Beer Forum

I've got my first beer in the keg. I don't have a fridge for the keg, so I store it in the basement. I force carbonated it by setting the PSI to 25 and letting it sit for 8 days. The keg is sitting around 60 degrees. When I pour into a glass or liter flip top or a growler it foams alot, so I know I need to extend my line since it was the same line that came with the kit. My big problem is when I fill a growler or flip top bottle and put it in the fridge for awhile, it seems to lose carbonation. Is this due to the change in temps? Is there something else I can do to get around this? Come winter I should be fine as that room with stay closer to 50 degrees. Any thoughts (other than getting a keg fridge, just not an option at this point.) Thanks

25 psi at 60F is about 2.7 atmospheres - 15 psi at 40F is also about 2.7 atmospheres - so they are similar. Most of my beers I store at 12 psi, 40F, or about 2.5 atmospheres.

You could be losing the carbonation with the excessive foaming during your transfer - but just a guess - I never keep a growler longer than a couple of days, so not sure how long these would hold. Are you using a hose at the end of your cobra tap to place the beer in the bottom of the growler to reduce picking up O2 and reduce foaming?

Are you chilling the bottles prior to filling? I understand this cuts down on foaming when counter pressure filling and makes sense that this might help you as well.

I'm not even counter pressure filling, just using the picnic tap. Have been using room temp growlers. I get that it should lose it's carbonation within a few days, but it will lose it withing a few hours after transfer. I thought maybe it was the growler cap that was causing air to come in, so I tried a few grolsch bottles that are good, and still had the same issue. I would just like to keep if for a couple of days without it losing it's carbonation.

Crinkle wrote:I'm not even counter pressure filling, just using the picnic tap. Have been using room temp growlers. I get that it should lose it's carbonation within a few days, but it will lose it withing a few hours after transfer. I thought maybe it was the growler cap that was causing air to come in, so I tried a few grolsch bottles that are good, and still had the same issue. I would just like to keep if for a couple of days without it losing it's carbonation.

I suspect you are losing your carbonation with your method of transfer - all the foaming is lost carbonation before you seal up the growler or bottle. Chilling the bottle before filling should cut back on foaming and maybe backing down on the pressure at transfer time. By elevating the bottle as high as you can will also cut down pressure as the beer leaves your tap, but a longer dispensing line and cold bottles will reduce the amount of CO2 taken out of solution during your transfer and leave more CO2 in you growler.

thansk maui, that makes sense.

I do the same thing to fill flip-tops and growlers (so do pubs). I think the only things you're missing here are the dispensing pressure and same temp bottles. Store your bottles where you store the beer until they're the same temp (for me that's the fridge, for you the basement). Changes in temp = changes in CO2 solubility, this adds to foaming if the bottles are warmer. The second thing I'd do is make sure you've got that dispensing pressure low when filling. Let out the pressure relief valve and set it lower. I don't go over 5psi to put it in bottles/growlers.

When it's time to fill I just fill until the beer (not foam) is almost to the top (~1/2 in). By then the foam that has started to form will be running down the side, but it's better to spill a few ounces of foam than dump a 1/2gal growler because you don't want to drink flat beer. Close the cap while the foam is still being generated so you get some pressure in there and you're good.

I've found this thread to be particularly helpful when I was sorting it out for myself: http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/forum/ ... ty#p110280. I don't bother purging w/ CO2 most of the time cause it gets drunk before you can taste oxidation, but do what makes you comfortable.

If I lower the PSI to pour, after I'm back to storing the keg, should I bleed off the pressure and bump it back to 25 PSI, the last week and a half I just have it sitting at 12 PSI, and I pour from that too,

Crinkle wrote:If I lower the PSI to pour, after I'm back to storing the keg, should I bleed off the pressure and bump it back to 25 PSI, the last week and a half I just have it sitting at 12 PSI, and I pour from that too,

Yeah, you want to store it at the pressure that will hold a certain volume of CO2 in solution (depending on style/your taste). The following link has a chart that will tell you what pressure for your storage temp will get you specific amounts of CO2 as CO2 solubility in beer gets lower as the temp goes up. Find out what it is for your style/preference and go from there.

http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/a ... How-To.pdf -- this is a pretty good primer on kegging. It doesn't have everything, but it's definitely got what you need

Happy kegging