pressure barrel no fizz HELP!!!!!!!!!!!

[PEZ]

hi

i havebrewed some brewmakers ipa with added hop and grain brupack thing.. it tastes ok no nastyness at all but its completely
flat 3 weeks in. has it still got time to get some condition? where should i be keeping it at this stage ideally? or should i be adding something
.. all help appreciated!!

[nofe4r]

You won't get a fizzy beer out of a pressure barrel, more of a sparkle, but it shouldn't be completely flat.

You didn't mention it in your post but did you adding any sort of priming sugars when you transferred it to the barrel? About 80g of sugar per 23 litres of beer should do the trick. You should then leave it in the warm about a week and then in the cool for 2. The cooler the better as the beer will absorb more of the CO2. Excuse me if I am stating the obvious Then there may have insufficient yeast transferred to the barrel.

No doubt this is what you have done anyway in which case you need to look at your barrel. You don't mention what type it is. You may have a leak either in the tap or the lid, or even a dodgy valve, this will stop the pressure from building up resulting in a flat beer.

There is good post here viewtopic.php?f=23&t=11881 I know it refers to bottled beer but some of it is relevant.

Hope I have been of help.

[PEZ]

i added only 60g of sugar to prime...
i dont think there is a problem with the barrel..
is it too late to add more sugar or would this be pointless... it is flat with no sparkle

[Lillywhite]

You usually need 85 grams (3 ozs) of sugar to prime a 40 pint keg.

I would add some CO2 gas at this stage and move the keg to somewhere cooler so that the brew absorbs the CO2 to give it a bit of fizz.

Check the keg after a day or so to see if it's still holding pressure and you havn't a leak from your keg.

[Jim]

60g of sugar should still have given the beer a reasonable amount of condition. How fast have you been drinking it? If your barrel doesn't have a CO2 injection system (i.e. a valve on the top where you can add CO2 from a gas bottle) it will soon go flat if you pull several pints in a few hours.

If it's never had a fizz, the chances are your barrel has a leak. Check all the rubber seals are OK; you can smear a very small amount of vaseline on the cap seal. Check that the pressure release valve is sealing properly (the type depends on the type of barrel you have).

[techtone]

I have two good (IMO) tips for monitoring the pressure building-up during 2nd fermentation with the budget keg. Some people like to squeeze the pressure release to make sure gas comes out - that is great and is possibly useful to also allow air out leaving you with just co2. However, I also look at the base of the barrel - it will budge according to the pressure and between day 1 and 2 I find the keg lifts a few mm's off the little plastic feet. The 2nd tip is when you 1st keg the beer, stick some tape on the keg to mark the line at the top of the beer. I find the level drops by as much as 2cm as the pressure builds. It should only start to go back up when you start to cold condition and the co2 gets absorbed back into the beer.

I will add that it has been suggested that older budget kegs might have stronger plastic so these tips may not work for everyone??? I am also not convinced that any of my 3 caps are releasing pressure when they should. Personally I am not going to worry about that until (and if) I have my first leak My previous keg didn't actually need any added co2 and the beer was very nicely carbonated until the end. My current keg is going the same way.

[adypyk]

Just out of curiosity, once the beer has a protective covering of co2 why isn't it safe/ok to pressurise with air?
Is it in case all the co2 get absorbed by the beer (ie no protective barrier) ?

[Jim]

Just out of curiosity, once the beer has a protective covering of co2 why isn't it safe/ok to pressurise with air?
Is it in case all the co2 get absorbed by the beer (ie no protective barrier) ?

Once the air is in the barrel it will mix with the CO2 - you can't keep the different gasses separate in the same space. The oxygen content of the gas in contact with the beer will increase as more air gets in, making it go off.

[adypyk]

Just out of curiosity, once the beer has a protective covering of co2 why isn't it safe/ok to pressurise with air?
Is it in case all the co2 get absorbed by the beer (ie no protective barrier) ?

Once the air is in the barrel it will mix with the CO2 - you can't keep the different gasses separate in the same space. The oxygen content of the gas in contact with the beer will increase as more air gets in, making it go off.

Thanks for that Jim.