I kegged an Irish Red Ale Monday morning and rolled it per Dean Palmer’s process. That’s worked well with my last two kegs. Later in the evening I tried it and the first pint was all foam, second was very foamy but settled pretty quickly. The beer itself seemed oddly flat. Same yesterday so I decided to roll it again to try and get more CO2 into the beer.
When I was rolling it I realized I was losing some beer out of the relief valve. I ended up taking the relief valve out, adjusting the pull ring, cleaning it and replacing it. I rolled the keg again.
Now about 16 hours later I drew a pint, all foam, second pint all foam, third pint nice creamy tall head pretty clear red ale…still feels flat in the mouth… Any suggestions or comments besides, set it and forget it which is probably what I’m gonna do for a couple days. Nothing unusual about the beer or it’s gravity. Set to 9-10psi which has the blonde ale on the same cylinder carbonated just about right.
have you tried turning your psi way down (to like 1-2), bleeding off a bit of air from the relief valve (but not all of it), then pouring? It sounds like all of your carbonation is ending up as foam from the dispensing. You might be overcarbed.
My first question would be about the temperature of the beer. If it was not cold enough it would definately explain both the foam and the flatness.
If it was cold enough, then it might not be so straight forward.
What I can say about non-setitandforgetit meathods is I find they can be very inconsistent. Can work just great a few times. Then you do the exact same thing and it is flat / or overcarbed/ or overly foamy.
Even if you roll the keg, or shake the keg etc, the CO2 still needs time to properly disolve into the beer. How much can dislove untimately depends on temp. and preasure. So this is why set it and forget it is the only sure fire way to get consistancy. That is not to say other meathods do not work reasonably well.
When I used to shaked the keg at high preasure I always had best results if I left it for a several days (or weeks) afterwards so the CO2 disolved. If I tried tapping it too soon it ended up just as you describe yours.
I cold crashed for 2 days at 36 before kegging and it’s been at the same temperature since. My beer fridge is an upright freezer with a johnson controls temp controller. Just 2 kegs in there at the moment both with picnic faucets on 5 ft hoses.
This happens to me sometimes with heavily hopped beers - I believe the hop oil floating on top makes it harder for the CO2 to penetrate. When this happens, I crank the pressure up to 40psi for 24 hours and then check carbonation every day until it’s where I want it.
Yep, so Temp was not an issue. I’d say it is just a matter of being patient.
I always use a carbonation stone working from the bottom of my keg so I know the gas is working it’s way up and disolving the whole time. I still find it works slower sometimes than expected so after a few days I might up the preasure a little over my desired level to speed things up.
In your case, Shadetree’s advise of leaving it overnight at very high preasure should work fairly well. Just make sure you check it the next day.
Another thing I find has an effect is how much empty space there is in the keg. For example if I end up draining off a littre or two of beer in the process of testing it over the course of several days, the added head space for preasured gas will speed up the process even more.
Yep, so Temp was not an issue. I’d say it is just a matter of being patient.
I always use a carbonation stone working from the bottom of my keg so I know the gas is working it’s way up and disolving the whole time. I still find it works slower sometimes than expected so after a few days I might up the preasure a little over my desired level to speed things up.
In your case, Shadetree’s advise of leaving it overnight at very high preasure should work fairly well. Just make sure you check it the next day.
Another thing I find has an effect is how much empty space there is in the keg. For example if I end up draining off a littre or two of beer in the process of testing it over the course of several days, the added head space for preasured gas will speed up the process even more.[/quote]
There was very little headspace when I was done racking to the keg. Might have been a factor.
