Good head, low carb in beer

[4taps]

When I pour my beers I get a good head but the rest of the beer seems lacking in carbonation. I don't seem to be getting the tight little bubbles rising in the glass. This has been a problem at competitions. The kegs have been on gas for several weeks at approx. 8- 10 psi. Should be plenty long enough I think. Is this a problem from the brewing side or the kegging side.

[ajdelange]

I suspect it's a line balance problem. How long and what ID is the beer line?

[Stewbacca]

what temp is the beer being stored/served at? I think you need to look at your whole kegging system and make sure you have the right pressure for the temp you are storing at. also, do you roll the kegs around with a little higher pressure first then let them sit? does the head disappear quickly or does it stick around for a little bit like it should?

[ApresSkiBrewer]

Those 'tight little bubbles' will come from a very clear beer... whether filtered, or well fined. The 'quick carb' method tends to create larger mechanical bubbles, not because it's a fast carb method, but because you're agitating and mixing the beer up, and you're throwing what microscopic particles are in there (even a brilliantly clear beer) into solution. That takes forever to naturally settle out when just sitting on pressure in a keg that's being served from time to time.

One, what is the temperature the beer is at when sitting at 8-10 psi? It will need to be pretty cold to get over 2.3-2.5 volumes... and probably a better question is, what style of beer/what target carbonation rate are you going for?

In general, 11-13, or 12-14 PSI at 38F will balance a beer to generally around 2.5 volumes... and 12-14PSI tends to be a decent applied pressure for most direct draw systems that don't have extreme restriction needs. (so 6-8 ft of 3/16 bev tubing should pour nicely at this pressure, as well as stay properly carbonated at that applied pressure).

Hope this helps,