what am i doing wrong?

[cumbrian brewer]

I did a tooheys larger kit a couple of months ago, i know now i left it too long in the FV for 2nd fermentaion to be successful and it never worked, but me being me, knew i would be getting corney kegs so held on to it and stored it for a few weeks. I have now purchaced the kegs and just about worked out how to gas up etc (i know its not hard but its my first time) I transfered the larger to the corney gased, give it a good shake and gased again. Now the first couple of pints where good and I mean good my bro was up for the week end and lets call him and expert drinker and he loved it (dont think he was too keen on my ginger TC but managed a few bottles of my Pino Grillio) the head lasted all the way down and it stayed nice and fizzy but I can not keep it like this. I am drinking it and the taste is good but goes flat quick, do I need to keep it cooler/ I have a regulator and are going to get the bigger CO2 cylinder will this help if its on constant feed?

I have 40 pints of the mexican chezase in plastic 2l pet conditioning I did not add suger at second ferm stage to this either will this be the same??

thanks in advance :

 

[PhatFil]

get a propper 14lb or 7kg co2 cylinder hookedup.

sounds like your trying to force carbonate in the keg instead of priming to condition naturally.. that works..

yes then you need to keep the keg n beer cold, and the gas on constantly,that way as the co2 is disolved into the beer more gas comes in and keeps the process going.

the colder the beer the more co2 can disolve in it, the warmer it is the more co2 will foam out of it when its poured.

my brews undergo primary fermentation for 4 days up to a week in a bucket, then get transfered off the yeast sediment into a secondary bucket for the gravity to bottom out. another week or so..

when the gravity has bottomed out i keg n bottle and prime with spreymalt to condition naturally. I gas up to 4psi n sit it in the warm for a week or so for the carbonation sugars to get munched. im brewing ale for the most part..

As your not adding any priming sugars you will want to hook your beer upto the gas (and keep it hooked up) at a higher than serving pressure and keep cold and shake on occasion for a week then drop the pressure to serving pressure and bring to serving temp and leave to settle for however long is needed..



if you want to turbo carbonate you can find online carbonation stones like aquarium air stones but metal with micro holes which you attach via a tube to your gas in dip tube, i dont know how good they are??.. I tried forced carbonation in the summer and due to the temperatures all i got out of the keg was a big jug o foam which settled to a flat pint hmm im prepared for next spring/summer inline flash chiller :)

serving beer under pressure is also a learning opportunity.... afaik beer at the tap should be at about 1 psi pressure, if your serving highly carbonated lager you may want to keep it at 12or higher psi,(lower n you may loose the fizz) so you may have to use micro line between your keg n tap to restrict the pressure down to a serving pressure at the tap.

 

[cumbrian brewer]

get a propper 14lb or 7kg co2 cylinder hookedup.

sounds like your trying to force carbonate in the keg instead of priming to condition naturally.. that works..

yes then you need to keep the keg n beer cold, and the gas on constantly,that way as the co2 is disolved into the beer more gas comes in and keeps the process going.

the colder the beer the more co2 can disolve in it, the warmer it is the more co2 will foam out of it when its poured.

my brews undergo primary fermentation for 4 days up to a week in a bucket, then get transfered off the yeast sediment into a secondary bucket for the gravity to bottom out. another week or so..

when the gravity has bottomed out i keg n bottle and prime with spreymalt to condition naturally. I gas up to 4psi n sit it in the warm for a week or so for the carbonation sugars to get munched. im brewing ale for the most part..

As your not adding any priming sugars you will want to hook your beer upto the gas (and keep it hooked up) at a higher than serving pressure and keep cold and shake on occasion for a week then drop the pressure to serving pressure and bring to serving temp and leave to settle for however long is needed..



if you want to turbo carbonate you can find online carbonation stones like aquarium air stones but metal with micro holes which you attach via a tube to your gas in dip tube, i dont know how good they are??.. I tried forced carbonation in the summer and due to the temperatures all i got out of the keg was a big jug o foam which settled to a flat pint hmm im prepared for next spring/summer inline flash chiller :)

serving beer under pressure is also a learning opportunity.... afaik beer at the tap should be at about 1 psi pressure, if your serving highly carbonated lager you may want to keep it at 12or higher psi,(lower n you may loose the fizz) so you may have to use micro line between your keg n tap to restrict the pressure down to a serving pressure at the tap.

thanks i mighth have to read this a couple of times but I think I get it, i am going for the bigger bottle and will look for afridge for my corneys

 

[PhatFil]

dont take my words as gospel, I have a lot more to learn myself still. Ive only had the corny kegs since spring.
Last keg i hooked up poured perfect pints from start to finish ive invested in good flow control pub taps which are the icing on the cake.