apollner

Recipes 

Hey.
I appreciate any feedback provided here.

Kegged my first beer today. I've read a lot of the kegging / force carb threads and even some articles. Here is my confusion:

1. Do I set the disired PSI per the temp I'll store the beer at (fridge about 40degrees) or the temp the beer was when carbonating (about 66 because it was fermenting in a basement).

2. Assuming I set it to PSI per the fridge temp, how long should I leave it at that PSI?

3. Once full carbonated, can I disconnect the CO2 tank or do I need that PSI applied for the life of the beer in that keg? For example, I may enjoy a glass of beer from that keg now and then here and there and if I have companies. Once the CO2 is forced and it's disolved in the beer, d I need to keep the PSI on?

Thanks for all of your help. This has been somewhat confusing and hectic for me.

AP

Yooper

Recipes 

Set it according to the temperature where you are carbonating. Carbonation is a function of temperature, pressure and time.

Once it's carbed, you can take it off of the gas until you pour a beer. Then you need to keep it on the gas so that the gas can go in and replace the vacated headspace.

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Pivovar_Koucky

Recipes 

I mostly agree with Yooper except 1 thing, if you carb up a 65 deg. F beer at 25 psi or whatever, chill it down to 40 deg. F overnight, then drink some of it the next day, it will be appropriately carbed. If you leave it under 25 psi for a week and come back to it, it will almost certainly be overcarbed. I'd say if you are going to store for a long time (days-weeks), you probably want to use the pressure at the storage temperature.

ZenBrew

Recipes 

I like to stick the kegged beer in the fridge for 24 hours to get it chilled. Then I set the regulator to 35 to 40 psi for 24 to 48 hours. This gets it carbed fast with no shaking.

Then I turn psi down to storage psi for the fridge temp. I leave it set there for the life of the beer. The beer should always be under pressure.

Although, at first I would turn of the co2 to make sure I had no leaks. If the co2 is off and the pressure in keg and regulator goes away I have a leak. once I got rid of leaks I leave the pressure on all the time.

Bernie3761

Recipes 

Do you leave it at room temp or return to the fridge for those 24-48 hrs?

ZenBrew

Recipes 

Leave it in the fridge. Co2 is absorbed into water the cooler that liquids is.