I recently kegged an kiwi express ipa beer was cold crashed and I attempted to force carb by rolling keg for a few minutes under 30 psi. after rolling put keg in fridge for an hour I released pressure and set to 6 psi for serving and got all foam but no bubbles in beer. After sitting overnight the foam was a lot less but still no bubbles in my beer and it tastes flat. I thought I had over carbonated the keg but know I am wondering why the beer tastes flat if its over carbonated. Please help not sure wether to hit it with more pressure or what.
If the beer tastes flat, it is undercarbonated. If it is foaming coming out of the tap, there is too much pressure in the keg for the length of tap line you have. It is possible to have both at the same time, though I’ve never seen it.
There are a couple things you should do.
- Chill the beer before you try to carbonate it. Cold beer absorbs CO2 better than warm beer.
- Make sure the keg isn’t too full. If there isn’t enough head space, it will take a lot longer to build up the carbonation.
- Don’t overpressurize when force carbing. If you set the regulator too high over serving pressure, it is very easy to overshoot your target and end up with overcarbed beer. I just bump the pressure by a few psi, then shake the keg (on it’s side) until I no longer hear gas bubbling into the beer.
- Leave the beer to settle for at least overnight. Bring it down to serving pressure, but don’t otherwise release the pressure, and don’t take it off the gas.
Also, make sure your tap line is long enough. Roughly 1 foot per psi of serving pressure (with a 3/16" line) is about right, but the exact amount can vary based on how your system is set up.
