several inches of headspace. I tried a bottle of Sprecher's rootbeer this weekend (Menard's has it in bottles on sale), and it seemed to have a similar carbonation level as my keg, I just don't get the creamy head... Sooooo, I guess it's not undercarbed really, just doesn't seem as carbed as I'd expect a soda to be... I haven't had rootbeer in ages though either.

You can keep it at 40 psi for another couple of weeks, and that will help. Also, I've added malto-dextrine to root beer, to get some creamy mouthfeel and some body. I added 1 TBSP per 1 gallon, and it worked out really well.

 

[msa8967]

I don't mean to hijack this old thread but I am having the same problem with my first cola stored in my rootbeer keg. I have had it at 42 psi and 40 F for well over a week and not carbonation is really present in the cola soda. I never had this problem with rootbeer in this kegged. I have the same line hooked up to run seltzer water and that has been charged with bubbles after just 24 hours.

Does anyone know if i should have a different psi for cola than what I used for rootbeer?