First Time Force Carb Question

[cadeucsb]

So I am force carbing for the first time. LBS said to just set it at 35psi for a couple days and off you go. No shaking, etc. So I set it at 35 for 3 days, then backed it down to serving pressure (12) for the rest of the week.

After reading here, it sounds like it can take a bit longer than that... Currently I am getting high pressure foam out of my newly installed perlick faucet. (I just cleaned all my lines and coupler, same results). When it foams down after a while, its carbonated, but not fully.

is it just a wait it out game or did I do something wrong?

 

[day_trippr]

What temperature was the beer at while the pressure was at 35 psi?

If that beer was cold, three days at 35 psi would be about two days too long.

You'd have a seriously over-carbed keg of beer on your hands, and you'd need to turn the gas off completely and pop the PRV on the keg every time you thought about it. After a day or two the keg should calm down enough to serve...

Cheers!

 

[MachineShopBrewing]

I think you have over carbed beer also. When you throw open the faucet, are you doing it quickly? I don't think that is always made clear to people if they have never poured a beer before. Just asking.

I am a big fan of the set it and forget it method. Get yourself a carbonation chart and just set you regulator for the correct pressure and leave it for about a week. You will never have any trouble that way.

 

[cadeucsb]

What temperature was the beer at while the pressure was at 35 psi?

If that beer was cold, three days at 35 psi would be about two days too long.

You'd have a seriously over-carbed keg of beer on your hands, and you'd need to turn the gas off completely and pop the PRV on the keg every time you thought about it. After a day or two the keg should calm down enough to serve...

Cheers!

I think you found my problem. Carbed at 38 degrees. Going to go shut off the gas and pull pressure. Should I pull the ring until it stops hissing and all gas is out? And just keep doing that for the next day or so?

I think you have over carbed beer also. When you throw open the faucet, are you doing it quickly? I don't think that is always made clear to people if they have never poured a beer before. Just asking.

I am a big fan of the set it and forget it method. Get yourself a carbonation chart and just set you regulator for the correct pressure and leave it for about a week. You will never have any trouble that way.

I have ran many a keg through the kegerator (just commercial kegs)..pouring and carb chart usage are a non issue...just this force carbing thing that is new to me

 

[day_trippr]

[...]Should I pull the ring until it stops hissing and all gas is out? And just keep doing that for the next day or so?[...]

Yup. Let it all out. The beer will release CO2 to restore equilibrium with the head space pressure, then you let that out again, etc, until you tame the wild brew.

Cheers!

 

[cadeucsb]

Thanks much but how do I know when I have let out enough and to get it back on CO2?

 

[MachineShopBrewing]

I have ran many a keg through the kegerator (just commercial kegs)..pouring and carb chart usage are a non issue...just this force carbing thing that is new to me

Any time you are applying CO2 under pressure to carbonate beer it is called force carbing regardless of method.

I tend not to use the method you described due to how easy it is to overcarb the beer. You could try the rolling method. Setting the pressure to the correct setting and rolling the keg gently on your legs until no more CO2 will go into solution.

 

[day_trippr]

Thanks much but how do I know when I have let out enough and to get it back on CO2?

Pour a few ounces and drink it! Duh!

Cheers!

 

[cadeucsb]

Any time you are applying CO2 under pressure to carbonate beer it is called force carbing regardless of method.

Yea. Just much easier to manage when you have a properly carbed keg from the manufacturer and simply have to maintain it.

 

[cadeucsb]

Pour a few ounces and drink it! Duh!

Cheers!

Will do . Just didn't want to further mess it up

 

[cadeucsb]

So I gassed it back up today after a couple days of releasing pressure every now and again (even a little shake once in awhile).

Carb of the beer was pretty good but I was still shooting fast foam out of the faucet. Took the gas back off in hopes it still just needs to off gas a bit.

 

[day_trippr]

Give it another day of venting, worse comes to worse you can always bump the carb level back up.

But the "shooting fast foam" may be indicative of a completely different cause: either the faucet isn't fully opened, or there might be a problem with the Out dip tube O-ring on the keg.

The former should be pretty obvious to anyone that's operated a beer faucet more than a couple of times so we'll leave that one lay there in a box, out of the way.

The dip tube o-ring, though, may be an actual issue. If you're literally seeing the beer doing anything other than smoothly dispensing from the faucet - with foam or without - and instead is "spitting" (or perhaps "shooting") out of the faucet, that could be the result of CO2 in the head space of the keg shunting right into the beer stream.

And there's only a few ways that can happen without also having puddles of beer under the keg: a bad O-ring under the Out dip tube flange, a crack in the flange, or a hole in the dip tube itself above the beer level.

So if your "shooting foam" thing might be CO2-propelled brew, give the dip tube and its O-ring a good look-over...

Cheers!

 

[cadeucsb]

Give it another day of venting, worse comes to worse you can always bump the carb level back up.

But the "shooting fast foam" may be indicative of a completely different cause: either the faucet isn't fully opened, or there might be a problem with the Out dip tube O-ring on the keg.

The former should be pretty obvious to anyone that's operated a beer faucet more than a couple of times so we'll leave that one lay there in a box, out of the way.

The dip tube o-ring, though, may be an actual issue. If you're literally seeing the beer doing anything other than smoothly dispensing from the faucet - with foam or without - and instead is "spitting" (or perhaps "shooting") out of the faucet, that could be the result of CO2 in the head space of the keg shunting right into the beer stream.

And there's only a few ways that can happen without also having puddles of beer under the keg: a bad O-ring under the Out dip tube flange, a crack in the flange, or a hole in the dip tube itself above the beer level.

So if your "shooting foam" thing might be CO2-propelled brew, give the dip tube and its O-ring a good look-over...

Cheers!

Ok, I do have 2 faucets on this setup with similar results and my main I just replaced with a perlick faucet (previous one had the same issue)...so essentially 3 faucets cant be wrong.

I do have another keg I can test and compare with. This is the first time I have kegged in a sanke style keg with a D coupler...so who knows if i messed up the dip tube/o-ring...i shall check