Kegged beer and cider flat

[Gloveski]

Need some help guys, I kegged my first beer and cider and the taste I'm really happy with but unfortunately they go flat really quickly.

My method was to force carb at 30psi for 24 hours and then drop to 12psi for about 6 days. I have no leaks as it has held the 12psi .

I'm really not sure what to do next?

 

[Grott]

Either you do have a leak or the force carbonation and 12 psi for 6 days didn't really work. This can happen if the gas line non return valve(s) get stuck and don't open.

 

[Gloveski]

When I pull the pressure relief on the kegs I can hear the gas going into kegs so I don't think I have stuck valves . Maybe a leak put I tried spraying starsan and got no bubbles anywhere ???? I'm really stumped as so close to an awesome beer

 

[Grott]

Let's eliminate leaks. Firstly disconnect gas disconnects from kegs then set gas pressure at 20 psi. Turn the gas bottle off, if you have a leak in the line the pressure will drop on the gauges. Unless straight away obvious, to check for slow leaks wait a few hours. If this shows no leakage then turn bottle on and drop pressure to serving pressure and re- connect the gas line to keg and then turn gas bottle off again. If the keg is leaking then the pressure in the gauges will drop.

We will get to the bottom of this.

 

[Gloveski]

Thanks so much for the quick reply I have visitors tonight Christmas cheer and all , I will try this first thing tomorrow and report back

 

[Gloveski]

Let's eliminate leaks. Firstly disconnect gas disconnects from kegs then set gas pressure at 20 psi. Turn the gas bottle off, if you have a leak in the line the pressure will drop on the gauges. Unless straight away obvious, to check for slow leaks wait a few hours. If this shows no leakage then turn bottle on and drop pressure to serving pressure and re- connect the gas line to keg and then turn gas bottle off again. If the keg is leaking then the pressure in the gauges will drop.

We will get to the bottom of this.

Grott I have done the above as suggested left kegs disconnected over night with gas pressure at 20psi and gas bottle off ............no leaks there
tested with kegs connected and gas off at serving pressure of 12psi for the last 2 hours and no pressure drop so no leaks in keg seals etc

I followed the steps outline on Brulosophy for carbing my beer ................maybe my next step is to give both kegs a decent shake up , but to be honest I would have thought the amount of time I left the kegs they would have carbed up nicely. I basically left for 24 hours at 30 psi and then dropped to 12 psi for 6 days would have thought this would have been adequate time to get a nice carb

 

[Gloveski]

Grott I have done the above as suggested left kegs disconnected over night with gas pressure at 20psi and gas bottle off ............no leaks there
tested with kegs connected and gas off at serving pressure of 12psi for the last 2 hours and no pressure drop so no leaks in keg seals etc

I followed the steps outline on Brulosophy for carbing my beer ................maybe my next step is to give both kegs a decent shake up , but to be honest I would have thought the amount of time I left the kegs they would have carbed up nicely. I basically left for 24 hours at 30 psi and then dropped to 12 psi for 6 days would have thought this would have been adequate time to get a nice carb

here is the brulosophy lin http://brulosophy.com/methods/kegging-method/

 

[Tony121]

How flat is the beer? Completely or slightly?

You may just need a higher serving pressure. What temperature are you running st?

 

[Grott]

Well that's good, there are no leaks and the check was worthwhile for confidence purposes.
The carbonation method is sound so I re-read your post and noted as quoted below.

the taste I'm really happy with but unfortunately they go flat really quickly.

So does the beer taste flat? By flat do you mean the head disappears? If you hold the glass up to the light can you see any bubbles, they may well be very small?

 

[Matplat]

I noticed this happened with a bottle conditioned wheat beer I did not long ago. I was really confused as I had primed them more, to suit the style. Wasn't just one, the whole batch, it didn't taste infected at all, just didn't carb up properly, and by the end of the glass I was drinking flat beer.

I realise this is a totally different mechanism for carbing beer, but thought I would share as it could be some other factor that is common between the two methods that could be the fault.

 

[Gloveski]

thanks for the quick reply guys what an awesome community

Temperature is 3 to 4 degrees on kegerator

Grott yeah the beer definately had bubbles and has a nice head to start but just goes flat really quickly in the glass if that makes sense.
The cider had slightly more bubbles on initial pour but also quickly went flat sitting in glass

 

[Gloveski]

after a initial mouthfull the bear and cider definately taste flat

 

[mxd]

You need to consider balancing the system. Line length etc.. It may sound strange but it May be ovdrcarbdd.

 

[Gloveski]

You need to consider balancing the system. Line length etc.. It may sound strange but it May be ovdrcarbdd.

It's a mangrove kegerator , I just left gas lines and liquid lines at the length they came so do I need to change them. How do I tell if it's over carbed ?

 

[Grott]

Appreciate this must be frustrating for you but I would now do this. A basic check of keg carbonation would be to disconnect the gas, release all the pressure from the keg then wait an hour and check if any more gas can be released. If bugger all I'd say the beer in the keg is flat and we can look at a forced carb. option.
Cheers

 

[Gloveski]

Appreciate this must be frustrating for you but I would now do this. A basic check of keg carbonation would be to disconnect the gas, release all the pressure from the keg then wait an hour and check if any more gas can be released. If bugger all I'd say the beer in the keg is flat and we can look at a forced carb. option.
Cheers

thanks Grott I will try this and report back

 

[mxd]

It's a mangrove kegerator , I just left gas lines and liquid lines at the length they came so do I need to change them. How do I tell if it's over carbed ?

There's a spreadsheet for balancing and lots of threads with the joy of your first keg setup hose long is the beer line? I assume you don't know the internal diameter of the line ?

 

[mtb]

One side thought - where is your CO2 bottle from? Did you get it filled yourself?

I ask because I was recently gifted a large gas bottle that turned out to contain a nitrogen/CO2 mixture, not pure CO2. This mixture is often used in pubs. The nitrogen in that gas mixture (apparently around the 75% mark) does not carbonate beer at typical home brew pressure so I was effectively carbing my beer just a quarter of what I intended to. I didn't notice for a while, because pouring pressure was fine, temp fine, no leaks etc; but my beer was still undercarbed.

For the record, I contacted the supplier on the label of the bottle and had it sent home. It's probably under a NSW pub somewhere pouring megaswill now..

 

[Gloveski]

There's a spreadsheet for balancing and lots of threads with the joy of your first keg setup hose long is the beer line? I assume you don't know the internal diameter of the line ?

beer lines are about 330cm long and hose size looks to be 8mm not sure of internal diameter though

 

[Gloveski]

One side thought - where is your CO2 bottle from? Did you get it filled yourself?

I ask because I was recently gifted a large gas bottle that turned out to contain a nitrogen/CO2 mixture, not pure CO2. This mixture is often used in pubs. The nitrogen in that gas mixture (apparently around the 75% mark) does not carbonate beer at typical home brew pressure so I was effectively carbing my beer just a quarter of what I intended to. I didn't notice for a while, because pouring pressure was fine, temp fine, no leaks etc; but my beer was still undercarbed.

For the record, I contacted the supplier on the label of the bottle and had it sent home. It's probably under a NSW pub somewhere pouring megaswill now..

its a standard keg king bottle that I brought pre filled on ebay.would have to double check who it was supplied from