New to kegging. Beer not holding carbonation?

[donald_trub]

Hi Folks,

I've just set up my keg master kegerator and I've had my first 2 beers in there for exactly a week now. Temperature is set to 4 degrees. My regulator is set to to just shy of 80kpa. The beers seem to pour pretty well carbonated, have a head on them, etc but the carbonation disappears out of the beers almost instantly.

Am I not being patient enough? I always thought 1 week was the magic length of time, but some quick googles seem to suggest 3 weeks is more like it.

 

[Tropico]

I can understand what you are saying. Chasing the perfect beer, perfect long lasting head, just the right size, continuous stream of bubbles through the beer, from the tap to last sip.

My only recommendation is to up the pressure. 1 week is ok, 2 weeks is better 3 weeks is good.

I read somewhere that the pressure on the regulator is not the same as the pressure on the beer, and thought this was crap. I'm starting to believe it now.

And then we can start talking beer line diameter and length, taps etc.

Patience, practice experience.

Edit: didn't mention the glasses too, including type of glass.

 

[pcmfisher]

How do you make your beer. Kit, All Grain?

 

[donald_trub]

All grain... I'm not sure I see how that would make a difference?

 

[razz]

Generally speaking Donald an all grain beer would hold a better head than a kit beer (for the same carbonation) I always found that me beers where much better carbed after a few weeks compared to only one week. I switched to force carbonation a few years back and it works great.

 

[Tropico]

pour pretty well carbonated, have a head on them, etc but the carbonation disappears out of the beers almost instantly.

Does the head disappear and the beer look flat or does it still retain some head?

Does the beer taste flat?

 

[n87]

Also, are you talking about head retention, or the beer actually loosing carbonation?

 

[pcmfisher]

Generally speaking Donald an all grain beer would hold a better head than a kit beer (for the same carbonation) I always found that me beers where much better carbed after a few weeks compared to only one week. I switched to force carbonation a few years back and it works great.

Yes, kit brews especially things like coopers draught + 1kg csr brewed at 30 deg for 4 days have trouble looking anything like carbonated beer in a glass (don't taste much like it either).

Even though your beer is probably carbonated after a week or if you force carb it over a couiple of days it will get better after another week or so.
Is it clear? If not, it will also look better when it clears up a bit.

One other thing, what sort of taps do you have? Those plastic ones that comes with some kegerators?

 

[Leviathan]

One week at serving pressure isnt enough to carbonate imo, i cbf waiting that long so i force carb it, 350kpa for about 24 hours.

 

[mxd]

what length is the beer line, is your system balanced ?

 

[Ben1]

I had a similar issue. Do you have a font snake? I found when I first got the setup I would set the carbonation for the perfect head. The problem was it was getting huge head from the warm font tower so I was under carbonating the beer.

I got a font snake and this seems to help.

 

[donald_trub]

Looks like u was just not patient enough. A few days after 1 week and the beer is coming out perfectly now. I was talking about actual carbonation - you could hardly see bubbles when holding up to light and tasted flat very quickly. All good now, everything is perfect. I guess 1 week is just not long enough at serving pressure.

Also interesting to know that kit beers don't hold carbonation as well... I didn't know that, although I haven't made a kit beer in years.

Thanks guys!

 

[tj2204]

I can understand what you are saying. Chasing the perfect beer, perfect long lasting head, just the right size, continuous stream of bubbles through the beer, from the tap to last sip.

This has got me thinking a bit. My beers hold a head pretty much to the bottom of the glass and get good lacing most of the time BUT other than within the first minute or so after the pour they don't have a stream of bubbles through the beer.

Is this normal? I'd assumed it was. I'm not using a nucleated glass, just cheap beer glasses from dan's.

 

[Rocker1986]

Probably just means your glasses are clean. Bubbles only form on nucleation points, be it deliberate etched ones in glasses, or bits of dust or whatever in the glass itself.

I'd imagine temperature would have an impact on how quickly it takes to carbonate too. I have my kegerator set to -1C and the regulator set to 12 PSI, and they're well carbonated in a week at that pressure. Before anyone shoots me down with some remark about serving megaswill, the reason for this is that I have FC taps, and the set up is out on the back deck. Rather than pour a glass of foam first and throw it away, I begin the pour very slowly and increase it when the cold beer starts coming through. The result being a glass served about 4 or 5 degrees with the amount of carbonation I like in my beers.

 

[Tropico]

Different glasses certainly can impact on the appearance of the beer. There is a world of difference between cheap beer glasses, etched glasses and some of the crystal goblets, tulips and pilsner glasses. Appearance is important, but it must be in balance with taste (and aroma).

Me, I run 5 metres of 5mm line and last time i checked about 13psi. Works for me, I'm happy.

Edit: Actually 105KPA = 15psi

 

[Pogierob]

Yes, kit brews especially things like coopers draught + 1kg csr brewed at 30 deg for 4 days have trouble looking anything like carbonated beer in a glass (don't taste much like it either).

Even though your beer is probably carbonated after a week or if you force carb it over a couiple of days it will get better after another week or so.
Is it clear? If not, it will also look better when it clears up a bit.

One other thing, what sort of taps do you have? Those plastic ones that comes with some kegerators?

brewed at 30?

I might suggest there are bigger problems here than carbonation unless you love a Coopers Saison draught

 

[pcmfisher]

brewed at 30?

I might suggest there are bigger problems here than carbonation unless you love a Coopers Saison draught

Oh, there is bigger problems than carbonation, but there are still plenty of people who do it that way just because they always have.