Natural Carbonation in Keg

[Yeastieboy]

Hefe with yeast starter had a nice vigorous fermentation finishing at 1.016. I racked to keg after 10 days with 4 oz of corn sugar. Purged with CO2. Set the fermenter at 68F and hooked up my new spunding valve to the gas in port. I expected to see pressure start to climb after 24-48 hours but nothing. It has now been 5 days and the pressure is only at about 3 PSI.

I guess I expected it to climb, thinking I would set the valve to bleed off at about 30 PSI while it naturally carbonated.

I checked for leaks the first time and even tried reseating the keg lid another time to be sure. Sprayed with Starsan. No apparent leaks.

What am I missing here?? It’s my first attempt ay naturally carbing in the keg so I’m guessing there is something I don’t understand...

Thanks!

 

[jalc6927]

Our takes 2 weeks or so to carb a bottle using sugar, wouldn’t it be the same in a keg?

The initial co2, was not enough to fully carb the keg

 

[Yeastieboy]

Our takes 2 weeks or so to carb a bottle using sugar, wouldn’t it be the same in a keg?

The initial co2, was not enough to fully carb the keg

Yes, I accept it probably takes 2-4 weeks to carbonate. My confusion is more with the fact that there doesn’t appear to be a building head pressure in the sealed keg.

 

[Smellyglove]

My hefes are carbed in three to four days. But with speise. Did you seal the lid with co2? If not maybe the lid is not 100% sealed and you got a leak through there?

 

[Yeastieboy]

My hefes are carbed in three to four days. But with speise. Did you seal the lid with co2? If not maybe the lid is not 100% sealed and you got a leak through there?

Sealed with keg lube and seated (twice) with CO2. Do you monitor the pressure in the keg when naturally carbonating? How high does it get?

 

[Smellyglove]

Sealed with keg lube and seated (twice) with CO2. Do you monitor the pressure in the keg when naturally carbonating? How high does it get?

I don't naturally carb in kegs, but when fermenting I use a spunding valve with a manometer.

 

[Smellyglove]

Did you set the spunding valve before you attatched it? Like, it was not fully closed?

 

[Yeastieboy]

Did you set the spunding valve before you attatched it? Like, it was not fully closed?

I did set it to 30 psi. However, this was the first time I used it. I had never preformed a long term pressure test on my final assembly. Yesterday, I had an epiphany that maybe the spunding assembly was leaking somewhere. So I disconnected it from the keg post and today I’m at 5 PSI, up from near 1. If it continues to climb, maybe there is indeed a leak in my spunding assembly.

Bummer is, the corn sugar was in the beer for nearly a week before I realized this. Hopefully there’s enough left to carbonate it. Otherwise, back to CO2. At least there won’t be any O2 left in the beer... [emoji51]