Am I screwed? Overcarbonated beer in keggerator.

[Fremont Brewer]

Hello all,
I made my first ever California common for my father-in law's Christmas party. Turned out great, until I messed it up and overcarbonated it. I have it in my garage fridge on Co2. It was going along tasting good, until it wasn't. There has been an extreme cold-snap in the bay area and I think the combination of the CO2 pressure with low fridge temps, made it overcarbonated. Within 2 days it went from great to yuck. Now it has a chemical taste. I have to serve this this Saturday.

Please help! I will try and bleed off some pressure over the next couple days. Will the seltzer taste go away, or am I SOL?

Thanks brothers,
John

[Ozwald]

Hook up the gas to the outpost. Remove gas. Vent all the way. Repeat 3-4x. Done.

[siwelwerd]

Hook up the gas to the outpost. Remove gas. Vent all the way. Repeat 3-4x. Done.

This is good advice, but missing the crucial step of "wait" before repeating. Disconnect the gas from the keg. Either use the pressure release valve, or hook up a gas quick disconnect to the gas post to vent. Close it back up, and let some CO2 evolve out of the beer (this should take some hours), then vent again. Give it a taste after a couple of ventings, and see if you need to do it again. I'd think you should be able to fix it by Saturday. If you warm the beer up some, this process will go faster.

[Ozwald]

Hook up the gas to the outpost. Remove gas. Vent all the way. Repeat 3-4x. Done.

This is good advice, but missing the crucial step of "wait" before repeating. Disconnect the gas from the keg. Either use the pressure release valve, or hook up a gas quick disconnect to the gas post to vent. Close it back up, and let some CO2 evolve out of the beer (this should take some hours), then vent again. Give it a taste after a couple of ventings, and see if you need to do it again. I'd think you should be able to fix it by Saturday. If you warm the beer up some, this process will go faster.

I've never had to wait between hits. The handful of times I've had to do it I could get the problem fixed in under 3 minutes.

[siwelwerd]

I've never had to wait between hits.

Are we still talking about the same thing?

Seriously though, how much CO2 is coming out of the beer in 3 minutes? If 3 minutes would fix it, pour a pint, leave it 3 minutes, and it'll taste fine.

[Ozwald]

I vent the keg all the way. I swap out the grey for a black connector on the gas line. Keg's not hooked up to anything. I hit it with gas through the liquid post causing it to bubble fairly viGarosely. Remove gas connector, vent the keg all the way. Hook up the gas again. Vent all the way. Repeat a few times, test a pour & do a few more cycles if necessary. Takes a few minutes tops.

Letting it sit isn't the same thing since you're not actively agitating the gas out of solution with the bubbles. It's pretty much like shaking a soda & cracking the top a few times. The bubbles just eliminate the need to shake the shit out of it. Yes, leaving an open soda will eventually take the carbonation out of it, but the point here is to drop it quick.

[siwelwerd]

I hit it with gas through the liquid post causing it to bubble fairly viGarosely (...) Letting it sit isn't the same thing since you're not actively agitating the gas out of solution with the bubbles.

Ah, I see what you're saying now. I didn't catch that you were pumping gas in--I'd never heard that trick before.

[Ozwald]

It's one of those fun ones I picked up years ago. Don't use it much anymore since I never need to change my pressure around anymore, but it's really effective especially if you turn up the regulator a touch. It's a little wasteful on CO2, but if you need to knock it down in a hurry, it's worth every bit. If I was serving somewhere, I'd do it the day before, just to make sure I was dialed in perfect on the day of - gives you that little extra time for corrections.