Pressurising my PB, at which point?

[Alex.mc]

Hi all,

I have been running through my first brew, using the APA kit from Youngs.
So far so good, I have transferred to the supplied PB, and added the supplied priming sugar, which i mixed with a bit of boiled water, then piured into the PB, then the beer from the FV on top.
I sealed with the cap, and it's been sitting in exactly 20c for a week.

I tasted it when checking final gravity, and it tastes like beer! Flat warm beer but nonetheless.....

I'm not convinced it's gaining any pressure though?
I've read about people pressurising from the start of the PB, should I switch caps and give it one Co2 blast?

 

[Clint]

Leave it another week then try....it should be carbed by then. If not you have a leak.

 

[Cwrw666]

Sounds like you have a leak probably the cap seal. PBs are renounded for it, especially budget barrels.

 

[chewie]

It will take at least 2 weeks to build up to a full head of pressure, opening the tap or lid to "check" will not help the situation. If after 2 weeks there is no pressure then you have a leak which is most likely to be in the cap, if it where the valve/tap then you would see beer escaping.

Blasting in Co2 will not achieve anything if you have a leak, you will end up with flat sweet beer, give it the second week which at the end of you will know for sure that it either needed time to ferment out the primer or there is indeed a leak.

 

[terrym]

Try this, which includes suggestions for preventing and dealing with leaks
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/guide-to-a-standard-home-brew-pressure-barrel.67042/
As far as pressurising the PB is concerned, if you have it in a warm place you should have a some pressure after about 3 days, so its always good to test at that point. No pressure at that stage usually signifies a leak. Full pressure can be anything from one to two weeks mainly driven by the temperature of the 'warm place' and the yeast load in the beer at packaging time.

 

[Alex.mc]

Thanks all, I have been out at work and just got back to read the messages.
I should say that after posting, I decided to gently crack the tap open and draw off a tiny amount of beer to see what it was like.
Well the thimbleful had a small head and was carbonated! Clearly it needs more time..... but it seems to have worked.

I think my fears came from me putting on the normal cap, and then wondering if I should have used the charging cap instead straight off. I cracked the plain cap a day later, and listened very carefully for a slight hiss, but heard nothing. Hence I thought the secondary wasn't working, but in reality I was just too early and impatient!

Thanks all again.

 

[WierdFish]

Try this, which includes suggestions for preventing and dealing with leaks
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/guide-to-a-standard-home-brew-pressure-barrel.67042/

Good advice.

I recently acquired an old, but unused, King Keg from a mate. Knowing these things can have issues I got a new cap (one with the tyre pressure valve built in) and new seals , filled it with water and pumped some pressure in (no point wasting CO2 capsules. It lost pressure almost immediately. After doing a bit more searching I found the suggestion to file the rim of the keg level, which I did with a bit of very fine wet and dry round a block that was big enough to cover the cap, effectively filing the whole rim at once. A quick clean up, replaced the cap, repressured and 3 days later it still had pressure. Sorted. I wish I'd seen the thread above sooner.

All ready to get a beer on this weekend now.