Yesterday i racked my beer into a keg…First time using a keg…So fist thing i did was test for gas leak…I used star san and tested at the tank to regulator,line connection at regulator and line connection at disconnect…No bubbles…So then i purged the keg of o2 and pressurized the keg to 30 psi put it in the fridge to cool not connected to tank…This morning i went to vent to begin force carbing since its cold but when i pulled the release valve hardly any gas came thru the vent i hooked it up to the tank again at 30 psi…Does this sound like a leak or co2 absorbtion? Does this sound normal?
Oh and i just checked the regulator again it dropped from 30 psi to about 28 psi in only a few minutes…there has to be a leak somewhere but i do not see bubbles…am i missing something?
It’s most likely being absorbed by the beer. At a constant temp the uncarbed beer will absorb the CO2. The colder the beer gets the more it can absorb. This is perfectly normal.
So i should not worry that the low pressure regulator is dropping in pressure? That just means its going into the beer correct?
[quote=“mattbrew83”]So i should not worry that the low pressure regulator is dropping in pressure? That just means its going into the beer correct?[/quote]So you set the regulator to 30 psi and after a while the regulator has shifted down a little to 28? Probably just the regulator itself, nothing to do with the beer - turn it up a little to 30 again and see what happens (it will probably stay there now).
So i should not worry that the low pressure regulator is dropping in pressure? That just means its going into the beer correct?[/quote]
I’d agree to not losing too much sleep over this. The fact that there was some amount of gas to vent tells me the rest was absorbed - No leak.
A slight drop in psi as the system balances itself is also completely normal.
Gas leaks are a huge pain in the ass so I defiantely have been overly paranoid at times myself.
Best advice is to proceed as usual, but just keep an eye on things to see if anything else suspect presents itself.
So i should not worry that the low pressure regulator is dropping in pressure? That just means its going into the beer correct?[/quote]
If the temp of the beer and CO2 cannister are still dropping in the fridge that could affect the CO2 pressure. Once you get to your goal temperature things should level out for you.
Thanks alot everyone.
You probably don’t want 30psi at a cold temp, you’ll want more like 15psi to get 2vol of CO2. There are tables shoing the right psi versus temp for volumes of CO2.
But yes the first few days the beer will soak up everything you put to it especially when the keg is nearly full, so its faster to leave it hooked up.
[quote=“tom sawyer”]You probably don’t want 30psi at a cold temp, you’ll want more like 15psi to get 2vol of CO2. There are tables shoing the right psi versus temp for volumes of CO2.[/quote]Usually I’m happy to just set-and-forget at 12 psi for a week, but sometimes I need the keg to come online faster and use 30 psi for a couple of days to get it close, then drop the pressure and start sampling to find the sweet spot.
Force carbonation table.
No a leak is when you hook up a brand new tank of CO2 to two kegs (which have had known good seals for a couple of months), come back after the weekend and the regulator shows “0” and the tank is light as a feather.
…but enough about MY week…
If you do have a leak and end up dumping a whole CO2 tank over night, don’t feel bad, it seems to happen to most people when they start kegging, myself included.
I try to be as diligent as possible with star san spray on the connections, etc…just use Teflon tape and those little nylon flare fitting washers:
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/flar ... asher.htmlEven so, occasionally, something works its way loose. Don’t let it get you down, I lost a whole 5 lb canister once due to a loose connection at the 1/4" MFL connection on a gray QDC. I ultimately took it out of service, because it wouldn’t seal, no matter what I did.
:cheers:
