I’ve had two beers now that I hooked up to service pressure (+/- 9 psi at 40ºF)…a week + later I tapped them and, nada… FLAT.
So I hooked them up to my 30 psi hose, gave them the 5 minute “rockabye baby” treatment, and presto…two hours later everything hunky dory. (Except for the sediment that was back in play)
So, from now on, the 5 minute hula, then on service pressure for a week to clear up.
The question is…how in the world can they be hooked up to service pressure for over a week and not absorb any CO2 ???
I have kegs that will do this from time to time, then go from flat to perfectly carbed in 2 days. It helps to pull a pint off the keg every day to create some headspace for the CO2 to fill.
It works for me. The CO2 has more contact with the green beer. If it’s cold enough it will hold on to some . A diffusion stone will help too because even more CO2 will be in the beer before it reaches the head space…
Naturally conditioning works well for me too. The CO2 is produced within the beer and will not as readily escape into the head space. Given the right temp and yeast health it only takes a week.
Carbonating from the top down is going to take longer, particularly with a keg because you drink it off the bottom and the best beer is at the top.
When racking to the keg it’s a good idea to at least get some co2 down at the bottom of the keg. That way you have a blanket of co2 rising up and pushing the o2 out of the top. Not critical, but by not doing so, then force-carbing by agitation will mix some oxygen into the beer. If you plan to consume the beer quickly it doesn’t matter.
I’m wondering if the partial pressure slowed your carbonation? I’m an artist not a scientist… :
Fill kegs, purge head space, set serving pressure and chill to serving temp. Temperature makes a difference in how much CO2 goes into solution.
If space permits lay the keg on its side exposing more surface area to the gas.
I have check valves inline between the regulator and keg so I set the regulator to ~35 psi to seat everything and then turn the regulator down to serving pressure. Ready to go in a week.
9# @ 40* brings you to 2.2 volumes which is on the low end of carb for the style. Barring any leaks or regulator problems, after 10-14 days you’d hit 2.2 vols. Set it and forget it @ service pressure takes that long for me. A week of 9# @ 40* would seem pretty flat to me. I shoot for 2.5. I go on the higher end of carb for style to compensate for losses when filling growlers, bottles etc. and because I prefer it over lower.
Hitting it with 30-35 # initially, then backing it off should shorten carb time.
I like it on the low end…2.2 is perfect for me. OK, so once again things take a little longer than I expected. No problem. I’ll do what I was doing, and have done since. The hula at 30 for 5 minutes, then service pressure for a few more days, more if I have the time, also lets things settle down better.
