Overcarbed Keg? Here's an INSTANT SOLUTION!

[barrooze]

This happened to me as we'll the first time I attempted this process. I found that if you open the valve too wide it will foam out the valve. Try opening the valve just a tiny bit at first. Once the majority of the pressure is exhausted you can open it more.

Just a side note, the second time I did this it was on a massively dry-hopped BIPA. All the CO2 I forced through the beer majorly scrubbed the aromatics, hurting the overall impression of the beer. Just an FYI.

 

[mosquitocontrol]

Had some people over Friday night after force carbing the night prior. Over did it and the whole night we were patiently waiting for foamy beers to go down. I wish I had found this thread earlier.

Did it on three kegs using the release valve to remove pressure. Worked like a charm. Absolutely perfect pours now.

Also, don't fear the foam! You ARE going to get some leaking out if you open the valve all the way to release pressure.

 

[Raven1469]

This worked perfectly for me!

 

[Topher79]

I accidentally carbed my pale ale at 24 psi for 5 days....hellllllloooooooo glass o' foam! Well, I tried this method. I released the pressure off the keg, put an "out" connector on the "in" side of my overcarbed keg. Added gas to the "in" side, released, repeated 4 times. Voilà! it worked! Thanks, OP!

 

[augiedoggy]

Couldn't you also accomplish the same thing by depressurising and then shaking the keg and depressuring again? That's a quick way to make soda flat as it also aggitates the beer and releases the co2 right?

 

[passedpawn]

[moved to bottling/kegging, and stickied]

 

[chrisdb]

you are a genius... works perfectly!
I simply turned my overcharged keg upside down and opened the tap for a minute or so... blew out a lot of foam and then just gas.

turned the keg upright ... tossed one foamy pour and now pours perfect.

 

[doublehaul]

you are a genius... works perfectly!
I simply turned my overcharged keg upside down and opened the tap for a minute or so... blew out a lot of foam and then just gas.

turned the keg upright ... tossed one foamy pour and now pours perfect.

I did this exact same thing last night with the exact same results. This is one of the coolest threads I have run across here!

 

[k1ngl1ves]

I always set and forget, so I just skip over this stickied thread.

Until today...

Just checked on a beer that I was 1st time quick carbing (out of necessity/bad planning), and I found a flat beer with super head! Doh!

I instantly knew exactly where to go!!!

I just reversed the quick connections (MFL! FTW!) and literally a minute later had a perfect pour! I just held a glass under the tap and slowly opened it every 10 seconds. That's all it took!!! Then I drank a beer... for science!!!

Thank you fastricky!!!

 

[goaticus]

This seems overkill. I just release all the pressure from the keg, then over the course of a half hour/hour, I poor beers off of the pressure from the carbonation itself every 5-10 minutes. I get a buzz and my beer comes back to correct carb level. But, then again I am not one to obsess over how many volumes of gas are dissolved for this or that style. I just carb it til it tastes/feels right.

 

[doublehaul]

This seems overkill. I just release all the pressure from the keg, then over the course of a half hour/hour, I poor beers off of the pressure from the carbonation itself every 5-10 minutes. I get a buzz and my beer comes back to correct carb level. But, then again I am not one to obsess over how many volumes of gas are dissolved for this or that style. I just carb it til it tastes/feels right.

So to recap - goaticus doesn't like the instant solution, and prefers the slowly release his CO2.

 

[goaticus]

So to recap - goaticus doesn't like the instant solution, and prefers the slowly release his CO2.

