"keg conditioning" possible?

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chemman14

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Is it possible to naturally carbonate a beer in the keg? As in adding the priming sugar to the keg and racking on top of that and then sealing giving you the advantages of bottle conditioning with the ease of keg dispersion?
 
I think the only benefit would be saving a little CO2 from the bottle. Naturally carbonating in the keg is going to leave some extra yeast at the bottom too meaning a few pulls before you get to the good stuff.

As far as "conditioning" goes. I think that if you prime the keg and let the yeast do their thing it sits on the yeast longer and conditions. If you don't filter your beer and force carb it, and leave it in the keg for the same amount of time as the naturally carbed keg I think they would be equally conditioned. In fact the force carbed keg may be more conditioned because there isn't nearly as much reproduction and the yeast do not have to clean up after the re-fermentation. Might be worth a side by side comparison.
 
CodeRage said:
I think the only benefit would be saving a little CO2 from the bottle. Naturally carbonating in the keg is going to leave some extra yeast at the bottom too meaning a few pulls before you get to the good stuff.

As far as "conditioning" goes. I think that if you prime the keg and let the yeast do their thing it sits on the yeast longer and conditions. If you don't filter your beer and force carb it, and leave it in the keg for the same amount of time as the naturally carbed keg I think they would be equally conditioned. In fact the force carbed keg may be more conditioned because there isn't nearly as much reproduction and the yeast do not have to clean up after the re-fermentation. Might be worth a side by side comparison.
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i know you get smaller lighter bubbles with natural carbonation vs forced carbonation. Thats the main reason why I would want to do it.
 
I have not split a batch to test the same recipe side by side, but I carb both ways and can tell little difference in bubble size. I have been using oats or barley in all the recent recipes though, which makes for a creamy head I guess.

I have been trying to get more exact amounts for priming in a keg. I have learned it is less than bottling an equal volume.

I over carbed a couple of batches before I realized that!
 
You want to use 1/2 the amount you would use for bottling.

We've always natural carbonated our kegs and it works great. Usually we boil up 2.5 oz of sugar with water, toss that in the keg, rack beer and seal. We hit it with some CO2 to seal the lid and set it aside for a few weeks.
 
Nurmey said:
You want to use 1/2 the amount you would use for bottling.

We've always natural carbonated our kegs and it works great. Usually we boil up 2.5 oz of sugar with water, toss that in the keg, rack beer and seal. We hit it with some CO2 to seal the lid and set it aside for a few weeks.
Click to expand...

thats exactly what I wanted to do (once I go to a keg setup). It seems to me like this would produce a better finished product
 
Thanks Nurmey... That is exactly the amount I was planning on tossing in the next one.

I find it easy for my pipeline kegs. I don't know about better, but it is easy.
 
Pipeline and ease is the reason we do it. We plan ahead and always have plenty of beer on hand so leaving a keg to do its thing is just the simplest way to go for us.
 
Nurmey said:
Pipeline and ease is the reason we do it. We plan ahead and always have plenty of beer on hand so leaving a keg to do its thing is just the simplest way to go for us.
Click to expand...

and you really need to let a keg do its thing any way. any beer younger than 3 weeks is going to taste green. There is no if ands or buts about that
 
Nurmey said:
Pipeline and ease is the reason we do it. We plan ahead and always have plenty of beer on hand so leaving a keg to do its thing is just the simplest way to go for us.
Click to expand...

Simplicity indeed. All this while I was messing around with DME to prime my kegs with. Does the 2.5 oz of sugar work for any particular beer, or is there a range of styles you would recommend?
 
chemman14 said:
i know you get smaller lighter bubbles with natural carbonation vs forced carbonation. Thats the main reason why I would want to do it.
Click to expand...

I've never noticed a difference, but you can do it either way with good results.


grove said:
Simplicity indeed. All this while I was messing around with DME to prime my kegs with. Does the 2.5 oz of sugar work for any particular beer, or is there a range of styles you would recommend?
Click to expand...

That amount will work for any style- if it's a bit over or undercarbed, you can raise the pressure or lower the pressure once it's in the kegerator to get it just right.
 

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