Is pressure alone enough to clear a beer?

[dogflap]

Had my beer in a pressure keg with some sugar dissolved in boiling water for about a month now. Yesterday I poured a pint today and unfortunately it seems as though there has been an air leak somewhere because there is no pressure in the keg and the pint is cloudy.

I adjusted the seal at the top and then filled it with co2 and thankfully this seems to have fixed the pressure escape issue because a day later, I poured another pint and there was plenty of pressure.

My question is this: can I leave my beer for another 2 weeks to clear under this pressure? Or do I need to add more sugar? The beer tastes pretty good - it's just very cloudy and there is some oily sediment left at the bottom of the pint.

 

[Bobby_M]

Clearing has nothing to do with pressure. The reason it's cloudy is that you added priming sugar, it refermented and made more yeast which is now at the bottom of the keg. Time in the cold gets the beer clear and then you'll dispense enough beer out to drag as much sediment out of the way as necessary.

 

[balrog]

Remember that you are pulling from the bottom of the keg and anything that settled will be the first thing out of the keg.

And Bobby beat me to it.

 

[dogflap]

Thanks for your help, guys. The beer tastes pretty good as it is.... Do you think I'm good to just keep drinking it?

 

[dogflap]

Also, is the only reason to have good pressure to pour the pint? Does pressure play no other part?

 

[bgmac]

Also, is the only reason to have good pressure to pour the pint? Does pressure play no other part?

No, you are carbing the beer with the CO2 bottle. There is no reason to add sugar to the beer if you are using a keg and CO2. Only add sugar if you are bottling. This allows a small fermentation to happen so the CO2 is trapped and absorbed in the beer while in the bottle. A keg with added CO2 does the same thing but much faster and no fermentation.

 

[dogflap]

Really? All the kits I buy instruct me to add sugar when I keg [emoji848] interesting! Thanks for your response.

 

[bgmac]

Really? All the kits I buy instruct me to add sugar when I keg [emoji848] interesting! Thanks for your response.

Just about every kit I have ever seen says to add sugar for bottling. They usually don't mention kegging since that is a little more advanced and a vast majority of people buying kits bottle instead of keg. There is no reason to add sugar after the primary fermentation is over. Some people will add sugar to the primary to bump it a few more gravity points, but that is before fermentation is complete.

You should transfer the beer to a keg after fermentation is complete (about 3 weeks). Then carb for a week or so and allow the beer to mellow out. By adding sugar, you are starting fermentation again which is pointless and wont turn out right if you have it in the frig or keg-orator because the temps will be too cold for the yeast to do its job properly.

BTW you should be carbing the keg at serving temps or the pressure will be all wrong if you carb it at room temps. So 34-38F for most Ales/Lagers and what ever PSI your beer style calls for, which is usually somewhere between 8-12 PSI.

 

[dogflap]

Wow, I never knew! Thanks so much for your response [emoji4] I'll keep it cool and hope that it clears up sooner rather than later.