BrewMunster

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I am about to use my new co2 tank on my keg in about a week from now, and was wondering what was the best method. How much psi do you use to a 5 gallon batch, and for how long? Are there any other techniques you use to create a great carbonation in the beer?

wild

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This carbonation chart shows how to carbonate your beer in one week.

Good luck,
Wild

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Ender

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I just listened to an old BrewCaster Sunday episode that delt with Doc describing his brewday. Jamil and McDole were also in the studio. Both of them said force carb using a chart like the one posted above. McDole uses 30psi and shakes till he "knows its done" Damn telepathy! Or he hits it with 30 psi for no more than 48 hours, bleds off the pressure and then put it at serving psi for a few days. Jamil does approx the same thing, but also said you can set your serving psi and shake the crap out of it till no more co2 goes in. Take a whole lot more shaking and more time than the 30psi shake, but no overcarb problems.

Of course this is all at serving temp too.

Ender

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I'm Smelling a lot of IF coming offa this plan

malkore

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Then there's my preferred approach: set the psi per the CO2 volume per the chart above, and leave it for 7-10 days. Assuming you have your tap lines balanced for the serving psi, you'll have a properly carb'd beer in about a week with no shaking or real potential for over-carbing.

there's several perfectly correct ways to force carb a keg.

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Malkore
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uglygoat

Recipes 

i don't like shaking it...

let it settle out.

30 psi @ as cold as you can stomach it for an ale, for 24 hrs seems to work. then i drop the pressure down to serving and w00t!!!! two days max. i let me ales sit in primary for four weeks before even looking to keg them.

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BrewMunster

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I dont really understand how to read the chart. What do all of the number represent? Which of those numbers in the temperature line would i want to pick?

stever

Recipes 

The temps are on the left and the psi to apply is across the top. Find the temp of your fridge on the left and follow it across to the desired PSI, then go up to find the right psi to use. The temperature of your beer affects how much C02 it will absorb, that is why you have to find what temp you be carbing at to get the proper PSI. If you read the text you will know that the chart wants you to do this for 4-5 days to reach the prefect carbonation levels.

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Sea

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This is my preferred method. Not only is there no risk of overcarbonation, but all of your beers will benefit from another week of aging!

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Corrupt Brewers

kenche

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+1

This is my preferred approach. I doing my secondary conditioning in the keg, and prefer not to shake things up too much.

BrewMunster

Recipes 

Is there a taste difference between forced carbonating and priming the beer with sugar?