Low keg carbonation

[sillbeer]

13 days ago I put 5 gallons of a smash into a keg and 5 gallons of a nut brown into a keg. I had been carbonating them for 5 days at 68 degrees in my basement. I then placed them in my chest freezer, set the Johnson controller and went to bed. The next evening I checked on it and both beers were slushy. The settings were screwy on the controller. I reset the settings and thawed out the kegs, still carbonating the whole time. Well today, 13 days later, both beers still seem extremely flat without any head. I can see some bubbles in the beer but nothing substantial. Did the semi freeze that went on have any ill effect on it? Up until yesterday the pressure was set at 12.5 PSI. Last night I upped it to 14 PSI. I haven't had anything on tap for about year now and I can't remember what pressure I was on before.

- Destin

 

[day_trippr]

Perhaps there was a lot more frozen beer in there than you estimated.
I'm pretty sure ice won't carbonate

You shouldn't have to work from memory, just use our favorite carbonation table to figure out the beer temperature vs CO2 pressure = carbonation level equation.

I've consistently found it take a few days more than two weeks using the "set and forget" carbonation method (basically, use the chart, find the pressure, set the reg, come back in two and a half weeks)...

Cheers!