Carbonating in a pressure barrel

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Buffers brewery

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I might be overthinking this (nothing new there) but I transferred my latest batch of Yorkshire bitter to by King Keg, added priming sugar (as I had done before) and 3 weeks later the pressure is still rising! I noticed the FG was a bit higher than when I last brewed this beer but put that down to more unfermentables as I had mashed at a higher temperature (Ooops). I’m now thinking it hadn’t finished when I transferred to the barrel, even though the SG was the same for 3 days. So the question is, I guess I wait for the pressure to stop increasing before I start conditioning at 10 degrees C?
 
Under normal circumstances at that controlled temperature I would have expected the carbing to be done in about a week say 10 days at the most. Your experience is probably the same
I assume you were happy to go ahead and package since you were convinced it had finished so my only suggestion, although I have no experience of it, is that you have an infection which is still chewing away.
How about drawing some off and testing the SG?
 
Under normal circumstances at that controlled temperature I would have expected the carbing to be done in about a week say 10 days at the most. Your experience is probably the same
I assume you were happy to go ahead and package since you were convinced it had finished so my only suggestion, although I have no experience of it, is that you have an infection which is still chewing away.
How about drawing some off and testing the SG?
Taken a sample as you suggested. Very lively!
IMG_20200626_212335283.jpg

The SG is 1.018. I reckon primary fermentation got stuck and has restarted, although seems to be going on for ever! Had a taster. No obvious off flavours, just a bit young. Thoughts @terrym ?
 
Taken a sample as you suggested. Very lively!
View attachment 28254
The SG is 1.018. I reckon primary fermentation got stuck and has restarted, although seems to be going on for ever! Had a taster. No obvious off flavours, just a bit young. Thoughts @terrym ?
Did you not measure your FG? Earlier I thought you had told us 1.012 in a previous post but rechecked and you said that was an earlier brew. If its actually currently 1.018, seems to me you have bottled too early. So you can likely forget infections.
 
Did you not measure your FG? Earlier I thought you had told us 1.012 in a previous post but rechecked and you said that was an earlier brew. If its actually currently 1.018, seems to me you have bottled too early. So you can likely forget infections.
The OG was 1.054 and after a week the SG stayed at 1.020 for 5 days. As I had started the mash at a higher than meant temperature I assumed I had unfermentables so transferred to my barrel together with 3 ozs sugar in solution. Me thinks I was a bit premature :coat:
 
I agree with your analysis - probably slow/stuck fermentation. In future, you could ferment a small sample of your batch at 25-30C for 3-4 days to find out what final gravity to expect from the batch. I draw off a sample once fermentation is underway and ferment it in a jar in a water bath with an aquarium heater. If you know what final gravity to expect you can pack your beer with 1 or 2 gravity points left to go and avoid having to let it ferment out then prime.
 
You say your FG was 1.020. this means there is unfermented sugar present unless you added some unfermentables. So when adding priming sugar there was too much in total. You should leave beer in the FV until the SG stops dropping. Check over a couple of days. Most should end near 1.010.
 
You say your FG was 1.020. this means there is unfermented sugar present unless you added some unfermentables. So when adding priming sugar there was too much in total. You should leave beer in the FV until the SG stops dropping. Check over a couple of days. Most should end near 1.010.
I agree. The strange thing is after a week fermentation appears to stop ( no bubbles) so I took first sample and SG was 1.020. Bit high I thought but took another sample 3 days later. 1.020 again. Another 2 days and 1.020.
 
Happens to us all. This is the trace from my current brew:
PedwarDegNaw0620.JPG

It seemed to stop on at 1.020 on 20th June (the app generating the graph has back-to-front US dates). Not that I care 'cos the beer ain't bottled or destined to be a "keg" beer. 40 hours later it kicks off again! Characteristic "Tilt hydrometer" shenanigans for 24 hours before the Tilt settles and registers a very slow fall to 1.010 (just now).

Gawd knows what got into it, but it is a new yeast to me (Wyeast London III) so perhaps this is normal? It is about the time that the yeast finishes off its favourite nosh (maltose, and any sucrose and glucose it can get it's gob around) and readjusts to deal with remaining dextrin. Most yeasts don't hesitate, some stop altogether, and perhaps some have to think about it for a while?
 
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