Everything is wrong with what I am trying to do, but it’s where I’m at… lol!
I’m using a 20oz paintball co2 tank to try and carbonate 2.5 gallons of beer in a 5 gallon corny with little success. Everything pressurizes great, no leaks, regulator works, beer pours fine, nice head. In summary, everything seems to be right but I can only get minimal carbonation in the beer. I’ve done three batches in three different kegs thinking maybe there is a small leak I couldn’t detect but ended with the same results. I’ve ramped up the psi to over 30 and left it on gas for up to 7 days on the third batch.
A few of caveats to consider. Its 2.5 gallons in a 5 gallon keg, the beer is warm (55 f), and its a tiny paintball tank. Like i said, everything I am trying to do is wrong.
Is the warm temp of the beer making it hard for co2 to absorb? Is that size tank to small for anything but serving?
I am newer to the keg scene and any advice would be appreciated!
At 55°F you’d need ~20 psi to get to average carbonation. If you’re using head pressure alone to carbonate, 7 days probably won’t be long enough - it takes 2-3 weeks IME.
By head pressure, I assume you mean just gas on a static keg. If so, you are correct. Whats do you suggest to help things along? Roll the keg, shake it, wait 2 to 3 weeks?
If you can chill the beer you can carbonate it faster. I have done 10 psi for a week and had good results at around 34 degrees. I don’t shake or roll the kegs anymore, and at 55 degrees you won’t gain much. If you have to carbonate at 55 degrees, let it sit for a a few weeks.
I set the regulator for 2-3 psi above serving pressure and gently shake it as often as I can for a few hours. At the higher temperature you might need to do that for more like a couple days; I’ve never tried.
There’s nothing wrong with it, it’s just so powdery that without filtering it takes forever to drop bright and there are more flocculent options that can hit the same flavor targets.
A web search for “carbonation chart” will turn up a bazillion of those of varying degrees of legibility. What none of them remembers to remind you is that the figures are for sea level, and to achieve a given level of carbonation (v/v) shown, you need to add 0.5 psig for every 1000 feet of elevation. That can be pretty significant for some folks.
