Carbonation

[Dylfish]

Hey Guys,



For the last 7 days Ive been carbonating my brew in a keg (room temperature) at 17psi (as shown on a chart I found)



I havent been agitating it at all, and on Saturday night we went to try some of the beer and found that even though it had bubbles it was pretty badly under carbonated.



Since then weve cranked it up to 32psI and Im wondering how long should I keep it at that pressure after its already had a week @ 17psi.



And also should I place the keg in an esky full of ice (since I have no fridge space atm) to bring the temp down to aide the carbonation?





Cheers,

 

[Dylfish]

bump?!

 

[shawnheiderich]

Mate as you are aware Co2 absorbsion increases with the lowering of temp, in order to carbonate you need to ensure that the temp is stable and you use a relaiable method, set reg pressure over time, force carb or prime with fermentables. I leave mine in a fridge for a week at 90kpa or force carb for 90 sec at 250kpa and then it takes a few days to balance out. Have a bit of a serch find a method that suits your situation and try and stick to it to get repeatable results.

Cheers

Shawn

PS. dont forget about line diameter and length and tap temp as variables....

 

[Dylfish]

thanks shaun, i used a forced carbination calculator and at 20 degrees i should be setting it @ 32 psi for 2.7 carbonation volumes. does the amount of time make a difference or once it reaches saturation it wont take any more in unless there is a higher psi? sorry about the questions.

 

[shawnheiderich]

Once the saturation point is reached that is it, but if you have your reg sitting @ 32 psi saturation I would guess it would be over carbonated. Time is your friend when it comes to carbonating. To get your system right you need to know what your reg pressure is for serving (should be the same as the setting you leave for a week and it carbonates) and be able to force carb up to a point less than that and leave the reg set to serve.

Shawn

 

[crundle]

If you are starting out in kegging, the best way to go is to set your regulator to serving pressure at the temperature the keg will be served and stored at and leave it for 2 weeks. We all get impatient, and have done what you have done, but if you can leave it for that amount of time, pour a beer after a week and then one per day after to see how long it takes to reach the required level of carbonation.

Using this method you will not be able to overcarbonate your beer, and once you have some more experience, then you can use the force carbonation process, which can do the job far quicker, but at the risk of serious overcarbonation.

You will need to vent your keg bit by bit I think to get it to the right level.

cheers,

Crundle

 

[SirDrinkalot]

1 cold keg on 40psi for 24hr = Beer ready

 

[beerbog]

1 cold keg on 40psi for 24hr = Beer ready

Adding to SirDrinkalot I do 300kpa (40 odd PSI) for 24 hours but after putting keg in fridge, not prechilled. :icon_cheers: :icon_cheers: :icon_cheers:

 

[Dylfish]

Thats the great thing about this homebrew. Everyone has different methods which work, so i'm going to try mine and see how it goes. but thanks for all your input guys

much help!