Carbonation level

[mftden]

Hi Everyone-
I am very new to home brewing so please forgive my beginners handicap! I have been trying to make carbonated water with flavored oils in my keg. I've put the cold water (even using ice to make sure it's cold enough) in the keg and then put my psi up to 30. After shaking it for several minutes (close to 10) and leaving the CO2 tank hooked up at 30, the soda came out virtually flat today. What could I be doing wrong? Everyone else seems to do it easily, so I don't know what my problem is! Thank you in advance for any feedback!

 

[MrFoodScientist]

How long is your serving line? What temperature are you serving at? There's a good chance you're losing most of your carbonation in the serving process if you have a long line, especially if you're not serving as cold as you can.

Try this:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=24678
It makes a world of difference.

 

[ericbw]

What are flavored oils?

 

[MrFoodScientist]

What are flavored oils?

Stuff like this: http://shop.lorannoils.com/super-strength-flavors/1-dram-size/lemon-oil-natural

 

[daft]

Are you using some kind of emulsifier? I thought such oils were only intended for baked goods and would not mix with waterbase. I have a bunch of loranne banana and another oil based brand which in my experience turned out true to their published do-not-use-with-water caveat.

 

[MrFoodScientist]

I've done with and without, though not necessarily in straight water. If you keep it at a really low level, it's not too bad.

 

[jonnybleu]

Are you priming the tank? I don't even know if that's a thing, but on my corny I would do it, fill your tank up as high as you want and then hit it with co2 as you hold open the release valve, pump out all the air for a second or two, then continue and shake, etc... you may have a layer of oxygen in there still keeping things from really getting to the level you want. With chill water and no oxygen 10-15 min of shaking you should be able to get pretty high on the PSIs.