Need help carbonating my rootbeer soda.

[msa8967]

I have had 5 gallons of homemade rootbeer soda in my keezer at 45 psi for 2 weeks. I cannot seem to get the CO2 to be infused into the liquid. I have tried shaking the crap out of it multiple times (different days), pulling the vent spring lock to purge the keg and now all I have is high powered foam.

I am thinking of pulling it out of the keezer and using some yeast but I would like to know which type of yeast and how much should I use.

Also, would a week at room temps be enough time for CO2 to be produced? Should I add any O2 for the yeast to consume?

 

[Yooper]

I have had 5 gallons of homemade rootbeer soda in my keezer at 45 psi for 2 weeks. I cannot seem to get the CO2 to be infused into the liquid. I have tried shaking the crap out of it multiple times (different days), pulling the vent spring lock to purge the keg and now all I have is high powered foam.

I am thinking of pulling it out of the keezer and using some yeast but I would like to know which type of yeast and how much should I use.

Also, would a week at room temps be enough time for CO2 to be produced? Should I add any O2 for the yeast to consume?

Just a wild guess, but since 45 PSI is enough to carbonate the soda, of course assuming fridge temperatures. I am guessing that you're serving lines are very short.keep in mind that you need about 1 foot of 3/16 inch line for each one PSI. In other words you probably need a minimum of 30 feet of line to serve that properly . I used 30 PSI and manage to get by with 25 feet of line.

 

[msa8967]

I should have mentioned that I have 35 feet of 3/16th inch beverage line. I have no problem carbonating water with this system because I have a special tap just for club soda fizzy water. This straight fizzy water carbonates in less than 1 week w/o shaking the keg (sometimes just a few days). Thus, I am wondering if it is some problem with just the rootbeer solution itself. I use the same air hose split with a t-splitter for both the rootbeer and the fizzy water. I just cannot get the CO2 to be infused into this large volume of rootbeer.

 

[MrFoodScientist]

Have you tried to slowly depressurize the keg and serve at a lower pressure? What temperature is your keezer?

 

[msa8967]

Have you tried to slowly depressurize the keg and serve at a lower pressure? What temperature is your keezer?

So would lowering the keg pressure allow more CO2 to become absorbed by the rootbeer liquid? The keezer is at 42 F.

 

[MrFoodScientist]

It's not that lowering the pressure will allow it to absorb more, but at 45 psi, it may be coming out too forcefully, even on a 35 ft line.
The difference between the club soda and your root beer is sugar content. It will absorb the CO2 just fine, but with all the sugar, CO2 gets knocked out of solution rather easily. Because your first post says, "all I have is high powered foam" suggests to me that it's absorbing the CO2 just fine, it's just having a hard time holding onto it.
How much sugar in terms of lbs/gallon do you have in your recipe?
Have you tried chilling your keg colder than 45psi? That seems a little warm for root beer in my opinion.

My recommendation about lowering the pressure is only for serving. Typically if you're getting all foam then you need to slow down the flow and/or get the pour to be less turbulent by pouring down the side of the glass rather than shooting straight into the bottom. One trick that might help, though it could take a while depending on how full your keg is: turn off the pressure completely and then pour until it's not foamy anymore. If your keg is almost full it shouldn't take more than maybe a 2 quart pitcher. If your keg is more like half full then you'll probably use a lot more than that trying to bring the pressure down.