Primed in keg in warm place-is all well? NO! Beer eruption!

As title says, I've had it 24 hrs in a warm place 19-21degrees in a ballyhoo pressure barrel. can't see through it, got no co2 lid, just standard lid, primed with 85g brewing sugar - so how can I tell if everything is going to plan. Ie secondary ferment is happening and pressure is building.

And while I'm here, advise varies from 2days to a week in a warm place. So I was planning on 5 days. Sound about right?

I'm an anxious virgin kit brewer

Hi virgin kit brewer.... ... if you have primed it with sugar and kept it warm it will carbonate have no fear.
I bottle my beers and always give then 2 weeks warm and 1 week cool, I dont know the times for barrels/kegs.
Whatever don't rush it.... ( but you could always have a little taster in a few days.... :whistle: )

Bump

Google "Papazian - RDWHAHB" :thumb: Like PD said keep it in warm for 2 weeks. This should allow plenty of time for it to ferment the priming sugar and then move to a colder location for a week to condition. Though again, i'm a bottler.

granted wait is defo best but then draw a sample out- i had a second go at kegging -tryed to draw a sample out day 5 and dead flat-seals can deseat themselves if screw on too hard i found out- but as was only day 5 got seal sorted (was a bugger) and reprimed and all is well currently

I just drew a sample off, less than half a pint. There was gas in the beer so thats good, but with only half a pint the keg sucked in air through the tap. It's been kegged in a warm place for 3 days. I don't have a co2 system in place.

I thought that there should have been enough co2 at the top of the keg (compressed) that no air should be drawn through the tap until the keg was say half empty due to the compressed co2.

Have I got a leak? There was gas in the beer though so if there was a leek surely the beer would be flat. I need a way to check for pressure.

I'm now worried that the air in the will make my beer go off quickly - sorry I can't RDWHAHB

My wherry has been bottled in a warm place for 2 weeks primed with one carbonation drop per 500ml bottle and is still as flat as a fart - its now in the garage to see if anything changes but not holding out much hope.

mattrickl06 said:

My wherry has been bottled in a warm place for 2 weeks primed with one carbonation drop per 500ml bottle and is still as flat as a fart - its now in the garage to see if anything changes but not holding out much hope.

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:hmm: you sure you added the sugar? I really have no idea why yours isn't working. It sounds like you've done everything right.... :wha: sorry I can't help mate. Give it time... maybe it'll improve over a few weeks/months

andyg said:

I just drew a sample off, less than half a pint. There was gas in the beer so thats good, but with only half a pint the keg sucked in air through the tap. It's been kegged in a warm place for 3 days. I don't have a co2 system in place.

I thought that there should have been enough co2 at the top of the keg (compressed) that no air should be drawn through the tap until the keg was say half empty due to the compressed co2.

Have I got a leak? There was gas in the beer though so if there was a leek surely the beer would be flat. I need a way to check for pressure.

I'm now worried that the air in the will make my beer go off quickly - sorry I can't RDWHAHB

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Any clues to whats going on here?

andyg, if your barrel is similar to mine (which I think the Ballyhoo one might be), another way you can tell it's pressured up is if the bottom bulges slightly, lifting the feet off the ground, so the whole thing can be rocked from side to side a little. I've found mine does this within a day or two of being primed and capped. I'm on my second brew now, both Wherries, and I've left them in the warm for 7 days before moving the barrel to the garage.

If you're not seeing pressure soon I'd maybe start to suspect your cap isn't sealed properly, as wilsoa1111 suggests.

I hope it works out for you, anyway. The Wherry is a mighty tasty pint, and has got me totally hooked on homebrewing.

Speccy said:

andyg, if your barrel is similar to mine (which I think the Ballyhoo one might be), another way you can tell it's pressured up is if the bottom bulges slightly, lifting the feet off the ground, so the whole thing can be rocked from side to side a little. I've found mine does this within a day or two of being primed and capped. I'm on my second brew now, both Wherries, and I've left them in the warm for 7 days before moving the barrel to the garage.

If you're not seeing pressure soon I'd maybe start to suspect your cap isn't sealed properly, as wilsoa1111 suggests.

