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mitch_au83

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Hi all first time post. I've made a brew of coopers draught with 1kg of dex. First time I have ever kegged.... I carbed it for 2 days at 31psi then dropped the pressure back to 10psi to serve. So question 1 the head looks good after being poured but doesn't last long in the glass ( a schooner glass and another beer mug both sterilised ) would this be the carbonation or the brew ?? And 2 once the keg is at serving pressure I was told to turn the gas off. How long should the pressure last? Cheers guys.
 
30psi is only ~200kpa. 200kpa for 2 days doesn't give me much carbonation.
So I suggest that the problem might be caused by the beer being a little under-carbed.
Or (if you have a leak), it's gone a bit flat in the keg.

When you are carbonating like this, the amount of air-space in the keg can be significant too.
Say you have a keg only 1/2 full of beer, and your charge that void to 300kpa.
This gives a big buffer of compressed CO2 which can slowly dissolve in your beer.
But if there's only 2cm of space at the top, less gas is buffered, so (with the gas off) less
gas is available to dissolve into the beer.

If you don't have a leak, the pressure should last indefinitely.
Thus FWIW, if you don't have a leak, there's no need to turn the gas off.

However, if the gas is left on, a leak will drain the bottle, rather than just flattening your beer.
Also if someone/thing knocks your taps open, with the gas on, the whole keg will drain.
If the gas is off, eventually it will stop. I lost a keg of porter to the cat. Flaming cat.
 
200kpa for ~48 hrs is what I normally go by. The beer is cold from CCing before it goes in the keg so I hook the gas up test it after 36hrs. Quite often it's good by then.
I would say its the beer itself. Try replacing the dex with dry malt extract or some sort of brew enhancer.
 
The 31 psi was in the country brewer info sheet. I cc'ed the fermenter for 24 hours( next time I'll go 48) kegged and left the bottle turned on for the 2 days @31psi. The keg was about 25mm from the gas tube. Then wound it back to 10psi and turned it off. Next batch I do I'll try a coopers pale ale with a brew enhancer. If it's under carbed now the keg is 1/2 full if I leave it 24 hours or so at 300kpa will that boost it up. Thanks for your responses. BIAB might be a bit advanced for me just yet!!
 
31psi for 2 days once chilled is spot on.

Your beer is not flat, it just looks that way because you used a kit and a kg of sugar.

If you leave the gas on at 10psi at least while pouring, if not all the time, your beer will remain carbonated right to the end.

Next time try some sort of brew enhancer and some hops.
 
I find, even with force carbing, it takes a week or so to get a good head and mouth feel. Force carbing may get CO2 bubbles into your beer quickly but it still seems to need a week or so to come good? Not sure the technical reason but that's what I find.
 
Frothie I find the same. Its good for a taste straight away but then the bubbles get smaller over the next week or two and it finds it legs, if it lasts that long
 
To speed up force carbonation a bit you can hook the gas up to the liquid out. That way the gas bubbles up through the beer rather than sitting on top of it. Unless the keg is completely flat, make sure you have pressure in the line before you hook the gas up, or a check valve, otherwise you'll get beer in your regulator and break it.

There's plenty more info available on the threads on force carbonating.

I've also found that the bubbles get smaller and that head retention improves over time (i think this is called saturation), and that appropriate serving pressure is important.

But probably the strangest thing I've found is that it's entirely possible to strip all the beautiful hoppy aroma and flavour out of your beer if you hit it with too much pressure - I don't go above 20psi unless the beer doesn't really have hop flavour.
 
Cheers guys. Just bought 2 more 19ltr kegs from eBay so off to the hbs to get something to fill them up. I will keep it simple to start maybe a coopers Aust pale ale. With an enhancer to fix the head. Any one done a killkenny clone as a k&k can you do that with c02 or do I need nitrogen ??
 
mitch_au83 said:
Cheers guys. Just bought 2 more 19ltr kegs from eBay so off to the hbs to get something to fill them up. I will keep it simple to start maybe a coopers Aust pale ale. With an enhancer to fix the head. Any one done a killkenny clone as a k&k can you do that with c02 or do I need nitrogen ??
to get the same appearance you'd need nitrogen but you could still make a cracking beer clone of it nonetheless
 

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