Over carbonated keg

What others have said - but I also find that after I force carb at higher pressure, I have to bleed the pressure off to serving level or you get foamy beer for a LONG time. Unfortunately Boyles Law (P1V1 = P2V2) cannot be violated! :oops:
 
Limey said:
What others have said - but I also find that after I force carb at higher pressure, I have to bleed the pressure off to serving level or you get foamy beer for a LONG time. Unfortunately Boyles Law (P1V1 = P2V2) cannot be violated! :oops:
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Then it's over carbed. Low psi for a long time or high psi for a short time. If the same vol of co2 is dissolved, the carbonation is the same

Ageing might be a different story
 
Minbari said:
Then it's over carbed. Low psi for a long time or high psi for a short time. If the same vol of co2 is dissolved, the carbonation is the same

Ageing might be a different story
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I agree, but if you carb at 20PSI you still have to bleed it down to serving pressure - or you are initially dispensing the beer at 20PSI!
 
Limey said:
I agree, but if you carb at 20PSI you still have to bleed it down to serving pressure - or you are initially dispensing the beer at 20PSI!
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Goes without saying that at some point you have to make the pressure in the keg work for your serving system - probably somewhere around 10 lbs (longer hoses require more pressure). The volumes of CO2 that go into suspension in the beer is separate from serving pressure, though eventually that will equalize in a predictable way.
When I burst carb, I find that pressure drops on its own with the gas disconnected or turned off. I taper off the fill pressure until it stops dropping and settles at serving pressure.
 
Limey said:
I agree, but if you carb at 20PSI you still have to bleed it down to serving pressure - or you are initially dispensing the beer at 20PSI!
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Maybe, sometimes i just turn the reg down to 12psi and wait a day. Either way, even at 40 psi, that pressure goes down like a rocket when the reg isn't putting it back.

I usually still purge it down to 15psi or so
 
Minbari said:
Maybe, sometimes i just turn the reg down to 12psi and wait a day. Either way, even at 40 psi, that pressure goes down like a rocket when the reg isn't putting it back.

I usually still purge it down to 15psi or so
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Precisely what I do. 40 for a day or 2, then 12-ish for a couple more.
 
Bigbre04 said:
it takes about 24 hours IMO for the carb to truely settle. But i use carb stones, so i am very different. takes me about 3 hours to carb a tank.
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Carb stones make a huge difference on the time it takes to carbonate a keg. I usually do about 30 PSI for 3 days and then bleed the tank and drop to serving pressure of about 8 PSI. I use a carb stone on my carbonated water and it is carbonated usually overnight at 30 PSI. It may be sooner, but I am not getting up in the middle of the night to check.

After reading some of the comments here, I am going to try the 30 PSI and then shut off the gas. I can see how this also prevents losing a tank of CO2 if there is a leak somewhere. I have went through some 20 pound CO2 tanks rather quickly.

I quit doing the shaking or rolling the keg method as it was too inconsistent.
 
AnokaBrewer said:
Carb stones make a huge difference on the time it takes to carbonate a keg. I usually do about 30 PSI for 3 days and then bleed the tank and drop to serving pressure of about 8 PSI. I use a carb stone on my carbonated water and it is carbonated usually overnight at 30 PSI. It may be sooner, but I am not getting up in the middle of the night to check.

After reading some of the comments here, I am going to try the 30 PSI and then shut off the gas. I can see how this also prevents losing a tank of CO2 if there is a leak somewhere. I have went through some 20 pound CO2 tanks rather quickly.

I quit doing the shaking or rolling the keg method as it was too inconsistent.
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a serving pressure of 8psi will end up with flat beer over time. depending on your temps. at a "Normal(37-40f)" serving temp 8psi will end up at 2-2.2vols which is low. if you want to maintain a more standard 2.4vols you should be at 10-12psi. if you have issues serving at that pressure invest in a flow control faucet OR add line restriction/longer lines. when i store carbonated beer i leave it at 15 psi in my tanks, but if it is sitting for a very long time i will drop the pressure down to 12psi to prevent overcarb. but it is very unusual for the beer to sit for more then a week.

i am pushing beer at 28psi, but it is a long draw system(80psi) with beer gas not co2.
 
Bigbre04 said:
a serving pressure of 8psi will end up with flat beer over time. depending on your temps. at a "Normal(37-40f)" serving temp 8psi will end up at 2-2.2vols which is low. if you want to maintain a more standard 2.4vols you should be at 10-12psi. if you have issues serving at that pressure invest in a flow control faucet OR add line restriction/longer lines. when i store carbonated beer i leave it at 15 psi in my tanks, but if it is sitting for a very long time i will drop the pressure down to 12psi to prevent overcarb. but it is very unusual for the beer to sit for more then a week.

i am pushing beer at 28psi, but it is a long draw system(80psi) with beer gas not co2.
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Thanks, I will give that a try.
 
AnokaBrewer said:
Thanks, I will give that a try.
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All of that depends on your lines. If you are using a picnic tap with a very small line, you will end up with a foam bath. There are some toys out there for no line taps on a corny keg as well.
 
Sandy Feet said:
All of that depends on your lines. If you are using a picnic tap with a very small line, you will end up with a foam bath. There are some toys out there for no line taps on a corny keg as well.
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for sure. there is a lot of relatively complicated math needed to get draft systems(especially long draw) to function properly. We did the math and still fucked it up the first time(also had a very cheap shitty tower and were using the glycol from the main system to chill the trunk line). so my knockouts spiked the temp in the lines. We now have a bad ass perlick line chiller that is strong enough to crash one of my tanks if i need it to! i can still flip 2 valves and send glycol from my main chiller to the draft tower if it went down! redundancy prevents alcohol abuse!

Our draft tech buddy just redid our whole tower and replaced our vinyl and it is pouring very nicely. BUT i am going through a whole lot of beer gas at 28psi. hopefully we will get a nitrogen generator setup soon so we can get off the bottles. He gave us a basically new blender that he pulled from a job.
 
That is why the big boys can make barrels, and I can make 5 gallons:)
I probably fucked up my Hefe, but it didn't cost that much, and I might have learned something.
 
Sandy Feet said:
That is why the big boys can make barrels, and I can make 5 gallons:)
I probably fucked up my Hefe, but it didn't cost that much, and I might have learned something.
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In what way is it (or thought to be) faulty?
 
It is really light in taste. It ended up around 4.6% and very plain. I'm going to see what it is like carbed before I bitch too much, but my hopes aren't very high.
 
Sandy Feet said:
It is really light in taste. It ended up around 4.6% and very plain. I'm going to see what it is like carbed before I bitch too much, but my hopes aren't very high.
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What yeast did you use?
 
Does anyone spund? A lager can be at terminal gravity and fully carb'd in 10-14 days, ales even faster. It faster than burst carbonation.
 
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