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Keg filling and beer is flat?

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  • Keg filling and beer is flat?

    We are a very small batch Farm brewery in NY. We just stared kegging and everything seemed to go smoothly. We silks a keg the bar tapped it and the beer was completely flat? At the brewery it is fully carbonated and pours great. The manager at the bar pushed the co2 up to 21psi but the beer was still flat. Now I should say we filled the keg out of our Brite tank and during filling we ran out of co2 but the beer seemed to fill into the keg fine. Are we doing something wrong filling kegs or is it on the bar end?

  • #2
    Get a carbonation tester and test the keg, you should also be testing the beer prior to kegging as well, perhaps the beer was not very carbonated when you filled the keg. It can happen if the carbonation stone has a leak and it doesn't make fine bubbles.

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    • #3
      Are you steam cleaning, or hot caustic cleaning your kegs?

      A lot of time folks clean their kegs and then let them return to ambient temp, this causes a vacuum and when you put carbed beer into the keg it decarbs the beer.

      I hook up co2 to a coupler with a bleed, re pressurize the keg before filling this will solve that problem.

      Secondly you may not be filling the kegs all the way, leaving low pressure head space will also equalize across the beer and leave you with a lower carb.

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      • #4
        I second getting a carb tester (or borrow one from a neighboring brewery). Each batch should be tested prior to packaging. With that being said it is possible that the valve on your keg is leaking and over time has caused your beer to lose CO2. Pull the keg out of rotation, pressurize it to 15 psi and pour some water and check for a leak.

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        • #5
          Filling method?

          You mentioned that at the brewery the beer is fine. Is this out of the brite tank or kegs? There are a few things that could cause flat beer. Keg filling speed and counter pressure have a lot to do with keeping Co2 in the beer.

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          • #6
            Other replies have good info about carb testers and filling kegs completely, but from your original post info it sounds like when you ran out of CO2 while kegging you didn't have adequate head pressure while transferring from brite to keg and a lot of your CO2 came out of solution, leaving flat or flattish beer in the keg. When I first started kegging and didn't have good SOPs in place, I definitely had some flattish beers, though they were in-house kegs, not in distribution, so I could pull them off tap and charge them again. Now, I make sure to fill kegs slowly with constant head pressure around 14 psi, and blow out foam until I'm getting beer coming out of the bleeding line, and I'm getting much better and more consistent results from my kegs.

            Good luck.

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            • #7
              So we have pulled our kegs since 3 went out and all 3 were flat. We kegged another batch of a stout and just sent therm to a friends bar and sure enough it was flat again. We built our keg filler with a sanke valve coupler and hosing. The kegs filled pretty quickly and a ton of foam came out of the tube which I ran until beer was coming out. We may have an issue with the brite being kept at 59 degrees. Could that be our issue? I basically allow the brite to carb by upping the co2 every couple hrs by 2-5 psi until it reaches 15psi. The carbing stone is set to allow for little bubbles and the brite definitely doesn't leak. On a side note after the keg sits at the bar on co2 for awhile it seems to regain a bit of head. Is there a better technique anyone can share with us for carbonating or kegging? We definitely want to break out of only bottles. Thanks and sorry these are such beginner questions

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              • #8
                You have to get that brite tank below 59 degrees. At that temperature the headspace pressure required to keep your beer carbed is probably higher than your tank your can take. I keep my brite tank at 30-32 and still maintain the pressure at 12-15 depending on the beer. Store your beer as cold as possible, keep your CO2 pressure at the proper level for desired volume of CO2, transfer slowly to kegs without a large pressure differential between vessels and you'll be good to go.

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                • #9
                  No carb in your keg. Force carb it! It's a pain in the ass ( I know, I do it at work) hook up your keg coupler to your keg. With co2 on the air in side and a penny and o ring on the beer side and shake the shit out of it. Let it sit on co2 for a day or two and then check carb


                  Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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                  • #10
                    hello,
                    According to the chart - http://www.kegerators.com/carbonation-table.php - your beer is at 1.98 vol c02. Pretty low, but when you pour it at 59 degrees it seems fine. You need the brite tank colder, as previously mentioned. The draft quality manual from brewers association has good info too - http://www.draughtquality.org/wp-con...Full_Final.pdf - good luck!

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by mswebb View Post
                      You have to get that brite tank below 59 degrees. At that temperature the headspace pressure required to keep your beer carbed is probably higher than your tank your can take. I keep my brite tank at 30-32 and still maintain the pressure at 12-15 depending on the beer. Store your beer as cold as possible, keep your CO2 pressure at the proper level for desired volume of CO2, transfer slowly to kegs without a large pressure differential between vessels and you'll be good to go.

                      At least that seems to be our only issue is the temp. We are moving to a new building soon and will have to wait until we get in there in order to build a walk in cooler. I'm thinking my home brewing method won't work which was simply forcing 30psi into the corny kegs for 2 days. What method can you recommend for us?

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Abrowne0001 View Post
                        At least that seems to be our only issue is the temp. We are moving to a new building soon and will have to wait until we get in there in order to build a walk in cooler. I'm thinking my home brewing method won't work which was simply forcing 30psi into the corny kegs for 2 days. What method can you recommend for us?
                        Force carbing in kegs works. It's potentially inconsistent but manageable. You still need to get the beer colder; CO2 absorption is temperature sensitive.


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                        • #13
                          Originally posted by mswebb View Post
                          Force carbing in kegs works. It's potentially inconsistent but manageable. You still need to get the beer colder; CO2 absorption is temperature sensitive.


                          Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

                          Yeah it is good for right now so we can continue to bottle but once we move and build a walk in we will definitely have the correct temp. Is there a good way to carbonate in the brite tank other then filling it with the beer and turning the co2 on? I'm sure we are missing something when it comes to techniques?

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                          • #14
                            Study up a bit on carbonation in brite tank. You need to account for hydro static pressure, carb stone wetting pressure, and your desired volumes of CO2. I highly recommend getting a zahm and nagel volume meter to accurately measure the co2 that is in your beer.



                            Carbonation Demystified is a quick read to help kickstart your carbonation journey and helped me dial in my procedures.

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