Does it take longer to force carbonate a higher gravity beer?
I have a Tripel that I force carbonated. After 4 days, I poured myself a pint and it seemed flat. I have decided to try additional time for force carbonating to see if it helps.
My fridge is at 40F and I am shooting for the higher carbonation end of the the style and even a little more (2.5). I have my Co2 pressure set at about 12-13lbs.
Typically it doesn’t take this long, as I am not sitting at 6 days.
Did you check all of your connections to make sure hat you don’t have a leak? This is the most likely culprit. If not, then increase the pressure by about 3-5 PSI and give it another 2-3 days. BTW, the higher end of style of carbonation for a tripel is more like 3-3.5. Carbonation is related more to temp, time, and pressure. Not gravity.
So did you just set the pressure at 12-13 PSI and leave it? Or set it higher and shake the keg before setting to serving pressure? If you just set it at 12-13 PSI, it’s still going to be pretty flat after 4 days.
Like Denny said, I’ve never noticed a difference in time to carb in a high vs. low gravity beer.
I hooked my Co2 to in out line. To let it bubble its way up. Then I set the keg on my lap, CO2 still connected, and rolled it on my lap for about 2 minutes, then let it sit about another 3 days, with the Co2 still connected.
It makes no difference where it started only where it finished. Being a high OG beer doesn’t matter. If you were trying to carbonate something with a high FG, that would matter as the CO2 would need more pressure to get in to solution. The thicker the liquid the harder to force carbonate. 1.014 should be carbonated at 40F and 13psi after 6 days.
Check your lines and whether you have sufficient pressure left in the tank. When you shake the keg, can you hear the gas entering or not? If the latter, gas is not getting to the beer for one reason or another.
Really? Wow. I would have thought there would be a residual sweetness at that FG but I suppose that is very true in it depends on the design of the beer.
Still can’t seem to get it in my brain that it wouldn’t be even a little harder to force carb at .025 verus .010 but I’ll take your word for it!
It’s not beer, so not completely relevant, but I’ve seen the impact when carbonating root beer. But that’s completely unfermented with boatloads of sugar so whatever the gravity is would be extremely high.