pressure guage drops to 500 in freezer

[treemind]

After slow force carbing my brew in the garage at 58 F for two weeks... i finally got my feezer set up and regulated the temps at 38 F. So i put the keg and CO2 in the Keezer for a day, and last night had a brew... all seemed good.

However, in looking at my guages I noticed the high pressure guage has gone much lower now then it was a day or two ago in higher temps.

Is this normal? Or could i be running out of CO2 already?

It's right around 500 right now.

I have only had the CO2 hooked up to the keg for two weeks now.

When it was outside of the keezer it held steady at a much higher level for two weeks.

Advice?

 

[The Pol]

Cold = less pressure

It is normal... it will hover there for about 8 kegs of beer(5lb cylinder), then when it is about to run out, it will drop RAPIDLY below that value.

 

[Bjornbrewer]

You could be getting low, but the pressure won't start dropping (assuming steady temperature) until all the liquid in the tank is evaporated. However, if you lower the temp of the gas (and tank of course) the pressure will drop to a certain point but will still hold steady until you are running on only vapor. If it stays at 500psi over the course of some use, you're fine and still have CO2 left.

 

[treemind]

thanks for the info!

 

[Irie5447]

Yeah same thing happened to me last week. I found out its pretty much the CO2 converting to a liquid state from a gas state when cooled to certain temp. I freaked out for a moment thinking I had a leak!

 

[treemind]

Dang... my levels lowered to 400 tonight. I had a bunch of friends over drinking my beer and it seems to be going slightly lower and lower the more I pour.

So I think i may be running out of CO2 really early.

Honestly I may have really messed up this CO2 kit at first, because when i bought it as a kit I didn't set up the gaskets correctly... so the first few times i tried turning on the gas i lost a bunch of co2 before realizing what the hell i did. When I figured out what was up... I hooked up the gaskets correctly and it was fine. So really I may have lost a lot of CO2 before i even got this keg started... how much? not really sure, I guess a lot.

Anyhow... that brings me to now. My levels are going lower and lower... so i think i need to find a CO2 fill up this weekend to save what beer i have left in this keg. The brew tastes great... and there is more then half a corney keg left. Will it be ok if i take it off the CO2 for a while to go fill up?

Now i need to find a place in Seattle to fill up a CO2 tank on the weekends...
The place i went originally is weekdays the same hours i work, dang!

 

[The Pol]

Dang... my levels lowered to 400 tonight. I had a bunch of friends over drinking my beer and it seems to be going slightly lower and lower the more I pour.

So I think i may be running out of CO2 really early.

Honestly I may have really messed up this CO2 kit at first, because when i bought it as a kit I didn't set up the gaskets correctly... so the first few times i tried turning on the gas i lost a bunch of co2 before realizing what the hell i did. When I figured out what was up... I hooked up the gaskets correctly and it was fine. So really I may have lost a lot of CO2 before i even got this keg started... how much? not really sure, I guess a lot.

Anyhow... that brings me to now. My levels are going lower and lower... so i think i need to find a CO2 fill up this weekend to save what beer i have left in this keg. The brew tastes great... and there is more then half a corney keg left. Will it be ok if i take it off the CO2 for a while to go fill up?

Now i need to find a place in Seattle to fill up a CO2 tank on the weekends...
The place i went originally is weekdays the same hours i work, dang!

No need to be in such a hurry... Even if you take the keg OFF the gas, it is a sealed vessel, it will remain under the correct pressure. Id run it til the tank gives up, then fill it. That is me though.

 

[MikeinAK]

I agree w/ pol. I would think 400 lbs. would be plenty to serve a keg. It's sealed vessel and it will be fine, if you decide to pull the co2. If it's dropping that fast though, start getting a solution of soapy water or idophor and start looking for leaks.

 

[treemind]

Yeah... I think I need to start looking for leaks because yes it seems to be slowly dropping each day.

So If i put star san in a water solution and spray bottle, will that work?
Or should it be regular soapy water?

 

[The Pol]

Spray the Star San... it will work