when will the overcarbonation go away!

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

jmp138

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 13, 2008
Messages
328
Reaction score
7
Location
Pittsboro, NC
So I kegged my first beer 3 weeks ago, and read a tutorial on force carbing, thusly I set the psi at 30 and shook the keg about 100 times. I then disconnected the gas, let it sit for a few hours and then hooked up the gas at the 12 psi serving pressure. When I drew my first beer that night( I know way to early, just real excited) it was way over carbonated and it settled like a guiness draught can with lots of head bubbling to the top.

So I cut the psi back to about 10, its been 3 weeks and the beer is starting to taste a little better but is still WAY over carbed. What should I do, just wait it out? I wanna get to drinking so I can hook up the next one, next time I'll set it and forget it fo sho!

Jason
 
So I kegged my first beer 3 weeks ago, and read a tutorial on force carbing, thusly I set the psi at 30 and shook the keg about 100 times. I then disconnected the gas, let it sit for a few hours and then hooked up the gas at the 12 psi serving pressure. When I drew my first beer that night( I know way to early, just real excited) it was way over carbonated and it settled like a guiness draught can with lots of head bubbling to the top.

So I cut the psi back to about 10, its been 3 weeks and the beer is starting to taste a little better but is still WAY over carbed. What should I do, just wait it out? I wanna get to drinking so I can hook up the next one, next time I'll set it and forget it fo sho!

Jason

Are you pulling the pressure release valve every so often? Like a couple of times a day? that will reduce the overcarbonation.
 
Over foaming does not equal over carbed. You need to balance your system. If you are using 5' lines you should lower the serving pressure down to 9 or 10.

What does your regulator say? If it says 12 psi then it is not WAY overcarbed, maybe a little but I like mine carbed at 12-14 psi so when I had 5' lines I would store it at 12 and drop the pressure and bleed it down to 8 prior to serving. Then back up to keep it carbed.
 
Yeah Im going to try pulling the pressure release to try and bleed it down. When I pull a beer from the tap it turns the whole pint a very light color due to such a high co2 saturation, looks like a guiness draught can settling is the best way to describe it. I think its just a product of not really knowing what I'm doing with kegging.
 
Also will overcarbonation cause pretty bad off flavors. This beer does not taste all that great, but the sample out of the fermenter was great.
 
Overcarbonation shouldn't cause off flavors (at least in my limited experience). If it's really foul, you may have had something contaminate it when you kegged it.
 
I'm having the same problem. My lines are about 5' long. Pressure is 12 lbs. I have three kegs tapped. The IPA pours nicely. The Apfelwein has a lot of foam, but it settles out fast. The amber cider is all foam and settles out flat.

I tried turning off the pressure and venting the two foaming kegs. The amber cider sounded like it was boiling so I think I have (had) and over carb problem. I let both sit w/o pressure overnight and tried to vent again in the morning. Nothing else came out so I reapplied the pressure. I got home last night, everything was the same. Nice pour on the ale and foam on the ciders.
 
I am using 5 foot lines with picnic faucets, the fridge is set at about 42 degrees and the lines are inside of the kegerator. It just seems like the beer is super saturated with co2.
 
i dont know. i bought some lines from a dead-beat homebrew shop in knoxville tn and the dude sold me 3/8 lines and only a few feet of it. it was impossible to get consistently good pours. i recently bought 8ft of 3/16 and at 12 psi and roughly 40 degrees all three of my beers pour perfectly. oatmeal stout, power packed porter, and even a keg of canned half pbr, half pbr light i kegged pours right.
 
and even a keg of canned half pbr, half pbr light i kegged pours right.


Why in gods name do you have a keg of canned half pbr, half pbr light! As much as I enjoy a cold pbr, that sounds downright scary man!
 
i dont know. i bought some lines from a dead-beat homebrew shop in knoxville tn and the dude sold me 3/8 lines and only a few feet of it. it was impossible to get consistently good pours. i recently bought 8ft of 3/16 and at 12 psi and roughly 40 degrees all three of my beers pour perfectly. oatmeal stout, power packed porter, and even a keg of canned half pbr, half pbr light i kegged pours right.

When I was trying to buy longer hoses the guy pulled out a bag of 3/8" and told me "that's what everyone uses" and looked at me like I was a *****enozzle when I said I'm pretty sure I need 3/16" Then he tried to charge me $2 a foot for it!
 
Important notes on force-carbonation:

If the beer is chilled, do the shaking at serving pressure.

At room temperature, you would set it at 30 psi.
 
I just found that if you only fill the keg half or 3/4 of the way, shaking is way too effective at 30 psi. It works ok if the keg is full.
 
Back
Top