Beer will not force carbonate in Keg

[BDawg]

As a mechanical engineer with many years of math and physics, I may be offended by your statements!!

Nah, don't be. I was trying to make a joke.

The ice / gelatin ideas sound plausible to me, though I have never seen or even heard of it myself.
Hope that helps! Good Luck!

[Michael Kelly]

Hey Kbar, how does the beer taste? Gelatin will sink and the ice that forms is not a layer. It's a little like slush. The now concentrated beer will sink to the bottom of your keg. Push it into an other keg using gas.

[Ozwald]

Hey Kbar, how does the beer taste? Gelatin will sink and the ice that forms is not a layer. It's a little like slush. The now concentrated beer will sink to the bottom of your keg. Push it into an other keg using gas.

Gelatin does not sink. It will settle out when you first use it but after it settles out & the keg is disturbed it floats to the top. If you don't pour enough of it off when you first start pouring the keg, enough will float to the top & create a jelly barrier. It's enough that gas can't get into the beer, but it won't disrupt the pour rate since it'll act like a plunger or a giant syringe.

[Kbar]

Thanks All. Sounds like ICE.

Tastes good though, in fact, a better batch than most I would say. Low "Ale" esters. Should have brewed a DIPA that day. Had good temperatures to keep ester production low, but the WLP530 Belgian Yeast Esters still came through, although not as much as I would have liked. Wrong beer to do at this time of the year.

Thanks again!

[brewinhard]

This happened to me a couple times in the past year. Both batches had gelatin and I think the gelatin formed a barrier that would not fully allow the gas to penetrate the surface if the beer.
I solved this issue when using gelatin by immediately shaking the keg after a closed transfer on top of the gelatin for about 5 minutes at 12 psi. This obviously immediately introduced CO2 into the beer and I then left it in the chest freezer for the gelatin to settle things out for a few days before tapping. Worked like a charm....

If you did not use gelatin then your beer may have gotten too cold (17F) and could have frozen a tad.

[Michael Kelly]

Hey Kbar, how does the beer taste? Gelatin will sink and the ice that forms is not a layer. It's a little like slush. The now concentrated beer will sink to the bottom of your keg. Push it into an other keg using gas.

Gelatin does not sink. It will settle out when you first use it but after it settles out & the keg is disturbed it floats to the top. If you don't pour enough of it off when you first start pouring the keg, enough will float to the top & create a jelly barrier. It's enough that gas can't get into the beer, but it won't disrupt the pour rate since it'll act like a plunger or a giant syringe.

Mechanical properties of gelatin are very sensitive to temperature variations, previous thermal history of the gel, and time. The viscosity of the gelatin/water mixture increases with concentration and when kept cool (≈ 4 °C). If you use the proper bloom, the gel firmness should keep the gelatin on the bottom of the fermenter. Sometimes it's hard to clean it out. If you have floating gelatin you should check your bloom number, and mix the gelatin into the beer real good Just saying...