6 Corny Kegs Carbed for 2 weeks, flat taste, low head, tiny little bubbles.

[FeralBrewMinster]

Hello,
I brewed 6 wonderful beers and corny kegged them two weeks ago with gas pressure hooked to the "in" post, 4 were set to 14psi, 2 were set to around 23. I have two regulators and two tanks(all of which are brand new so i can rule out equipment failure). As advised on another post I had Im using two 25' 3/16 lines for the 23 psi beers, and am using just over 10' 3/16 lines for the 14psi beers. My kegs were sitting on top of ice outside in anticipation for tomorrow night festivities(didnt want to move them day of bc risk of foaming also ambient temp around 47-50, box with ice close to 32 with ice halfway up kegs). I sampled the beer with my family and everyone said the beer tasted flat, there was minimal head, very tiny bubbles in the beer but so small it tasted flat. I was thinking it was due to temperature, but I don't know that I want to risk it as there is an uncertain variable, so I attempted to do a rapid carb and shake on the kegs with pressure set to 30 psi on the "out" post and will check on them in the morning. If I end up over carbing them I figure I can relieve pressure by 7pm with multiple ventings, but im just concerned that they tasted like they had little to no carbonation. The glasses we used were new clear plastic cups(cups for event) I tried the beer in a glass and it was basically the same, but tasted better bc well glass, but still flat. Its good beer, but no one understands good flat beer. Help me Obrewers Friendenobi you are my only hope.
I also tried shortening a line to 7.5' and it didnt do much of anything different, maybe better head but still flat.

 

[Minbari]

Serve line length won't really do anything for carbonation. That is just too slow the pour so it doesn't foam up.

As for the carbonation, check your regs and tanks first. Are you sure you still have co2? Even a small leak will drain a tank to empty in a few days.
Do you get a good rush of gas if you pull the prv on the kegs?
What temp did you carbonate at? (Colder is better)
Any ball valve that maybe isn't open?

I always carbonate at about 40psi for 3 days then down to serving pressure (8-12psi) don't vent, just let it absorb. Only takes 4 or 5 days. If it wasn't carbonated in 6 weeks, something is wrong

 

[FeralBrewMinster]

Serve line length won't really do anything for carbonation. That is just too slow the pour so it doesn't foam up.

As for the carbonation, check your regs and tanks first. Are you sure you still have co2? Even a small leak will drain a tank to empty in a few days.
Do you get a good rush of gas if you pull the prv on the kegs?
What temp did you carbonate at? (Colder is better)
Any ball valve that maybe isn't open?

I always carbonate at about 40psi for 3 days then down to serving pressure (8-12psi) don't vent, just let it absorb. Only takes 4 or 5 days. If it wasn't carbonated in 6 weeks, something is wrong

Temp was 32 degrees, used chest freezer with separate temp diods measuring temp and controlling on off switch, and I can confirm it was 32ish bc ice was slowly forming in the freezers that would crack under kegs when i shifted qhen checking them. Kegs had 2 weeks to carb not 6. All ball valves are working bc they push beer out when an "out" post valve is connected. CO2 tank levels are good. Yes lots of gas jumps out when pulling release valve on keg. Some of the beers have a thin body, i.e saison has 1.003 due to ambitious yeast, could think body make it taste flat?

 

[Minbari]

Temp was 32 degrees, used chest freezer with separate temp diods measuring temp and controlling on off switch, and I can confirm it was 32ish bc ice was slowly forming in the freezers that would crack under kegs when i shifted qhen checking them. Kegs had 2 weeks to carb not 6. All ball valves are working bc they push beer out when an "out" post valve is connected. CO2 tank levels are good. Yes lots of gas jumps out when pulling release valve on keg. Some of the beers have a thin body, i.e saison has 1.003 due to ambitious yeast, could think body make it taste flat?

Temp might be the problem. If the beer froze and got a layer of ice on top. Co2 would just sit there and not absorb. Turn up to 38°F and try again

 

[FeralBrewMinster]

Temp might be the problem. If the beer froze and got a layer of ice on top. Co2 would just sit there and not absorb. Turn up to 38°F and try again

Beers did not freeze, under pressure and abv of 5.3-8.5% for each freeze point would be closer to 28 for many hours. However the beers served at 40F ended up having good carbonation, the saison and cider carbonated to 24 psi were foamy even with long 25' 3/16 lines. People still enjoyed them but I will have to learn to dial that in(high carb beers served from keg) may just need to invest in a pressure reducing tap.

 

[FeralBrewMinster]

Also I noticed with the 25 foot lines, the beer did not flow in a consistent manner, it came out in spurts, like waves of pressure(could I have too small of CO2 lines 3/16, should my co2 lines have a wider diameter than my beer lines? It was just strange, when I increased the pressure this effect lessened, but it also caused the beer to blast out aggressively instead of a steady flow. Using a 10' line fixed this, but again caused foaming.

 

[Minbari]

What i found was that longer lines get pockets of co2 in them, and so you get those little eruptions. (Which also cause foaming)

I switched all my lines to evo barrier lines. Problem went away. Believe it or not, but pure silicon lines are gas permeable. Co2 will leach.

 

[Steve SPF]

A couple of thoughts.

3/16 for C02 lines wants switching out for 3/8.

In our commercial settings, all the beers run in 3/8 from the cellar and will sometimes reduce to 5/16 at the cooler or bar and sometimes a length of 3/16 right at the back of the serving tap. I'm told that the idea is that stepping down in diameter helps with stability as the beer is forced to slow down in the line and the gas is less likely to 'break out'. We us mixed gas in most of our settings and the cure for excess foaming is often to turn the serving pressure up because the problem is the gas breaking out in the lines.

Carbonation will take longer the colder the beer is. I can't convert F to C in my head (way too early here) but temperature is/was surely part of your problem. I'm not sure what temp you would have to get down to for carbonation to stop or not be possible but temp definitely plays a part.

Also glasses as you have already mentioned. Plastic isn't ideal and your beer will lose its head very quickly in plastic. Partly the material itsel and partly because they aren't nucleated.

Whilst very cold beer will hold its carbonation it really doesn't want to foam so I would guess that's part of it too. It isn't really 'the colder the better' as far as serving temp goes.

My guess is that your initial problem is the 3/16 gas line which under-carbed the beer, couple that with low temps which would take carbonation much longer, and then serving temps plus glassware.