Not new to kegging - but need help please

[Kealia]

I've been kegging for about 3 years now, the first year using picnic taps before upgrading to a kegerator I got off Craigslist. I immediately switched to Perlick taps when I bought it knowing I'd end up doing it in the long run anyway.

After much reading here at that time, I bought 10 feet of 3/16ID tubing, set my Johnson Controller at 38 degrees and set my PSI to 11-12 and have been happy since.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago. I have flat beer in both of my taps (dual tower). After the normal 2 weeks of set and forget the beer was just barely carbed. Thinking maybe I had an issue with my regulator I cranked it up to about 16 PSI for a week and it was a bit better but didn't last long before losing a lot of carb again.

I switched out the tank and regulator for my back-ups which I use to carb other kegs in a mini fridge before going into the kegerator thinking that I could isolate the issue to the tank/regulator if I did. I left town for 2 weeks having set my other tank/regulator at 12 PSI like normal. I came back to flat beer.

I've verified that I have no leaks in the system. When I pull the pressure relief valve to purge the kegs I can hear the tank pushing the CO2 back into the keg(s).

I'm not getting foamy pours that are flat. I'm getting just flat beer with no foam.

I'm at a bit of a loss to figure out why it's happening with 2 kegs, 2 tanks/regulators and 2 taps using the same settings as I've had for the past 2 years.

I SUPPOSE it's possible that both tanks are running low at the same time, but that would be very unlikely. I'm going to go get them both filled early next week but I'm at a loss for what else could be an issue here.

Anybody have any thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Rockn_M]

Have you had carbed beer with your current setup before? From the sound of it nothing has changed in a few years I just want to make sure I understood correctly.

1. Also what type of beer is it? Some beers take longer to carb than others.
2. Just because you hear co2 escaping from the pressure relieve valve doesn't mean you don't have a leak. Have you sprayed everything down with a Star San or soapy water to look for bubbles?
3. It's possible the co2 tanks are getting low but I don't think that's the problem.

 

[Kealia]

Correct, carbed beer before on the same set up. I've checked for leaks by spraying and they've been on gas for over 6 weeks now as I fiddle with them.

One is a pale ale, one is an IPL. Have brewed both before.
I took my tank down to the LHBS and they verified there is still about 3.9lbs of gas in the tank so that isn't the issue.

 

[Pour_Man]

3.9 lbs in the tank isn't good when you're shooting for 12 lbs in the keg... unless we're talking about weight and not psi...

 

[Firewalker11]

Not being a smart a** but I am wondering if you checked the valves? I got back last week from a party and threw a keg back in my keezer but when my wife drew a pint, she said it was flowing slow. Guess what? I forgot to turn the ball valve back on...

KISS- Keep It Simple Stupid. I have solved thousands of issues by going back to Occam's razor, the principle states that one should never make more assumptions or assume more causes than the minimum necessary to solve a problem or find a cause for something.

 

[brew_ny]

3.9 lbs in the tank isn't good when you're shooting for 12 lbs in the keg... unless we're talking about weight and not psi...

3.9 pound of CO2 in the tank and 12 PSI in the keg is what I believe he is saying

 

[Firewalker11]

3.9 lbs in the tank isn't good when you're shooting for 12 lbs in the keg... unless we're talking about weight and not psi...

***SIGH***

That's CO2 weight, not pressure....

:smack:

 

[Pour_Man]

Well I'm glad that's sorted!

 

[Kealia]

Glad I could help sort out the weight versus PSI part

Not being a smart a** but I am wondering if you checked the valves? I got back last week from a party and threw a keg back in my keezer but when my wife drew a pint, she said it was flowing slow. Guess what? I forgot to turn the ball valve back on...

I'm not quite sure what you mean here? Can you explain? I've pulled the check valves to make sure I could release pressure and hear the tank back-fill the keg and I know the valves aren't still open- is that what you meant?

 

[Firewalker11]

Glad I could help sort out the weight versus PSI part



I'm not quite sure what you mean here? Can you explain? I've pulled the check valves to make sure I could release pressure and hear the tank back-fill the keg and I know the valves aren't still open- is that what you meant?

Hmmmmm, sounds like you have CO2 in the keg.... Are you SURE it's CO2? I had a 5er of gas from AIRGAS that was Argon, didn't do a Damn thing to my beer for carbing. CO2 puts bubbles in your beer. If there is something going on, you may not have bubbles, it's up to you to hunt this Martha Flocker down!

 

[Pour_Man]

If you have C02 in the tank (which I firmly believe we've established ) and you know there's pressure in the headspace (I'm assuming the pressure guage on the regulator is correct), the only other variable is temperature. How cold is the beer? If you had a leak significant enough to make the beer flat, your C02 tank would probably be dead after 2 weeks. I once had one empty out overnight on me due to a torn post o-ring.

 

[Kealia]

I did find an issue. My JC was frozen to the back of the kegerator wall where the coolant is so it was reading 38 or so. I put a second thermometer in the kegerator and it was actually about 46.

That difference in temp would be the difference between 2.2 and 2.5 volumes of CO2 so we'll see in a few days if that takes care of things.
I also cranked the PSI up to 15 (before I found the JC stuck on the back).

At this point, I'm hoping for over-carbed beer in a few days. I can always back it down and bleed off the excess but right now I really need to see a carbed beer (even over carbed) come out of these kegs in a few days to make me feel better.

Fortunately, there is no shortage of bottled beer on hand :rockin: