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Overcarbonation

K

KernelCrush

I have a keg that I did my normal 20 psi, sample daily til I like it carbonation routine.  The charts never worked for me.  I had this keg hooked up for days more than it should have taken and I got almost nothing.  Then within 12 hours its suddenly waaay overcarbonated.  This keg had a very small headspace cause of a shortened gas tube (used coke corny).  I cant imagine that has any affect, I would think the reverse would be more like it?  The first 5 gallon from the same batch carbonated normally but its a goner now.  This is slated for a competition in 5 days.  Ive been venting every few hours to try to bring it down.  I don't want to remove the post if I don't have to.  Any ideas?
 
Remove some beer (eg a gallon or so) to increase the headspace.  This will allow more CO2 to come out of solution before the headspace pressure equalizes with the beer. 

Also, bringing it to room temperature will allow it to outgas faster.   

I have one port on my manifold that doesn't have a check-valve.  This allows me to measure the equalized pressure inside the keg.  I close the other ports on the manfold and turn the CO2 tank off.  Then I hook up the keg to the gas on the port without the checkvalve.  The PSI it reads should correspond to the CO2 volume/temp/PSI chart.  This should give you an idea of where you are...and how much CO2 you need to remove.  This helps to ensure you don't go too far back the otherway. 
 
Thanks Tom.  Great ideas that make sense.  You are consistent.
 
I drew off a growler last night and then rocked it around & vented several more times.  Got a little shake haze, but much improved.  Thank you both.
 
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