Pressure Barrel carbing

[calumrobertson]

Hi, ive used my pressure barrel to carb, condition and serve beer a few times but not for years!
I'm currently carbing a beer in it now for a party next month. I dissolved 65g of sugar and put it in the barrel with 20l of the beer...so should give a light carbonation. I'm secondary fermenting it at 17-18c at the moment, its been at that for about 48 hours but on trying it it doesnt seem to have any carbonation!
What do people think, is this because at 17c its too warm for the co2 to dissolve so give it a few days then lower to around 10-11c and the co2 in the airspace will dissolve into the beer. Or add some more sugar or use a CO2 bulb or two in the top to add some more?
Thoughts welcome, thanks.

[Dr. Dextrin]

My guess would be that at 17C only leaving it for 48 hours isn't enough for the yeast to have fermented the priming sugar. Does it still taste sweet? Try leaving it for a week or so and test again. There shouldn't be a problem with dissolving the CO2 in the beer when using priming sugar because the gas is produced in the beer anyway, unlike carbonating a Cornie.

The other possibility, of course, is you have a gas leak. If you haven't used the barrel for years, that's distinctly likely.

[calumrobertson]

Thanks for the reply..i'll keep my eye on it over the next day or so so that'll give it a week at 17c. Doesnt taste too sweat, a little more so than before i added the sugar but not massively so.
I'm hoping it doesnt have a leak! Certainly i can hear anything and the ferment fridge doesnt smell of beer aroma when i open it. Why would it be more likely to have a leak if i'd not used it in a while?

[Dr. Dextrin]

Did you use vaseline on the seal? I'm just thinking it may have lost any it had while not used, or the o-ring might have got dented if something was lying against it. They do tend to leak fairly easily and if it hasn't been used recently then obviously it hasn't been tested either. Unfortunately, I doubt that you'll detect a leak by smell alone. Some soapy water around any seals might show one, but I tend to rely on keeping the seals clean and re-greasing them at every fill.