Carbonation

[JayG]

Hi all

I am new to brewing but have found this site helpful along the way already. I am after some advice or tips on bottling. The few brews I have bottled have had minimal carbonation if any. I used the PET bottles all cleaned and 2 carbonation drops sealed tight and left for minimum 2 weeks some longer. The closest carbonation I have had is like a flat 2 week old bottle of coke.
If anyone has any advice on what I am doing wrong it would be appreciated.

 

[MaggieO]

What temp are you storing them at? Warmer they are the faster they'll carbonate. Too cold and they won't carbonate at all.

Somewhere around 20-21C is what you need.

 

[JayG]

What temp are you storing them at? Warmer they are the faster they'll carbonate. Too cold and they won't carbonate at all.

Somewhere around 20-21C is what you need.

Hi

I haven’t measured but they are at roughly that i think. Just in the laundry cupboard (which is open style cupboard). Dark though bottom shelf for some and the others are covered. If anything maybe under 20 degrees but only slightly.

 

[MaggieO]

Two carbonation drops. What size bottle? You're sure the lids are tight and in good condition?

I saw someone recommend putting a balloon completely over the top of the bottle. If the cap is leaking the balloon will expand. Might have to hit them with another carb drop. As it's been two weeks all the priming sugar should be consumed.

 

[JayG]

The bottles are the 740ml coopers ones brand new this is the first use. I did give them a quick clean and rinse anyway.

I could try the balloon thing to check for any leaks but did do them up pretty tight.

I tried another beer I had brewed and they aren’t actually to bad carbonation wise so a little success at last. The ginger beer I did has been bottled 3 weeks and still soft bottles and no real fizz at all though.

 

[MaggieO]

Same bottles I use. My lids seal fine after multiple uses.

Two sugar cubes is plenty for mine. Bottles are usually pretty firm in a week.

May just need more time. Might try to get them somewhere warmer.

 

[Staggerin]

Hi, not sure if this is the right thread but Ill give it a go!

I have knocked up my own kegerator(ish), I have a CO2 fire extinguisher hooked up with a reg, through to some 9l SS cylinders with picnic taps.

I have tried to carb some beers (one week at 10PSI), one in a ss cylinder and one in a KK junior. All I get is a very frothy beer (huge head) with very little to no carbonation in the beer itself.

Any ideas what i'm doing wrong, and a fix?

 

[beergee]

Hi, not sure if this is the right thread but Ill give it a go!

I have knocked up my own kegerator(ish), I have a CO2 fire extinguisher hooked up with a reg, through to some 9l SS cylinders with picnic taps.

I have tried to carb some beers (one week at 10PSI), one in a ss cylinder and one in a KK junior. All I get is a very frothy beer (huge head) with very little to no carbonation in the beer itself.

Any ideas what i'm doing wrong, and a fix?

What length are your dispensing lines?

 

[Staggerin]

one is about 2m the other is about 100mm!

 

[beergee]

I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong, depending on the diameter of your lines and serving pressure and temperature, you will likely need to go longer.

For instance my kegerator is running 4mm lines at 2C and 10psi pressure . They are 3M long. Pours pretty well spot on.

There is a chart you can Google which will give you the ratios. Its all about friction in the lines compared with length and diameter etc. It all needs to be balanced.

 

[Staggerin]

Thanks, i've just found a chart as I was looking on another site. Im new to this kegging lark! Will what i'm doing now cause the flat beer with huge head then?

 

[beergee]

Pretty much, the pour will be too quick resulting in a huge head and most of the carbonation will go out of the beer on the pour and as it settles.

A week at serving pressure should pretty well give you spot on carbonation. (depending on beer style of course )

 

[Staggerin]

Thanks for your help! Im pretty pissed off with this as Im wasting a real good citra hopped pale ale getting this set up! Im going out to get some more tubing now.

 

[beergee]

Glad to help, hope I've given you the right advice! Shame to waste good beer!

Make sure you report back!

 

[ozdevil]

also when your checking if you have a spare keg free is to fill with water and run water through the tap to see how your pour is

and adjust the pressure to suit

start with 3m and then go decrease if you need to

lot easier to go long to short then short to long

 

[Staggerin]

I tried the above with some longer tubing. Took the gas off and burped the keg. I then tried a pour,It was much better, the beer still had a head, but was a little more carbed.

As soon as I put the gas back on at the lowest pressure to serve ( about 2 psi) the problem was back. I put water in another keg and that worked OK.

So Im assuming I over carbed the beer to start with.

 

[kadmium]

Oh man. How to carb beer? So many ways to do it.

I have found, for a generic, ease of use one size fits all method I set the fridge to 4 degrees, and run about 10 PSI to the kegs. I let sit for a week on gas, and you end up with nice, well carbed beer that suits most styles relatively well. Sure a belgian wit at 3.9 or an oatmeal stout at low carb isn't easily done like this, but it suits most of my beers fine.

I see brulosophy guys froth over burst carbing, but then in the next sentence talk about letting it condition for a week or two. Why bother burst carbing and then have it sit. Doesn't make sense to me.

I like to let it cold condition in the keg for a week, so might as well just slowly let it carb up.

I'm thinking of getting inline regs, so that I can have exactly the gas I want for each keg, but I like simple, repeatable results that don't require tinkering if I can help it.

Also, it means you won't over carb, as it's easier to carb more than to reduce carb

 

[ozdevil]

Same as Kadmium its great you can force carb a beer and be drinking soon after and risk the beer being over carbed

set and forget and use the carb charts that you find on the web where if you carb @ 2°c at 10.2 psi to get 2.5 volumes co2

eg how kadmium does his

4° at 10psi will give him 2.3 volumes of co2

iwhen i pour i just leave it at that 10.2 psi and dont decrease it to 2 psi or anything like that

 

[kadmium]

Same as Kadmium its great you can force carb a beer and be drinking soon after and risk the beer being over carbed

set and forget and use the carb charts that you find on the web where if you carb @ 2°c at 10.2 psi to get 2.5 volumes co2

eg how kadmium does his

4° at 10psi will give him 2.3 volumes of co2

iwhen i pour i just leave it at that 10.2 psi and dont decrease it to 2 psi or anything like that

Yep, force carbing does have it's uses for sure. But most of the time, the beer needs a good cold condition anyway, even if for a week. I have found even with highly hopped beers a week conditioning can help reduce hop creep / burn.

I just have my reg set to 10 PSI, and it stays there. I use 10PSI for serving, carbing and transferring (I use a spunding valve, with a T Piece and carb caps on a PET bottle to protect my spunding valve)

Means I don't fiddle with the regulator, and just know that it's always set. 2.3 sounds right, and I find it a good middle road for most beer styles, in my opinion. Also, I find that force carbed beers tend to have a 'carbonic bite' until they age out a week or so anyways, so force carb is really only for "oh ****, I forgot to brew beer and I have mates coming over in 3 days and the beers only just ready to get on gas now" kind of situations.

 

[kadmium]

I tried the above with some longer tubing. Took the gas off and burped the keg. I then tried a pour,It was much better, the beer still had a head, but was a little more carbed.

As soon as I put the gas back on at the lowest pressure to serve ( about 2 psi) the problem was back. I put water in another keg and that worked OK.

So Im assuming I over carbed the beer to start with.

Oh, and you may or may not know this, but to help reduce the over carbonation in your beer I find an easy method is to burp the keg till no pressure, then hook up and serve from it.

It will take some time to build head pressure, but co2 prefers to be in the head space as opposed to the liquid, so it will come out of solution. Once it's been a couple days, hook it up to serving pressure and it should slowly balance out, if that makes sense?