Cornie Keg Carbonation

[blackrat]

Hi,
My second brew, a Coopers Wheat Beer has been in my 1st new Cornie for about three weeks. I initially put in about 5 psi and bled the air out just to make it safe and left it to stand for a few days.
Looking at the various charts and guides they all recommend reducing the temperature but I can't, I don't have a spare fridge or basement and only have a room which is slightly cooler to keep it in. I would guess the average temperature has been about 20 degrees.

In order to get over that I then put in 20psi and left it for a week and then drew off a sample, very frothy as it came out but the beer is flat, both to look at and taste but with a great head of froth. I shook the keg and left it a further week at 20psi and tried again still no change. This time I gave it a vigorous shake and again left it for a further week but yesterday still no change.

I have now upped the psi to 30 and the temperature has dropped about half a degree, is this pressure over the top? Should I reduce it and just wait longer?

I should mention the beer tastes really great and creamy smooth and that when I test it I reduce the pressure to a serving pressure of 3 or so pounds (difficult to read on the scale).

Looking at the side of the glass there are a few bubbles clinging to the sides but none rising up through the beer. I understood that this was a quick way of carbonating beer but I guess I am doing something wrong. My preference is for lots of carbonation but a little less than Coke/Pepsi for example.

I would be grateful for any help.

 

[phettebs]

Well, according to this chart, you would need it at 30 psi to hit about 2.6 volumes of CO2 at 65F/18.3C.

http://www.kegerators.com/carbonation-table.php

We chill it down because as you can see, the lower the temp, the lower the psi you can use to achieve the same vol of CO2. Gas is more soluble at lower temps.

 

[blackrat]

Thanks Phettebs,
Well the Cornie is up to 30 psi now. Any thoughts on how long I should keep it at this pressure?

 

[theboytony]

As long as you want, but to serve you are going to need to get a load of beer line to stop it turning into froth, at a guess i would say atleast 5 or 6 metres

 

[blackrat]

Tony,
Thanks for that. I will get that sorted as soon as I can get to the HB shop. At the moment its about 1 metre long.

 

[user 1684]

I've just been messing about with my new corny setup and a cheap lager kit. It's all about the temperature from what I can see.

I've got a fridge with a temp controller on it, which I use to get my lager down to 0 degrees C. I then left it for a week with 10psi on it. I didn't shake it or anything.

It comes out through about 3 foot of 3/16" beer line, into a free-flowing tap (i.e. no sparkler or anything). This gives me lager that's fizzy like you'd get Stella in the pub. (Obviously you wouldn't want that much fizz in an ale).

I then tried letting the temperature come up to 7 degrees - all I get is froth, which then settles out into flat beer. I had to drop the pressure down to about 3 or 4 psi to get anything drinkable, but it's not really fizzy enough then.

 

[blackrat]

Hi Mr Tall,
I've come to the same conclusion about the temperature from reading on this site, but there is nothing I can do about it other than raise the pressure which I have now done.
I will get a longer beer line to help with the froth and so how it goes.

 

[theboytony]

check out this link for some info on beer line length

 

[blackrat]

Tony,
Thanks for the link. As a newbie the only question I have is, once the beer is carbonated ie 30 psi for however long, wouldn't you drop the pressure for serving down to a couple of pounds (having first released the pressure from the cornie and therefore get away with a shorter delivery pipe?

By reducing the pressure for serving does this release the co2 saturated in the beer? I guess if that's the case, then you would need to keep the pressure high and then you would need a longer pipe to prevent from serving froth as the calculator suggests.

I have read on this forum that folks are reducing the pressure for serving so I am confused as to which is the best way to go.

Again, I am grateful for any help

 

[theboytony]

yeah by reducing the pressure the CO2 is released from the beer, I couldn't tell you how long it would take to go down but the higher the temperature the quicker it will go. From my own experience I wasn't ever able to get a consistent pint when I used a short length of pipe and reduced pressure for serving so to ease frustration I went for keeping the pressure up and longer beer line. Not had a frothy pint since....

Oh i should add that i use 3/16" internal diameter hose