First pint from first keg a little flat... now what

[dj_carlson]

Howdy

I made Janets Brown (damn is that a good recipe) and pulled the first pint from my first attempt at kegging last night. The beer was in the keg for 7 days at 10psi at 39 degrees. Well it was a little on the flat side with zero head. So what do I do next? Let it sit for longer? Everything I've read said 5 to 7 days before ready. Is this a crock just like a bottle condition beer is ready after 2 weeks? I did read one post that said 2 to 3 weeks. Or do I need to turn up the PSI?

Either way should remove the beer line or let it be? If so how do I remove the line without the beer currently in there dumping all over the freezer the second I pull the connection?


Mahalo

[Grizz]

You can raise it. Do it slowly a little at a time. Keep tasting it as you go up. Give your beer a day or two to for the CO2 balance out before testing. Because your beer will go from great tasting to so so if you over carbonate. For some great info check out the Brew Strong Show on Carbonation and Perfect Pour.

[BOSTON BREWMAN]

I like mine at 12 to 15 psi ,but I also crank the pressure to 30 with the beer already at serving temp and shake the hell out of it . then attach the gas again put another 30 in shake again then drop the co2 to 15 and wait. About 3-5 days works for me.

[dj_carlson]

Well... I think I found the problem... or a problem. After raising the PSI and letting it sit for a few days there was still very little difference. On a hunch I took a temp reading of the beer itself and it was 45. I'm guessing 45 and 10 PSI is why the carbonation was so low. So I dropped the temp controller down to 34 to see if that gets my beer down to 39 - 40 then I'll put the PSI back up. Sound right to anyone?

Does anyone have any feedback about my question regarding the beer line staying attached or not during the figuring everything out phase? Right now it's attached with beer in it as I'm sampling the differences. Does this affect anything while I'm upping the PSI or is it fine staying attached at this point? If not fine then how do I disconnect while beer is still in the line without it falling back out all over the place? If I disconnect then I'm looking at cleaning and sanitizing the lines every time I want to see how it's progressing. That would be a real pain, so I hope not. But i'd also hate to continue to wait for carbonation only to find the attached beer line keeps that from happening.


Many thanks for everyone's help!

[Whitebeard_Brewer]

If you are serving from a cornie keg, you can leave it attached with no problems.....or you can disconnect it.....either way, you will not lose any beer.....that is what the poppets are in the posts for, assuming they are working as designed.

I say leave it!

[dj_carlson]

Awesome... thank you

[ajdelange]

I'm guessing 45 and 10 PSI is why the carbonation was so low. So I dropped the temp controller down to 34 to see if that gets my beer down to 39 - 40 then I'll put the PSI back up. Sound right to anyone?

Well 45 and 10 should give you 2.1 volumes which you can calculate from the formula

Vols = (PSIG + 14.695)*(0.01821 + 0.090115*exp( (32-T)/43.11)

in which T is the temperature in °F. If you get the temp down to 40 that becomes 2.3 vols and at 35 you would have 2.52. This is plenty for most styles of beer and pretty heavily carbed for an ale (but I have no idea what Janet's Brown is). Yes, 5 - 7 days is a crock. At the end of the first week you should expect to see some carbonation but it will be several weeks before the beer is at equilibrium with CO2 pressure in its headspace. You can shake the keg with pressure on to speed the process of CO2 assimilation or modify the gas port on the keg you are conditioning in by adding a "stone" on the gas line or buying a Corny with one installed. Another alternative is to put the pressure up to 30 or even more for the first week, then back off to the final pressure you want and wait another few days. This gets you to equilibrium faster.

Also don't forget that the first pint drawn will probably be quite different from subsequent ones so don't make your judgements by the first pint.

[TapItGood]

Make sure you don't have a CO2 leak. I had a couple of kegs that were aging for a month or so and it was time to carb them, so I was screwing around and force carbing them. I had one hooked up to the CO2 overnight and when I checked it the next morning the tank guage had dropped from full to half full. I knew there was a leak and sure enough, I had a faulty poppet that was slowly leaking CO2. So keep an eye on your tank guage and make sure you don't have a leak.