Beer Forum

Getting frustrated so need some help. Brewed a mexican lager (Mexican Logger Clone) and the beer is gassed, has head retention but is drinking flat. It's as if the CO2 is coming out of solution straight away. The beer is force carbed and was accidentally carbed too high @ 1.1 bar should be 0.9 bar. Interestingly I had this problem with a ginger beer that I brewed last year - just wouldn't hold any gas as well though it was force carbed correctly. For the lager I brewed with a very low mineral content in the water (water varies greatly here but I test before very brew and adjust). Also only other anomaly was that my brew buddy managed to mix the star san at way too high a ratio (2.5ml to ~700ml). Everything else as it should be. 15 other brews with no issues. Sorry for the lack of conversion but it's late here. Help pls!!!

PS have been scouring the net to no avail...

pjp49rg wrote:Getting frustrated so need some help. Brewed a mexican lager (Mexican Logger Clone) and the beer is gassed, has head retention but is drinking flat. It's as if the CO2 is coming out of solution straight away. The beer is force carbed and was accidentally carbed too high @ 1.1 bar should be 0.9 bar. Interestingly I had this problem with a ginger beer that I brewed last year - just wouldn't hold any gas as well though it was force carbed correctly. For the lager I brewed with a very low mineral content in the water (water varies greatly here but I test before very brew and adjust). Also only other anomaly was that my brew buddy managed to mix the star san at way too high a ratio (2.5ml to ~700ml). Everything else as it should be. 15 other brews with no issues. Sorry for the lack of conversion but it's late here. Help pls!!!

PS have been scouring the net to no avail...

Are you experienced at kegging? I only ask to know what level of things to look into. When you say it has head retention, are we talking the head retention of a stout or a normal lager? I wouldn't necessarily think a Mexican Lager would have much head retention. How long has the beer been on Co2? Is it properly chilled? My only real thought is that the Co2 is coming out of solution when you pour the beer. This could be from it being too warm or maybe a beer line issue. What size lines do you have?

Yes been legging for quite a while with no other issues apart from those mentioned. Beer @ 33F, lines right sized. Head retention appears normal. It's just that the co2 is coming out of solution too fast.

pjp49rg wrote:Yes been legging for quite a while with no other issues apart from those mentioned. Beer @ 33F, lines right sized. Head retention appears normal. It's just that the co2 is coming out of solution too fast.

Do other people perceive it this way too? My only thought at this point is that the way your perception may be that it is flat and maybe it isn't. Shooting in the dark at this point

33F is really cold, even for a Mexican/Vienna lager. In general, the lower the temp, the more the gas will stay in solution. That could appear as if its under carbonated, even if its not. I didn't do the math to convert bars to PSI or volumes of CO2, but I'd generally go 2.5 or so, maybe 2.6 at the highest.
What are you using to dispense? How long did you carbonate the beer? In my experience, if you do a rush job on carbonation, you get big fisheye bubbles and thin head that doesn't hold as opposed to a nice foam cap.

Other things to consider:

-gas leak in syste (bad regulator, bad keg posts/poppet valves)
-low CO2
-dirty lines/tap/glasses not "beer clean"
-detergent/rinse aid residue on bar glasses

BDawg wrote:33F is really cold, even for a Mexican/Vienna lager. In general, the lower the temp, the more the gas will stay in solution. That could appear as if its under carbonated, even if its not. I didn't do the math to convert bars to PSI or volumes of CO2, but I'd generally go 2.5 or so, maybe 2.6 at the highest.
What are you using to dispense? How long did you carbonate the beer? In my experience, if you do a rush job on carbonation, you get big fisheye bubbles and thin head that doesn't hold as opposed to a nice foam cap.

Yeah, I was thinking along these lines too Steve.

Any chance you can post a pic for us to see what you mean by "low" carbonation?

What's a bar? (besides a place to drink beer. lol)

Around here we do PSI, and 30 PSI for 3 days at 52F does the job. Then reduce the pressure to about 7 PSI for serving.

Charlie