Carbonation problems

[loftybush]

I'm doing something wrong with my setup, but can't figure out whats gone wrong. My kegged beer always comes out with a fine head, but when the beer settles there is no bubbles at all coming out. I'll describe what I'm doing and hopefully someone can point out what I'm doing wrong.

So I don't have a kegerator so I'm carbing and serving at room temperature. The beer line goes through a chiller to cool the beer (which works fine). So because I'm carbing at room temperature, I set the regulator to around 35psi (worked out roughly from this table http://www.kegerators.com/carbonation-table.php )
With one keg I added the co2, shook / rolled it around repeatedly for a while to get the co2 in quicker, and then left it at the pressure for a week. The other keg just got left on at that pressure the whole time.
When I go to serve, I vent the gas from the keg, turn the regulator to around 5psi and serve, I get a big head on the beer, but no bubbles when it settles?

My suspicions are:
1) that I haven't left the beer long enough, i.e a week is long enough to carb a beer in a fridge, maybe longer is necessary for room temp carbing.
2) I've only got about 3 feet of beer line + whatever length is in the chiller of 3/8" beer line, which could cause foaming, but would it cause the lack of bubbly beer, I dont know.

Please help, I've invited people over for beers on the weekend and they wont approve of flat beer. Thanks!!

[Covey]

While your waiting for the brains for the forum to arrive i give you my 2p, what PSI are you leaving keg at after force carbing (which AFAIK will work best if the beer is super cold). My advice would be get a bin some ice and water and keep it at around 30psi for a week, you never said what kind of beer you have in your keg so if its a larger your going to need to chill the beer to get the co2 in. at warm temps your going to have to go really high on the PSI to carb larger style.3ft of line should be ok

[johnrm]

Big head and flat beer sounds like over carbonation.

[loftybush]

While your waiting for the brains for the forum to arrive i give you my 2p, what PSI are you leaving keg at after force carbing (which AFAIK will work best if the beer is super cold). My advice would be get a bin some ice and water and keep it at around 30psi for a week, you never said what kind of beer you have in your keg so if its a larger your going to need to chill the beer to get the co2 in. at warm temps your going to have to go really high on the PSI to carb larger style.3ft of line should be ok

I'm leaving it at 35psi after the force carbing.
I have a wheat been and an IPA, both around 4.5-5.5%.

[loftybush]

Big head and flat beer sounds like over carbonation.

Ya I'm not sure whether its over or under carbed. Should just get a fridge and simplify things.
I could try reducing on down to 25 for a few days and turn the other up another bit and see which one improves?

[ColMack]

Can you leave it outside overnight to cool it down?  That way at least you might eliminate the foaming and be able to tell how carbed it really is.  Weather's perfect for outdoor cooling.

[loftybush]

Can you leave it outside overnight to cool it down?  That way at least you might eliminate the foaming and be able to tell how carbed it really is.  Weather's perfect for outdoor cooling.

I can try that tonight alright. What psi would you recommend setting it to overnight?

[Rossa]

What temp is your beer at?

Check out these

http://www.nationalhomebrewclub.com/wiki/doku.php?id=beginner_kegging_guide

and

http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator/carbonation.html

[loftybush]

What temp is your beer at?

Check out these

http://www.nationalhomebrewclub.com/wiki/doku.php?id=beginner_kegging_guide

and

http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator/carbonation.html

My beer is around 20 degrees. I probably have it set a bit high at 35psi, but it should still be in the weiss beer range even at that. I'll roll it down to around 27psi and see if that helps.

Thanks

[loftybush]

So it turns out it wasn't over-carbed.
I vented some co2, and reduced the pressure down a bit. It reduced the head but the beer is pretty flat now.
I wish I had room for a fridge right now!!

[rukkus]

I went through the exact same thing, i eventually ended up with a fridge