Help! I have a severe crisis!!!

[Amianthus]

I have had it! This is the last time I'm going to patch up this regulator. I have a "kegerator" in my basement. But tonight, I went to pour myself a frosty glass of my Blue Moon Belgian. It was flat!!! I checked the CO2 two days ago and it was fine. Today it's all gone. I'm sick of the POS regulator and I am going to replace it with a good one. My question is this, can the brew be saved? If I get the CO2 cylinder recharged and a new regulator, can I re-pressurize it and re-carbonate it? I don't want to even contemplate the possiblity that I've ruined $120 of beer. Experts, please help me!

 

[Bigsaint]

Amain... don't have an answer to your problems. See it's Blue Moon, They used to make a Blue Moon Pumpkin Ale that was great, haven't seen it around for a few years now, got any sources ???



Scott W.

 

[Amianthus]

Don't really have an answer for you 'Saint. I get it from S&S distributing around here. I'd give you a phone number, but it might go bad by the time they shipped it to you.

 

[OO]

Force Carbonating: There seems to be great confusion about how to do this

properly, but the fact is that there is only one proper way to do it and it's easy if

you know how. Forget about shaking the keg with live pressure on. This doesn't

properly allow the CO2 to dissolve into the beer. It results in a flat beer that

foams all over the place. It can also aerate the beer, causing DMS ("sweetcorn"

flavors/aromas) or oxidation ("wet cardboard" flavors/aromas). The only way to

properly force carbonate the beer is to chill it down to below 40° F and to then

dial the regulator up to 20-30 psi and to leave live pressure on for 1-3 days. If

you cannot chill it, it will work but it will take more like a week than 2 or 3 days.

The lower the temperature and the higher the pressure, the faster the brew will

carbonate. You will have to play with it to get it just right. You can always bleed

any excess CO2 if you overcarbonate. A good technique is to try 25 psi for one

day, and then to test the carbonation level by serving. If you need more, crank

up the pressure again and go another day. For many ales, you will find that

about 2 days at 25 psi is plenty.



From this website http://www.beercrafts.com/kegcarbon.html

 

[Clinton]

OO's advice is solid and in line with my experiences. I've not fiddled with many CO2 systems for brewery kegs, but I've done quite a bit with 5 gallon homebrew kegs. Low temps and medium-low pressure along with patient monitoring will have you up and drinking in a couple of days. I also battled a crappy regulator for a while. In some places Sunday will have you saying: Flat beer is better than no beer at all.