Carbonation issues...

[Hoonigan]

Hello,

Just tried my Razorback IPA out of the barrel, first impressions are good but have a couple of concerns, firstly it seems impossible to pour, comes out the barrel with similar pressure to my jet wash! And secondly the beer itself though ejected at high pressure seems somewhat flat!
I barrelled on the 4th if Feb after three weeks fermentation, and left it inside for two weeks, then moved to the garage where it's been for the last six days, am I just being too impatient? Any advice welcomed.

 

[Hoonigan]

Bump for the evening crowd... :)

 

[Stevieb]

Bump for the evening crowd... :)

Hi mate. I only bottle mine but looking round online it could be you have a leak. How much priming sugar did you use?
I,m sure someone will be along to advise you with more knowledge than me.

 

[bigbeefy]

the carbonation bubbles get smaller in the cold move your pb to somewhere warmer

now someone will come along and say im wrong i usually am according to the wife

 

[Hoonigan]

Well I'm pretty sure I don't have a leak, it's like a bloody jet wash:grin: interestingly I though by moving it in to the cold garage it would aid carbonation but maybe that's where I'm going wrong?...

Thanks

 

[GHW]

As per stevie's comment, a couple of things could be the problem, I'd have thought it's either too much sugar in the barrel (assuming it's 20ish L you want 80g or there about). Alternatively if it hadn't finished the initial ferment, with your priming sugar added you may have produced more co2 than expected/necessary.

On the other hand my wherry is exactly the same and I gave that 75g brewing sugar and it had definitely finished.

And beefy, I could be wrong here too but I'd have though the cold would help keep over carbonation under control rather than vice versa!

 

[stesmi]

Hello,

Just tried my Razorback IPA out of the barrel, first impressions are good but have a couple of concerns, firstly it seems impossible to pour, comes out the barrel with similar pressure to my jet wash! And secondly the beer itself though ejected at high pressure seems somewhat flat!
I barrelled on the 4th if Feb after three weeks fermentation, and left it inside for two weeks, then moved to the garage where it's been for the last six days, am I just being too impatient? Any advice welcomed.

Hey Hoonigan

Your P.B will only hold 10psi before the pressure release valve goes. At room temp this will only give you a carb level of 1.4 or so. This is under carbonated for most brews, but not all. The paradox is that 10psi is too high for serving pressure, but too low to carbonate properly and sometimes you get the feeling it's not carbed properly. Best thing to do is cold crash your brew in the P.B. To 1 or 2 degrees, this will help the co2 incorporate into solution and reduce the serving pressure. You may have already done this of course.
If it's still not carbed enough then squirt some co2 into the p.b. until the pressure release valve goes. Do this over a 3 or 4 days then you should have a brew that's carbed to 2.4 or so which should help.
At this point the p.b. Will be holding 10psi, but most of the co2 will be in solution. Still too high to serve, so you'll need to pour off several pints before serving pressure of 3 or 4 is reached. You should have a fabulously carbed pint though.
Sorry if this is teaching you to suck eggs.
*Edit* Just saw BigBeefys and your 2nd post about cold crashing. Good luck

 

[Hoonigan]

Brilliant, thank you all.

I can assure you there is certainly no chance of teaching me to suck eggs :d Fermentation was def finished and U added the priming sugar that came in the kit do should be correct, what you are saying about the PB makes sense but not sure I'll be allowed to put it in the fridge so it will have to stay in the garage which is pretty chilly though, I do suspect my pressure could be quite high though as there is a rubber band fitted over the safety band to increase it (friends barrel):whistle: possibly another reason to keep it in the garage and not the fridge...:mrgreen:

I'll leave it another week and the possibly try forcing a bit more gas in to it.

Thanks again.

 

[stesmi]

Brilliant, thank you all.

I can assure you there is certainly no chance of teaching me to suck eggs :d Fermentation was def finished and U added the priming sugar that came in the kit do should be correct, what you are saying about the PB makes sense but not sure I'll be allowed to put it in the fridge so it will have to stay in the garage which is pretty chilly though, I do suspect my pressure could be quite high though as there is a rubber band fitted over the safety band to increase it (friends barrel):whistle: possibly another reason to keep it in the garage and not the fridge...:mrgreen:

I'll leave it another week and the possibly try forcing a bit more gas in to it.

Thanks again.

He he. I do the rubber band thing too. I get up to 15psi ;-). Still need that cold crash though. Hopefully the garage will do the job :-)