Carbonation

[Mfc86]

Hello..

I have just had my first taste of my first part grain kit... It tastes OK but it has very little carbonation and little head retention. Out of curiosity I tried to inject some co2 into my keg but the release valve kicked in and no co2 went into my keg... So it's obviously full of co2..
Do you think it might be worth me repriming it or as its got plenty of co2 so you think that's as good as it's going to get..
Still quite new to brewing so any advice would be much appreciated..

Cheers

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Hello..

I have just had my first taste of my first part grain kit... It tastes OK but it has very little carbonation and little head retention. Out of curiosity I tried to inject some co2 into my keg but the release valve kicked in and no co2 went into my keg... So it's obviously full of co2..
Do you think it might be worth me repriming it or as its got plenty of co2 so you think that's as good as it's going to get..
Still quite new to brewing so any advice would be much appreciated..

Cheers

First of all, congrats with your first AG brew :hat:
So to state the obvs, to carbonate it you need to get CO2 to dissolve into it under pressure, which then comes out as bubbles when the pressure is relieved as you serve it.
I don't think you need to re-prime it, because the pressure in the keg is already high enough to trigger the release valve... generally you either prime with sugar or inject CO2 - I can't see much point doing both :-)
If you injected enough CO2 to make the relief valve operate, then there should be enough pressure in there to start carbonating the beer - but it does take a little while to absorb. What you will find is that as the beer absorbs the CO2 from the headspace, the pressure will drop - so after a day or two you may be able to burp in a bit more gas...

 

[Mfc86]

First of all, congrats with your first AG brew :hat:
So to state the obvs, to carbonate it you need to get CO2 to dissolve into it under pressure, which then comes out as bubbles when the pressure is relieved as you serve it.
I don't think you need to re-prime it, because the pressure in the keg is already high enough to trigger the release valve... generally you either prime with sugar or inject CO2 - I can't see much point doing both :-)
If you injected enough CO2 to make the relief valve operate, then there should be enough pressure in there to start carbonating the beer - but it does take a little while to absorb. What you will find is that as the beer absorbs the CO2 from the headspace, the pressure will drop - so after a day or two you may be able to burp in a bit more gas...

 

[Mfc86]

OK..... I will keep an eye out ..