HomebrewandBeer.com forum

This is my first attempt at kegging, after receiveing some good advice on the forum about cold conditioning i was hoping someone would help with carbonation.

I have force carbonated my cider at 250kpa, with the keg inverter for around 2 minutes. when i pour all i get is head and a small bit of liquid. when the head dies down the cider is basically flat (no fizz at all.)
I have tried purging the excess gas every half hour but with no luck

HELP!!!! the cider tastes great, but its being really let down by the carbonation, I can't invite the lads round until its sorted.

Leave the keg at pouring pressure for 3-4 days (do not touch the reg). Then try again

What kind of pressure would you pour cider at, 50 kpa?

I wouldn't pour below 70 kpa, I try to pour at 100 kpa. You can probably pour at a higher pressure with the cider than you do with beer. Just don't play with the reg, leave it to balance itself for a few days and try again.

davelee123 wrote:I have force carbonated my cider at 250kpa, with the keg inverter for around 2 minutes. when i pour all i get is head and a small bit of liquid. when the head dies down the cider is basically flat (no fizz at all.)

that sounds typical of over-carbonation.. leave the keg at the lower end of your pouring pressure, and burp it every now and then if the pressure gets higher (as it likely will if it's overcarbed - CO2 will come out of solution).

Thanks kev and chris,

have set the reg to 70 kpa and burping it every hour or so as the pressure increases, I can imagine it'll take a day or two to get right.
Will let you know what it's like!

cheers,
Dave

Only burp it if it gets higher than what you have set the reg to. Also it is best to disconnect the gas line when you do burp the keg.

You force carbed it with the gas on? The trick is to turn the gas up to 300kPa, i go as high as 350, and then turn the gas bottle off. Rock the keg back and forth and watch the pressure drop. If it drop below serving pressure, usually 70-100 then repeat.

I agree, sounds like its over carbed so only cure is to burp it every hour or so until its almost flat and then try again. I dont trust my system not to leak the entire contents of the gas bottle so i force carb all my kegs and turn the bottle off when not in use.