EliW
Active Member
Hey everyone, I've been around here for a long time, and brewing beer (and mead & wine & cider) for, well, like 17-18 years now.
But only in the last couple, did I switch to doing kegs. Everything had been primed bottles before.
My first kegs were just primed as well, because it was simple. And it, in fact, was. But I disliked the fact that it was impossible to get 'clear beer' out of the keg when doing that. Because of all the sediment. I mean, I don't mind it for taste (and for porters/stouts -- meh, who will know), but for competition, and friends, there's something to having that perfectly crystal beer coming out.
So I wanted to start doing force-carbination.
And regardless of how many times I've read every post here about doing force carbing, the stickies, read the charts, tried different methods. Each time it fails.
Each time, I have to resort to doing burst carbing to make it work for me. Which works, but is so hard to get the carb level right. So, if you could give me some advice on what's going wrong.
Let me recount a few of my attempts:
1. Twice now, I've tried set-it-and-forget-it in my kegerator. My kegerator stays right at 40 degrees. Following the charts, I'll put the beer in the kegerator, hook it up to 10psi (one time, tried 12 another time) ... and wait 2-3 weeks. After that time, I'd test it, and it would be completely flat. So because I'd need the beer ready, I'd resort to burst carbing it, and that fixed it quickly.
The first time, I just set it to 10psi and left it alone. The second time at 12psi, I kept checking the pressure a couple times a week, and adjusted the regulator as needed. (FWIW, I noticed that I needed to do this, as over time the PSI might go up/down by one or two, probably as everything cooled down)
I did notice, to reference the last bit as well, that it just seemed problematic to keep the PSI set that low. The slightest twist on the regulator and it would jump either direction. *sigh*
2. Most recently, I attempted after talking with some other friends, about both the 'low PSI adjustment' issues, and just the pain of doing all this in the tight confines of the kegerator. To just do it at 'basement temp' and much higher PSI.
So I tried that. My basement stays at a constant 70 degrees, and the floor (concrete) is even a bit colder. I hooked up the CO2 to two kegs, and turned the regulator up to 30 PSI. One was a session IPA, one was a Black Rye Ale.
I left them hooked up for 3 weeks + 2 days. Yesterday, I went to tap one of them to test it before I would serve it this weekend. DEAD FLAT
*whimpers*
So, Here I went putting them into the kegerator last night, then this morning working on burst carbing them, so that they will be ready.
Burst carbing works every time. set-it-and-forget-it never does.
So any theories here? According to everyone I've talked to, I must be a liar, because nothing seems to work. *pout*
But only in the last couple, did I switch to doing kegs. Everything had been primed bottles before.
My first kegs were just primed as well, because it was simple. And it, in fact, was. But I disliked the fact that it was impossible to get 'clear beer' out of the keg when doing that. Because of all the sediment. I mean, I don't mind it for taste (and for porters/stouts -- meh, who will know), but for competition, and friends, there's something to having that perfectly crystal beer coming out.
So I wanted to start doing force-carbination.
And regardless of how many times I've read every post here about doing force carbing, the stickies, read the charts, tried different methods. Each time it fails.
Each time, I have to resort to doing burst carbing to make it work for me. Which works, but is so hard to get the carb level right. So, if you could give me some advice on what's going wrong.
Let me recount a few of my attempts:
1. Twice now, I've tried set-it-and-forget-it in my kegerator. My kegerator stays right at 40 degrees. Following the charts, I'll put the beer in the kegerator, hook it up to 10psi (one time, tried 12 another time) ... and wait 2-3 weeks. After that time, I'd test it, and it would be completely flat. So because I'd need the beer ready, I'd resort to burst carbing it, and that fixed it quickly.
The first time, I just set it to 10psi and left it alone. The second time at 12psi, I kept checking the pressure a couple times a week, and adjusted the regulator as needed. (FWIW, I noticed that I needed to do this, as over time the PSI might go up/down by one or two, probably as everything cooled down)
I did notice, to reference the last bit as well, that it just seemed problematic to keep the PSI set that low. The slightest twist on the regulator and it would jump either direction. *sigh*
2. Most recently, I attempted after talking with some other friends, about both the 'low PSI adjustment' issues, and just the pain of doing all this in the tight confines of the kegerator. To just do it at 'basement temp' and much higher PSI.
So I tried that. My basement stays at a constant 70 degrees, and the floor (concrete) is even a bit colder. I hooked up the CO2 to two kegs, and turned the regulator up to 30 PSI. One was a session IPA, one was a Black Rye Ale.
I left them hooked up for 3 weeks + 2 days. Yesterday, I went to tap one of them to test it before I would serve it this weekend. DEAD FLAT
*whimpers*
So, Here I went putting them into the kegerator last night, then this morning working on burst carbing them, so that they will be ready.
Burst carbing works every time. set-it-and-forget-it never does.
So any theories here? According to everyone I've talked to, I must be a liar, because nothing seems to work. *pout*
