New to kegging

[dickiedubrewer23]

Just force carbed a keg at 55 degrees f at 13psi, a day later I checked the psi and it was at 10. Am I to crank it back to 13 or just let it go? Sorry for the lame question.

 

[day_trippr]

How long was the keg on gas?

Our favorite carbonation table says if you left the CO2 connected at 13 psi and 55°F in the fullness of time the beer would top out at just under 2 volumes of CO2 (where pale ales in the middle of the road are around 2.4 volumes).

But...that regimen takes a couple of weeks for five gallons in a cornelius style keg. That would be the green line in this graph.

If you want a quicker carbonation you'll need to use a different regimen, like "burst" carbing at high pressure for short duration (short being 24-30 hours for an uncarbonated keg). That would be the blue line if executed well. Or, use the pressure setting from the chart and agitate (eg: rock back and forth) the keg until you don't hear any more gas entering the keg. Let it sit for an hour on gas then give it another rocking treatment. Repeat until no more gas enters the keg. You can literally carb a keg in a few hours...

Cheers!

[edit] ps: epic force carbonation thread here.

 

[dickiedubrewer23]

I'm using 2.5 gal kegs, it's only been on the gas 24hrs... just wasnt sure why the pressure dropped, I checked for leaks. Have none.

 

[Pkrd]

Is the gas still connected and turned on?

 

[dickiedubrewer23]

Is the gas still connected and turned on?

It is. I just cranked it up a bit more and it took the gas. I didnt know if it's normal for the pressure to drop as beer absorbs the c02. I thought it would stay constant once it was absorbed. Unless the pressure dropped because the beer absorbed the 2 volumes and the regulator wouldnt push more gas into it.

 

[dickiedubrewer23]

Might have just answered my own question

 

[day_trippr]

It's not uncommon for regulators to exhibit a bit of drift from an initial setting - these are rather crude devices, after all.
If you rotated the regulator pressure control to get to a 13 psi setting it wouldn't surprise me to see a drift to 10 (though that would be on the edge - one or two psi would be more typical from an initial setting).

Re-adjust the pressure and I bet it sticks there 'til the cylinder runs out...

Cheers!

 

[dickiedubrewer23]

It's not uncommon for regulators to exhibit a bit of drift from an initial setting - these are rather crude devices, after all.
If you rotated the regulator pressure control to get to a 13 psi setting it wouldn't surprise me to see a drift to 10 (though that would be on the edge - one or two psi would be more typical from an initial setting).

Re-adjust the pressure and I bet it sticks there 'til the cylinder runs out...

Cheers!

Just rechecked... staying at 13psi. Thanks all for the input and help. Merry brewing!