Any Home-brewers?

[MileHighGrowler]

(01-25-2021, 02:57 AM)Forever Spinning Vinyl Wrote: What is your system for carbonating a keg? I've had very consistent results in every stage of my brewing EXCEPT for carbonation. I've kind of settled on 12 lbs pressure for a week to 10 days as it's been the most consistent but that is still mostly hit and sometimes miss. My neighbors only bottle and they've nailed the carbonation every time that I've had a bottle.

It's because of those neighbors that I've made my first American Hefeweizen after over 100 batches of White Labs Bavarian and Hefeweizen IV. The other 30 to 40 batches of Hefeweizens that I've made were a few Witbiers and the rest were Wyeast batches that I don't like very much because of an aftertaste that bugs me. I went a few years of not using Wyeast and tried it again a couple of years ago wondering "maybe my tastes have changed?". Nope. Still bugs me.

There are some charts out there on getting the right volume of carbonation I've used as a guideline for specialty styles (if it needs to be higher or lower than the typical mid-point).  Consistency is never really an issue I've had, though.  One thing I did notice was that again, altitude played a little difference in my rig when I moved here.  I also get a little fluctuation in the summer vs winter when it's warmer or colder in the garage and changes the actual tap temperature (not the temp inside the keezer).  But I've been kegging at this point for about 10 years so don't really give it much thought unless a friend asks me for help because they're getting too much foam or wrong carb levels.  

I started with WL when I started using liquid yeast.  A buddy swore by Wyeast so I tried them but didn't like the smack packs.  Had a lot of issues with them.  I'll go WY of WL is out of stock for a style I need, but prefer WL whenever I can get it.  I was just reading about a new yeast strain (Omega Lutra Kveik) to warm ferment lagers which I find super intriguing and want to check out, but I haven't brewed since October so not sure when I'll get to it.  Maybe I'll try a summer lager with it.