Beer Forum

So I have been kegging beer for about 8 years now and have NEVER had this happen to me before. Wanted to run it by people here to see if anyone had any insight into this problem.

About 5 weeks ago I kegged a Bohemian Pilsner and stuck it in my fridge to lager at 35F. Last week I put it on gas to about 22 PSI to carb it up. After 4 days I checked the pressure and the beer was not carbonated at ALL (some wispy head bubbles but that was it). So as usual, I checked for leaks in my in/out posts, lid/o-ring, pressure relief valve and gas regulator connection. No signs of any leaks anywhere.

So I turned up the gas to 30PSI for two days to see what would happen thinking that the beer would have to be even just a bit more carbonated than before. Well....

Here is the wierd part - when I went to relieve the pressure from the keg there was obviously a huge gas release (which told me the keg wasnt leaking). Then when I poured a glass to check the carbonation level, it was EXACTLY the same as before - no carbonation.
So I put the gas back on it for 30PSI for two more days. Checked it again and no increase in carbonation.

I finally decided to roll the keg with the gas on it and see if that would help and lo and behold 3 minutes later the beer was finally carbonated! WTF is going on here? I have never had this issue before. Anyone have any clue as to what is going on?

Beer level above the bottom of the gas tube?

Good thinking, but no. I would think that the beer would still carbonate as I would be directly injecting CO2 into solution then. And besides there was definitely gas in the headspace above the beer level.

It sounds like the liquid level was above the bottom of the gas dip tube to me.

No it definitely was not as stated above. And there was accumulated gas in the headspace above the beer.

That is wierd indeed. My only left field suggestion would be a frozen layer of beer at the top of the keg stopping the CO2 making its way into the greater beer volume?

I'm baffled. If there was headspace pressure, it should have found it's way in to the beer... that's just physics.

raven19 wrote:That is wierd indeed. My only left field suggestion would be a frozen layer of beer at the top of the keg stopping the CO2 making its way into the greater beer volume?

I think this could have been your problem.....as I have heard of this before....and it would keep the beer from carbonating and still have gas in the headspace...(and once you turned it over and rolled it it would remove this layer...hence carbonating it...