Ross Method Forced Carb, Pressure Dumped Out?

[reVoxAHB]

Hi all,

I just force carbed my APA using the Ross method. After 60 seconds of 300kpa, I turned off the gas at cylinder and continued to rock (where pressure normally drops and eventually stabilises around 150kpa)..

This time however, the second I started to rock (after Cylinder off) the pressure instantly dropped out.. like 300kpa to NO pressure in a split second! Never had this happen before.

Can it mean I have a cracked line, faulty reg or? The thing that's weird is I can throw the cylinder back on and I have pressure and plenty of gas.. keg is holding pressure.

As a point of mention, I dry hopped in a mesh/muslin bag which I've done a dozen times before without issue.. Generally those suckers float anyway.. but do you reckon it could be blocking the c02 tube?

Odd.. waiting 30 mins or so to purge and throw on serving pressure.

Any help appreciated.

Cheers
reVox

 

[.DJ.]

weird because if there was a leak, your reg shouldnt register the 300kpa when you turned it up...

Unless having that high has caused a "fault" somewhere whuich has resulted in a leak..


A leak does seem the most likey cause...

 

[Maple]

sounds like a leak in the line or perhaps even in the gas QD. that would allow the reg to show the pressure at 300kpa whilst on, and when the pressure is removed, drop it almost immediately. try the saopy water test on the line from the reg to QD and see what happens, interested to hear what it turns out to be.

 

[muckey]

sounds like a leak it one of the fittings. I've seen something similar in my setup. left alone the system holds pressure but jiggle the right fitting and the pressure can drop very noticeably.

time for a bottle of soapy water and some leak checking methinks

 

[reVoxAHB]

Thanks fellas. Off to leak-test now...

after I pull a beer, of course .

Will report back.

reVox

 

[Steve]

Odd.. waiting 30 mins or so to purge and throw on serving pressure.

you only need to wait 10 mins

 

[reVoxAHB]

you only need to wait 10 mins

Actually, I know this but was juggling other things and knew I'd be 30 :lol: . Cheers tho.

But anyway, no leaks found. I disconnected both kegs at post and ramped the system to 100kpa.. gave a good solid soapy/water spray down to reg, all joins, etc. and looking good.

I then ramped to 200 and retest fine, to 300kpa (where I was force carbing) and still no leak!? Dropped pressure and put both kegs back on at 60-70kpa serving and all seems OK. I'll keep a close eye the system over the next couple of days, and continually check that it's holding pressure (my sys/cylinder is 24/7).

I did notice, a couple of kegs ago when I was experimenting with 4L small batches (and force carbing, etc. ) that my non-return valve failed

in that, for the first time ever, I'd watched beer but mostly foam creep up the c02 lines and past the non-return . I very quickly reversed what I was doing and ramped up kpa pushing everything back in the other direction. As best I can tell, no liquid reached the reg.. but does this red flag anyone? anything here?

Other than that, I wonder if it failed at the keg? Holding pressure fine tho!?

Beer pouring great atm and wheew.. the dry hop is hitting the spot atm in this Melb heatwave.. a touch of Magnum, a good hit of centennial and a handful of fresh NZ cas :icon_drool2:

Well, if anyone catches anything here or can advise further, let us know.

Cheers

 

[jonocarroll]

Purely out of curiosity, and to make sure the 'dumb' stuff is covered... do you hear bubbling when you have the keg on its side connected at high pressure? You don't have the NR valve back-to-front do you? That would explain the drop in pressure and the foam climbing back up the line. :blink:

 

[reVoxAHB]

Purely out of curiosity, and to make sure the 'dumb' stuff is covered... do you hear bubbling when you have the keg on its side connected at high pressure? You don't have the NR valve back-to-front do you? That would explain the drop in pressure and the foam climbing back up the line. :blink:

Yeah, bubbling when the keg is on it's side and IN/C02 post in lowest position, and with a bit of rocking as help. Just standard bubbling sound like I get when normally force carb.

As for the NR, I have the older-style where I'm hoping the --> refers to the direction of C02 flow eg out from reg to NR IN--->OUT to rest of system:


If I'm getting flow back does that mean it failed? Do these fail or come faulty? Never "needed" to test it, so to speak, until last batches.

reVox