Priming problems

[Willzza]

Hello,

I'm having problems getting my beer to prime.

I'm brewing English Ales, and I've used The Home Brew Shop's Calculator to work out how must granulated sugar I need to add to the 5l of Homebrew I've made once fermentation is complete.

In my last two brews, I've transferred one to a mini keg and the second to a pressurised barrel. After waiting a week for carbonation to take place, I've found that neither brews has carbonated.

My first brew tasted fine, but just had no carbonation.

The second brew in the pressure barrel, however tasted like vinegar, which suggests to me it had some how become infected. I'm not quite sure how this happened as I rigorously cleaned the pressure barrel. Could it be that there is a leak in the lid, which let out the CO2 and let Oxygen it which is why I have flat infected beer?

I also haven't used finings for each brew, so I don't think that could be it.

Anyone got any thoughts?

 

[McKnuckle]

It would help to talk more specifics about the process you followed. Let's ignore the infected batch for a moment and focus on the mini keg.

How much sugar did you add by weight to the 5L of beer? What temperature did you store the keg at while you waited a week? And what kind of lid is on this mini keg - a threaded screw on type that seals downward, or a corny lid type that seals up from the inside of the keg against an O-ring? Does the keg have ball lock ports with poppets?

 

[ncbrewer]

One week isn't enough time for conditioning, but from reading others' accounts, there should be some carbonation in that time. A leak would account for lack of carbonation. How much sugar, and what kind, did you add? How full was the keg? If everything checks out, just wait two more weeks and see if it is carbonated.

As for the infection, you need to do some detective work. If it happened during fermentation, you will need to address the problem with all that equipment as well as the barrel. There are different opinions about cleaning after infections. I had one a few years ago and never could get rid of it in the plastic fermenter, but I did get rid of it in the glass bottles. Others have successfully cleaned plastic fermenters after infection. I think it may depend on what kind of bacteria it is. Consider replacing all plastic tubing, etc. since it is cheap and could harbor stubborn bacteria.

 

[McKnuckle]

About carbonating for 2-3 weeks, in the usual style of the American home brewer... I think the OP is referring to English cask ale practices. Carbonation is typically quicker, lighter in terms of CO2 volume, and at cooler temps. For example, I just carbonated a gallon of porter to 1.4 volumes in four days at 55ºF.

 

[Willzza]

Thanks all for your responses. To answer your questions:

1. How much sugar did you add by weight to the 5L of beer?

I used 20g of sugar to attempt to get 1.9 volume of CO2

2. What temperature did you store the keg at while you waited a week?

The temperature was 20C.

3. And what kind of lid is on this mini keg?
The keg has a plastic and rubber bung. Exactly like this one Mini Keg 5 Litre Bung Free P&P | eBay. I reused this minikeg, so it's possible that I may have damaged the bung when I removed it originally, but there was no obvious sign of damage.

4. What sugar did you use?
I used granulated sugar.

5. How full was the keg?

The mini keg was full, but the pressurised barrel was 1/5 full.

There was no visible sign of infection when transferring to the pressurised barrel, is there way of working out if it is infected when barreling? If it's infected would the beer already taste vinegary?

 

[McKnuckle]

If we go with the simplest explanation, you must have a leak. Everything else sounds completely normal and boring. Although one week can be a little short, you should have had some carbonation by then.

Regarding the infection, which sounds like acetobacter, it’s common in barrels especially with a lot of empty space filled with oxygen. I guess I’d chalk that one up as an experiment.

 

[Bill Tong]

What yeast did you use? S-04 takes at least 2 weeks but generally 3 weeks.