Slightly Flatish Beer from Keg

[Neil Buttriss]

Hi guy's, Im a new guy to the forum and to home brewing into a keg.
I brewed up a liquid mort beer and as I work FIFO I thought from all my reading I would do the slow carbonate on the keg at 10 to 12 psi while I was away for my 15 days. The wife looked after the readings and kept the keg and gas going between this number and it was in my keezer at between 3 and 3.5 degrees at all times.
I got home today and thought I better get one out of this so poured a beer with the pluto gun, The beer had good body and a good head on it, tasted great in fact but was just a little flatish. I didn't change the regulator from the set psi and the good wife said it had been sitting on 10 psi since Friday. I also didn't burp as I was going to start my dispensing at 10 psi to see how she went.
Any suggestions or as I drink more, which will certainly happen will it improve a bit maybe.
Pretty happy with Keg 1

 

[themonkeysback]

It probably depends a little bit on your preferred level of carbonation.
Having sat at that pressure for 15 days, it is likely as carbed as it is going to get at that psi.
I generally run my beers anywhere from 75-100kpa (approx 11-14.5 psi), but I am quite happy to drink beers at the lower end of the carb range.

My suggestion is just push the pressure up to 14 for a few days (given it is already mostly carbed a few days should be enough for this to level out) and see if you prefer the carb level that you get from that. Assuming you don't get too much foaming at this level you can always push the pressure higher again to suit your taste if required.

Adam.

 

[Nizmoose]

Also perhaps keep in mind that if the keg is really brim full it'll take a lot of time to get the co2 in, a bit of headspace would speed up the process, maybe have a pint then put the gas back on

 

[captain crumpet]

Also perhaps keep in mind that if the keg is really brim full it'll take a lot of time to get the co2 in, a bit of headspace would speed up the process, maybe have a pint then put the gas back on

this

 

[MHB]

Hi guy's, Im a new guy to the forum and to home brewing into a keg.
I brewed up a liquid mort beer and as I work FIFO I thought from all my reading I would do the slow carbonate on the keg at 10 to 12 psi while I was away for my 15 days. The wife looked after the readings and kept the keg and gas going between this number and it was in my keezer at between 3 and 3.5 degrees at all times.
I got home today and thought I better get one out of this so poured a beer with the pluto gun, The beer had good body and a good head on it, tasted great in fact but was just a little flatish. I didn't change the regulator from the set psi and the good wife said it had been sitting on 10 psi since Friday. I also didn't burp as I was going to start my dispensing at 10 psi to see how she went.
Any suggestions or as I drink more, which will certainly happen will it improve a bit maybe.
Pretty happy with Keg 1

Go to Braukaiser and read the section on Carbonation that will give you a pretty good background, then look at the "Carbonation Tables" (and FFS use metric 11psi is about 76kPa), you are at lets say 3.25oC so your dissolved CO2 will be pretty close to 5g/L, which really is a sweet spot for lots of beers, if you like a bit more fizz just up the pressure a touch, or reduce the temperature a touch...

Couple of points to ponder, you say the fridge is at 3-3.5oC, is it and where in the fridge, you can easily have several degrees difference between thee top and bottom of a fridge - a small fan will fix this and give you an homogeneous environment. How are you measuring the temperature, the standard method is a thermometer in a glass of water. Make sure its a "Total Immersion" thermometer, a partial immersion thermometer could be giving a couple of degrees of error.
You as a brewer should have one good thermometer (I recommend a lab type glass thermometer) that you can trust.

Other point is gauges on regs aren't really precision instruments, even if they start out spot on they usually take a couple of knocks, get over pressurised…. and aren't spot on for long.

Ultimately if the beer is a touch under carbonated, add more fizz (more pressure - lower temperature).
But it really is important to know that the P&T are what you think they are.
Mark

 

[Neil Buttriss]

The Keg was only filled to the weld so it was at least 2.5cm under the Gas in rubber, I did the keg on the slow carbonate at 3.0 to 3.5 Deg. I have looked at the charts many in fact and I wasn't far off the mark it's just I like my ales slightly higher in carb. I got it done by upping to 30 psi for 3 hours then removing the disconnects and just at belly height I moved the keg up and down slowly, it gurgled and 30 min later beer perfect has been since.
The temp is by a mangrove jack temp controller and Im using a freezer, the probe is set in the middle of the keezer lid and is hanging down about halfway to the bottom. Ive placed a digital thermometer in a couple of places and it seems fairly stable. Fans will be added as the keezer build is done

 

[Budgiecougar]

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