Someone please tell me what I missed about Force Carbonation

[mscroggi]

When I first started brewing I would force carb. It took about 10 days at serving pressure. That also gave it time to age and clear a bit too.

Problem was it was giving oxidation time to run its course. What tasted pretty good going into the keg flat was dull and lifeless a couple weeks later when it was time to tap.

There is a solution though and it's called spunding. It works fast, doesn't use any bottle CO2, and scrubs oxygen from the keg. Keep spunding on your radar as you progress in your brewing.

If done properly you can get ales grain to glass, fully carbonated, and with a couple days of cold conditioning in about a week. They are also much more flavor stable. Really all you need to do it is 30-psi pressure gauge hooked up to a gas disconnect. All you have to do is monitor the pressure and if it gets over target, burp the keg until it stabilizes. You could also get a pressure relieve valve do to that part for you. It's a game changer.

Thanks for this!.. I am going to give this a go.. For $30 I can build a spunding valve. Looks to be a nifty and easy project. An excellent article here - http://www.homebrewfinds.com/2011/02/build-spunding-valve.html.

This is going to be a two-birds scenario, Tomorrow I am brewing the same wheat recipe I brewed before - but I will treat the water this time - and do the spunding valve.

If I could figure out what is causing the artifacts in my beer and resolve it, I will be a brewing fool going forward!.. hahaaa

 

[mscroggi]

You're not doing anything wrong. What you're tasting is carbonic acid from the dissolved CO2 that you force carbonated with. It fades away over time as you've noticed.

This could be the cause of the harsh edge and super long finish I was experiencing with my brews.. Tonight I cracked open a bomber of the pale that has been sitting for 3 weeks.. It was vastly improved from earlier.. - way more subtle.. I detected lots of butter flavors that I wasn't registering before..
Maybe its a combination of both - the water and the carbonic acid from the force carbonation. I dunno.. we will see.. Thank you @EnglishAndy