I just recently put the kegs in the fridge to start carbing. The kegs were chilled to about 38degrees before I hooked them up to the co2 set to 12.5 psi. Within 24 hours it jumped to about 15 psi. I took it back down to 12.5 and then in another day it went down to 10. I was just wondering what might be causing psi setting to keep changing and how will this effect my beer? I have two kegs of a black IPA I was trying to carb.
I’m not sure I have an answer but some thoughts. First after everything settles down I think it will stay put. Might have to adjust it a few times.
Did you release the pressure a couple of times to purge the air out? I imagine it has a different density and not a bad idea to prevent oxidation. Was the CO2 tank outside the fridge and warm then put inside? I know cold will definitely cause the high pressure gauge to read low but not the low.
I have had to fiddle around with about every regulator I have owned.
I purged before when I was transferring the beer to the keg and chilled it before hooking it up to the co2.
I’d say normal from my experience with adjustable pressure regulators. Notice that if you turn the pressure up to some level and then begin to turn it back down, you have to turn a bit before pressure changes. The same is true in the other direction. That slop in the middle seems to allow for a little variation in the setting. I think my experience is consistent with what hd4mark said above - after initial settings, I make small adjustments over time and let things settle. Once tuned in, the pressure seems to hold steady,
Cool. Thanks for the input. It seems like I will just have to be patient, keep a watch on it and have second bottle of co2 on hand just in case. Thanks.
You can determine how much CO2 is in your tank by weighing it but not by looking at the high pressure gauge. A CO2 tank contains liquid CO2 with gas on top. (Much like a Liquid Propane - LP - tank.) As long as there is liquid in the tank, the pressure in the tank is primarily a function of temperature.
The Tare Weight (TW) is stamped on the neck of the tank. That is the weight of the empty tank and its valve, without the regulator attached. My 5 lb CO2 tank has a TW of 7.7 pounds. Full it weights 7.7 + 5 = 12.7 lbs.
Except when the tank is very full or nearly empty, at 70 degrees F the CO2 high pressure gauge will read about 850 psi. At 40 degrees F, it will be around 600 psi. That pressure won’t drop until the tank is almost empty and there is very little liquid CO2 left.
So, you can determine if something is leaking by tracking the weight of your tank. You can find a leak location with some very soapy water around each connection - a leaky connection will bubble.
On the low pressure side, the CO2 is all gas, no liquid.
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Things seemed to have regulated and stayed put over the weekend. We drew a couple beers yesterday. It’s not quite done carbing yet but the flavor was good. I wish it was hoppier though. The dry hopping really didn’t seem to work out as well as I hoped.
UGH!!! Tried the beer again last night. Still not even close to carbonated and almost no hoppiness!! I’m getting really frustrated. It has been a week and a half on 12.5. I turned it up to 25ish. Also, one of the hop bags which are tied up to the inside of the lid of the keg got sucked to the tube. We had to open it up to get it out of there. How much damage do you think that did? I was kind of throwing around the idea of adding more hops to a least the keg we already messed with…Any thoughts on this? I’m kid of heart broken about this because of the time and money that was set aside on the project and we hadn’t gotten to brew in so long…
My first experience with kegging, just a couple of months ago, I had issues with foam… No matter how much I reduced the pressure. It turned out to be a bad, brand new out of the box taprite regulator. It was honestly the last thing I thought would be an issue. Swapped it out and all went perfectly.
The tricky part was that the regulator appeared to be functioning fine, pressure went up and down on the guage … But it was obviously outputting way more pressure than the guage indicated.
I apologize if you already checked this…as I am writing this I cannot see all the way back in the thread.
We switched out the regulator fairly recently…something to think about. Is it possible that it’s reading HIGHER than it really is…
