Carbonating A Keg Without A Guage

IPeeAle · 09-03-2009, 11:14 PM

Hi there,

I'm new to the forum and to the whole thing. I have just started my first brew. I am planning on a two-stage fermentation and then kegging it.

I have read a lot of the excellent info on here about using CO2 to carbonate the beer in the keg but I have just a basic plastic keg with a valve on the top and a canister of CO2 and so have no way of knowing what psi I have in there. Am I better off priming with sugar or just guessing at it with the CO2 canister to carbonate my beer?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Jud · 09-04-2009, 12:17 AM

crank it up to 25 shake it let it sit a minute you will hear the co2 transfere the repeat. there is a posting somewhere on BrewBoard -> Beer FAQ. a few beers into it right now cant find it.

BreWirfel · 09-04-2009, 12:25 AM

he will not know where 25psi is without a gauge.....

I would say to prime, and use the low pressure co2 to dispense.

what kind of keg do you have that is plastic?? can it handle the higher (30psi) pressure most people use to force carb??

rsmith179 · 09-04-2009, 12:35 AM

You should be able to run CO2 from the cartridge at a constant pressure if not serving. Because of this, you can "technically" force carb using the 8 gram cartridge. It would take around a week or so in the fridge to carb up correctly as your regulator is probably only set to 12-15 psi for serving. You can also naturally carb the beer by adding priming sugar if you want.

Here's a link to the "Tap-a-draft" system at MoreBeer. There's instructions regarding carbing towards the bottom. Not sure if you have this exact system, but they should work kind of the same way.

**Yuri_Rage** · 09-04-2009, 12:36 AM

You need a regulator (most of them have a pressure gauge attached to one port). DO NOT connect the keg directly to the CO2 bottle without a regulator. It will fail spectacularly.

Jud · 09-04-2009, 12:37 AM

Brewirfw, my bad on that, though he had a regulator. Should have read! I remember hearing corny's release valve is somewhere around 35psi. Get a regulator would be your best bet. Look at used resteraunt stores. They sometimes will cut you a deal, cause you are not stocking a store.

**ajf** · 09-04-2009, 01:10 AM

I used to use those plastic kegs and they worked well for English style bitters which have very low carbonation rates. Mine used a small cartridge (about 12 - 16 grams) as opposed to a CO2 tank. As Yuri said, don't try connecting a tank to the barrel without a regulator, but the little cartridges are fine. I believe there was a built in regulator in the keg that could handle the low pressure generated by the cartridge, but it couldn't handle the pressure from a full size tank.
As for force carbonating with the cartridges, don't even think about it. First, they don't generate enough pressure, and even if they did, it would cost you a small fortune to inject enough CO2 into each keg. Priming works just fine.

-a.

IPeeAle · 09-04-2009, 10:07 AM

Hi

Thanks for all you responses. AJF, you're right, it is just cartridge and a simple plastic keg from the LHBS, but then I am looking to brew English style bitters.

I will prime with sugar. Does it matter what type of sugar?

Presumably then the blasts of CO2 that I will squirt into the barrel as I empty it will just keep the beer better by keeping out the O2 and help force the beer out under a bit of pressure? Is that what it's for?

Thanks