I hope it works out for you, anyway. The Wherry is a mighty tasty pint, and has got me totally hooked on homebrewing.

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Just checked it and there's no bulging at the bottom. But I did let air in when i took a sample so might leave it a few days more and see if pressure builds. It was 24 degrees on the strip, accidentally got too warm in the airing cupboard, prob won't help.

Have read so much about the wherry, hope it's ok

Well I thought I'd share my experience with everyone - hopefully it'll help some other noob.

After reading this on another site http://www.brewuk.co.uk/forum/topic/twe ... post-30304 I decided to check the cap.

Yes I had overtightened the cap, the seal/washer was deformed and not seating properly. I followed the advise about reshaping the seal/washer with boiling water and cooling it back down. See link within my link. I now needed to re-prime the barrel to get some co2 back in.

I prepared my brewing sugar (70g), not caster sugar, to re-prime the barrel. Using a funnel I dumped the sugar on top of the beer, and thats where the fun started. It was like dropping a mint into a bottle of coke It erupted! About a pint and a half of beer gushed out all over the airing cupboard floor! And to make it more fun, I was doing this at 12.45 in the morning.

After a minute or so the froth died back down, and it took me about another 20 mins of cleaning up, luckily the cupboard isn't carpeted. I reckon the brewing sugar, being much more like caster sugar (very fine) pretty much dissolved on contact and caused the eruption/reaction, it might not have done this had I not just dumped it all in in one go, I don't know.

Anyway my dilemma now was how much sugar stayed in the barrel, not much I don't think, it just came straight back out. So this time I added caster sugar (50g) SLOWLY. My theory that caster sugar will dissolve slower. The beer didn't react violently this time :clap: I gave it a gentle stir then finally screwed the cap back on.

Cap screwed on carefully this time. I applied a touch of cooking oil to the seal, screwed on the cap until you feel the seal bed against the barrel neck then 1/4 turn. You can actually see the seal through the cap, to make sure it's still in place. Went to bed at 1.45am on a school night, house smelling of beer :nono:

So I hope this helps someone with no pressure. Check the cap and easy when adding re-priming sugar!

A little tip - dissolve the sugar in a little boiling water then pour that in... it avoids any eruptions...

Glad you got to the bottom of it, andyg. Brewing certainly can wreck your nerves. Do let us know how your Wherry turns out.

fbsf said:

A little tip - dissolve the sugar in a little boiling water then pour that in... it avoids any eruptions...

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I actually did that when I first primed the barrel, when the sugar went in first. But after some thinking, I figured dissolving in water was really for caine sugar and since the brewing sugar was so fine I thought it would dissolve easy enough in the beer anyway. You live and learn. Why does it erupt like that when added on top?

After almost 12hrs, I just vented off 2 secs of gas from the cap. I've got a good seal and pressure now, gas (well I hope air) hissed out nicely, so hopefully I've expelled the offending air that got in.

Thanks for your help.

I will report back in 4 weeks or sooner more like as I won't be able to resist drinking after 2-3 weeks i reckon. I'm having a bet that i can stay on the wagon for the whole of november. Back on it in dec. :

I've got three pressure barrels and each one has a car tyre valve fitted to the cap (available for pennies from you local tyre shop and fitted through a 12mm diameter drilled hole). A simple cheap digital tyre valve can then be used to check the pressure.

I normally put mine into the garage for cold conditioning when the pressure hits 10psi (which is about the maximum for a plastic keg). It's a cheap and easy way to take the guesswork out of kegging :thumb:

Wezzel said:

I've got three pressure barrels and each one has a car tyre valve fitted to the cap (available for pennies from you local tyre shop and fitted through a 12mm diameter drilled hole). A simple cheap digital tyre valve can then be used to check the pressure.

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That is one of the best tips I've ever seen on this forum :thumb:

I've been having all sorts of seal /slow leakage problems with one of my kegs and I'm going to do that valve thing tomorrow. The cheaper kegs are fine, as they bulge a bit when pressured, but with the thicker ones you have no idea when you have gas....until now, well done that man.