LMAO!! I like a lot of 'Instant' things. And this does look cool, but it doesn't appear 'instant' at all. In fact, it looks like once you've realized that you needed it, and rounded up, and hooked up what was needed, it is going to be comparable time wise, but a lot more work. I have and instant solution as well requiring no special equipment. If I need to drink my beer right NOW and can't afford a whole half hour (in which you are drinking beer anyways as I described), release the pressure, open the corny, stir gently with sterilized object for 30 seconds-ish, seal it back up, hook up the serving pressure back up, purge, and serve. Done. :rockin:

Not to mention;
-Waste of gas
-More equipment hanging around
-If your keg is really full, you'll lose beer out the IN (I hate wasting great beer I could have drank)
-To quote the OP "OK, now vent the CO2, but do it slowly and gradually." "Repeat steps 4 & 5 3-4 times." "Perfect pour 30 minutes later."

hmmm, did he say 30 minutes...? Doesn't sound instant or faster than purge-n-pour.

I wan't trying to poopoo the OP's idea, just stating that it might be over-kill and thought that we could have and objective conversation about it.

To the OP; Great write-up, very innovative solution! Thank you. I appreciate anyone's effort to share an idea, and hope you don't mind me discussing other alternatives on the topic at hand.

 

[doublehaul]

LMAO!! I like a lot of 'Instant' things. And this does look cool, but it doesn't appear 'instant' at all. In fact, it looks like once you've realized that you needed it, and rounded up, and hooked up what was needed, it is going to be comparable time wise, but a lot more work. I have and instant solution as well requiring no special equipment. If I need to drink my beer right NOW and can't afford a whole half hour (in which you are drinking beer anyways as I described), release the pressure, open the corny, stir gently with sterilized object for 30 seconds-ish, seal it back up, hook up the serving pressure back up, purge, and serve. Done. :rockin:

Not to mention;
-Waste of gas
-More equipment hanging around
-If your keg is really full, you'll lose beer out the IN (I hate wasting great beer I could have drank)
-To quote the OP "OK, now vent the CO2, but do it slowly and gradually." "Repeat steps 4 & 5 3-4 times." "Perfect pour 30 minutes later."

hmmm, did he say 30 minutes...? Doesn't sound instant or faster than purge-n-pour.

I wan't trying to poopoo the OP's idea, just stating that it might be over-kill and thought that we could have and objective conversation about it.

To the OP; Great write-up, very innovative solution! Thank you. I appreciate anyone's effort to share an idea, and hope you don't mind me discussing other alternatives on the topic at hand.

Just jerking your chain! Thought it was funny. I just depressurize, flip mine over, open the tap for 60 into a pint or pitcher, flip back over and wait about 10 or 15 minutes. No extra equipment. If you can't wait 15 minutes for a beer you sir have a drinking problem. Hahaha

 

[Natdavis777]

Used this process last night and I am blown away how fast it works. About a month ago, I carbed two kegs of a German hefe. Im not sure why, but one keg (the one I tapped first) was overcarbed. The other keg was perfect, so I decided to use that one first, take the gas off the over carbed one, and over the course of time purge the headspace and see if it helped. Well it didnt. So today I switched my fittings, did this process 3 times, and boom, no more 3/4 glass of foam. Hats off the OP!

 

[ufmurphy]

This worked fantastic for me. Thank you

 

[keith_]

Fastricky - here's to you.

 

[jgbrown83]

dude i was skeptical as F ive been screwing with my IPA for a week to get the carb down... one flip and a bit of wasted co2 later 1st good pour ive had since i kegged it

 

[skywardcon]

I ran out of CO2 the other day after I kegged 2 cornies. I had a cylinder of Nitrogen/CO2 mix lying around so I went ahead and hooked that up thinking that it might give me a bit of creamyness at 10 psi. This did not happen and I have a keg of uncarbonated beer with nitrogen in it. To solve this I filled up my CO2 cylinder and then pumped co2 into the keg. This didn't solve the problem. I think I need to try to get the nitrogen/Co2 mixture out and then recarbonate. Do you think the process described in this thread will work for what I need to accomplish?

 

[day_trippr]

Compared to CO2, Nitrogen barely dissolves in beer.
Besides, per the gas laws Nitrogen isn't going to affect the actual carbonation level in beer.

