Slowly Overcarbonating Keg

[stux]

Work out your carbonation pressure (not your rapid carb pressure)

For me, that's 83kpa. Set your reg to that and leave it.

After a week you have perfectly carbed beer.

Now adjust your beerline so you get a good pour.

Job done. You've balanced your meg fridge.

Next you can work on rapid carbing. I do 300kpa for 24-36 hrs to get say 60-80% of the carbing done and then go back to 83kpa. That means I can get to perfect carb in 3-4 days.

You've now balanced your fridge and worked out how to rapid carb.

In my experience the balancing spreadsheets are rubbish

 

[glenwal]

You need to have the regulator set to the correct pressure for the carbonation level (volumes of CO2) that you want. Carbonation is affected by temperature (lower temp = more CO2 absorbed) and pressure (higher pressure = more CO2 absorbed). Headspace in the keg is irrelevant - it only appears to play a part since headspace normally increases with time, and time is the actual issue.

If you have the reg set too high, your beer will over carbonate. Having it set just a fraction too high will mean it takes a week or two to actually over carb the keg, which will be what you are all experiencing.

To fix the problem, you'll have to drop the pressure down slightly on your reg, though how much will be basically trial and error. Calculators will get you in the range you need to be, but final adjustment is based on the real world - ie. do you know if your reg is 100% accurate and calibrated, and how accurate is your temperature? (are you measuring the temp of the beer or just ambient? is your thermometer calibrated?).