Recarbonate my keg!

[jett78]

I kegged a couple weeks ago, (corny keg).

It seems I lost some carbonation or didn't carbonate it enough at kegging.

What is my best chance of getting this beer better carbonated before the party next weekend?

 

[genommen]

Did you naturally carbonate the last time or did you hook up CO2?

 

[jett78]

Did you naturally carbonate the last time or did you hook up CO2?

Upside down CO2 shake

 

[genommen]

Check all the obvious things first if you haven't, make sure all valves are open and the CO2 tank is open. Make sure there are no leaks as well.

If all of this checks out you might want to try adjusting the amount of CO2 pressure. More CO2 will mean more carbonation. Don't forget to drop this back down some before serving, nothing is more disappointing than a glass full of foam.

 

[jett78]

Check all the obvious things first if you haven't, make sure all valves are open and the CO2 tank is open. Make sure there are no leaks as well.

If all of this checks out you might want to try adjusting the amount of CO2 pressure. More CO2 will mean more carbonation. Don't forget to drop this back down some before serving, nothing is more disappointing than a glass full of foam.

I'm running it at about 5psi. Soapy water spray doesn't reveal any leaks and the pressure and volume gauges are staying constant.

Are you saying just to crank up the pressure for a few days? This will improve carbonation?

 

[genommen]

Yes, that is the basic idea. Also it can help it set the keg on its side with CO2 in still up high and roll it back and forth for a while.

By increasing pressure you are making more CO2 available to be dissolved into the beer. By putting the keg on its side and rolling you are increasing the surface area of the beer allowing the CO2 to be absorbed more quickly. In my attempts with this method it has helped carbonate more quickly.

 

[jett78]

Yes, that is the basic idea. Also it can help it set the keg on its side with CO2 in still up high and roll it back and forth for a while.

By increasing pressure you are making more CO2 available to be dissolved into the beer. By putting the keg on its side and rolling you are increasing the surface area of the beer allowing the CO2 to be absorbed more quickly. In my attempts with this method it has helped carbonate more quickly.

I should have asked on my last reply, but about what pressure should I set it at?

 

[genommen]

I usually only take mine up to about 15-20 psi. I have heard of other people taking it higher but never felt it was necessary. You also do not want to over carbonate so it is a delicate balance and in many ways depends on the beer style and personal preference.

 

[eddie]

What temperature are you carbing at? The colder you have the beer, the more CO2 it'll take in so it may just be a case of being too warm. If you really want to carb it up fast, turn the temp down to like 35F and put the gas on about 15psi. Take the chilled keg with the gas still attached an shake it vigorously until you can't hear anymore gas passing through the regulator. Put the keg back in the fridge or whatever you're using for an hour with the gas still on then repeat. The beer will be fully carbed and you didn't have to wait a week to do it. This will put about 3.0 volumes of gas in the beer. That's about the amount of fizz most BMC beers have (which is quite a lot.) Depending on what the beer is, you may want to use more or less pressure.

What did you brew?

 

[SweetSounds]

I'm running it at about 5psi. Soapy water spray doesn't reveal any leaks and the pressure and volume gauges are staying constant.

Are you saying just to crank up the pressure for a few days? This will improve carbonation?

Even at full saturation (at serving temps), 5 PSI is going to be a pretty flat beer. Most of us serve between 10 and 14 PSI. If you just hook up your keg to 12 PSI and leave it for 2 or 3 weeks (at serving temperature), it'll carbonate on its own. If you want to do it faster, you have to crank the pressure and shake. I use 35 PSI. But DON'T overshoot it. It sucks.
If I'm in a hurry, I'll chill the keg to serving temp, crank to 35 PSI, shake the holy bejesus out of it, drop the pressure back down to 12, and leave it alone. That process takes my carbing time down under 1 week without the risk of overcarbing and turning the taps into a very expensive foam gun...

 

[BadgerBrewer]

The simplest way of doing this is to chill your keg down to 35 degrees or so for 24 hours, put on 30 psi for 48 hours, purge all gas from the keg, and set to 8-12 psi serving pressure. You are ready to serve. 3 days max. I never shake my keg and have always had success with this method. I have a keezer so taking the keg out and shaking isn't an option for me.

 

[abracadabra]

It's really not a big problem if you overcarbonate by jacking the pressure up.
You can do a several things to reduce the foam.

1. open the tap up all the way (trying to reduce the flow at the tap makes the foaming worse)

2. Dial down the dispensing pressure, it takes a little longer to fill the glass but you can have your beer just as carbonated as you like simply by reducing the pressure when you dispense

3. Get the tap head as far above the keg as the hose will go that slows the flow and also helps reduce foaming

4. A longer hose from the corney to the tap also helps