Most likely, your problem is time...

Cheers!

 

[VTCCbrewer]

This is exactly why I think HBT is the best resource ever for home brewers...yes I overcarbed my latest brew....struggled with it for a few days, and then realized all I had to do was ask HBT what to do about it. Voila!! this thread appears, and in 30 minutes I'm enjoying a perfectly carbed brew

Thanks OP, thanks HBT

 

[fun4stuff]

This doesn't completely decarb the keg though right?

 

[day_trippr]

I don't even think that's possible. Fermentation alone will leave a good Volume or more of carbonation behind, so I imagine the absolutely insane worst case would bring you back to the end of fermentation...

Cheers!

 

[Darth_Duane]

Did this today because i was heading to a party and my "quick carb" with shaking the keg etc had way overcarbed my keg. Took 2 passes of about 60 seconds but it sure worked a treat. Thanks!

 

[collin8579]

So My kegs have hard cider in them, they are both overcarbed. This was my first batch of anything, including kegging.
I didn't have refrigeration to start off with and was carbing per the chart at room temperature, close to 25-30psi (forget)
I got a mini fridge and put them down to 12 psi in there for a few days to let things settle
They came out almost all foam and flat tasting, from what I read that was a sign of overcarbination
I read about and tried this method, did a good 6-10 purges on both kegs, then let it sit overnight
Its still really foamy coming out of a picnic tap and the taste is still "off" a bit, but not as bad as it was
Should I do this procedure again? Under the assumption I didn't do it enough the first time?
Or is there something else I should be aware of?
Thanks-

 

[Alberti]

Iv'e had overcarbed kegged brews meant for a wedding of a friend and I was really worried, this technique worked fantastically! Thanks!

Collin did you also consider your beverage tubing length (resistance) and the serving pressure at which you attempted to pour?

Hope this might be useful:
http://www.mikesoltys.com/2012/09/17/determining-proper-hose-length-for-your-kegerator/

 

[collin8579]

Iv'e had overcarbed kegged brews meant for a wedding of a friend and I was really worried, this technique worked fantastically! Thanks!

Collin did you also consider your beverage tubing length (resistance) and the serving pressure at which you attempted to pour?

Hope this might be useful:
http://www.mikesoltys.com/2012/09/17/determining-proper-hose-length-for-your-kegerator/

Thank you, that is a great link
I've tried a few things but haven't gotten a longer hose yet
I tried adding on a hose to my existing one to make it 10 ft but I think the coupling between the hoses causes too many issues, going to go pick up a longer hose tomorrow and try it

Is there anything bad about too long a hose?

 

[Alberti]

If your hose is too long too much resistance from the hose will likely reduce the flow rate. You can use the link above to input your data and see what length of beverage line will make for a good pour with the amount of carbonation you apply to your kegged beer, the temperature it's at, and the serving pressure you apply.

Iv'e got some leaky kegs so sometimes i'm forced to over-pressurize them to get them to seal, but normally I let a beer carbonate at 10 psi and around 39F for a week (there are faster, a little more involved ways of carbonating), and serve at the same pressure or slightly lower. My lines are 6 feet with an inner diameter of 3\16".

Hope this helps.

 

[lbond2]

I don't chime in very often any more....But when I do its going to be epic advice...

Over carbed your keg you say???

Solution:
Wack that Mother****er (the keg) with a rubber mallet hard...Wait 10seconds and bleed the pressure off. Now you have a perfectly carbonated beer.

Cheers!!!

 

[sd_brewbie]

Just commenting to say the method in this thread worked like a charm. A lot of foam out of the pressure release, but perfect pours after.

 

[jhlfrty]

Glad I found this thread!

Just took a overcarbed keg, flipped it over with the beer line on, opened the tap (with a pitcher beneath it), left it open until there was no action. Shook it and repeated 2 times.

Once I reattached to the gas line, I got a bit more foam followed by a perfect pour!