So Im tired of bottling and bought a few 5 gallon kegs. I dont really like the idea of forced carbonation, so can I just add the typical priming sugar I would for a 5 gallon batch and then seal er up and let it condition inside the keg?
Otherwise, why not carbonate in the keg with sugar?
yeah i figured... i hoped maybe i could carb it with the yeast and sugar then purge the tank if/when enough CO2 was produced. It's a hefeweizen so i hoped to keg/bottle it sooner but i guess it's safer to wait.
The Beer Recipator - Home
The carbonation calculator on this page gives you the amount of sugar to add for volume, temperature, and beer style.
The Beer Recipator - Home
The carbonation calculator on this page gives you the amount of sugar to add for volume, temperature, and beer style.
Up until now, I have brewed almost exclusively ales w/ a couple of stouts thrown in. I like to naturally carb. kegs. I use about 1/2 the amount of sugar that I would use for bottling. I use ~3/4 cup to bottle 5 gal. So, between 1/4 & 1/2 cup for kegging. The first couple of times I kegged, I used the same amount of sugar as bottling, and the beers were over carbonated. I typically let my beers set for a min. of a month in secondary and another month in the keg. This also seems to make the sediment cling to the bottom of the vessels and therefore, I get less in my beer except the final pint. Finally, I have been brewing for around 25 years. The methods I use are the ones that I have become comfortable with but not necessarily the best or easiest. I haven't bottled a batch in many years. I have force carbed beers but seem to get more of a creamy head and pin sized effervescence on the naturally carbed ales. Also, to me, the beers taste better after a couple of months aging. These are all just my opinion on bottling/kegging. Now that my sons help me brew, some of each batch will be bottled and we will probably force carb some batches. I'll report back after enough test batches! Luck - Dwain
I typically let my beers set for a min. of a month in secondary and another month in the keg
I'm about to keg my first beer here in a few weeks after bottling several batches. I just got into brewing, so my experience is limited, though I think I can offer some insightful remarks...
When one adds priming sugar to their keg beer, they're adding more fermentable sugars. The yeast remaining in solution work to ferment those sugars as they did during primary fermentation, releasing CO2 in the process. It seems that one would use less priming sugar kegging a beer than in bottling partly because of air space left in the chamber (bottles vs keg); mainly that bottles would have more combined air space than when compared to a keg. For example, if one filled up a bottle half full and another bottle was filled as normal, then one would expect the filled bottle to be better carbonated.
I plan to naturally carbonate my keg beer. Thinking about it now however, I may have a better idea. I'm thinking I might rack my beer from the primary fermentation tank into the keg without any priming sugar. At that point I'll inject CO2 to get rid of the air as much as possible... The beer will then condition in the keg releasing a little bit more CO2. Hows that sound?
Bumping this thread.
I have a blue balls batch (blue moon clone) that is just about ready to keg (about 2 weeks in primary). I normally keg, the catch is that this time I would like to split the batch (5+ gals) between a corny and a case of 16 ounce bottles. What I was hoping to do was to save some time by:
1. Preparing corn sugar solution as if I was bottling the whole batch.
2. Rack from the primary to my keg on top of the sugar solution.
3. After filling the keg (most of the batch), seal and hit it with a few psi of gas, enough to serve.
4. Fill my bottles from the keg (and cap the bottles).
5. Use the remaining part of the batch to refill the keg as much as possible.
6. Remove air from the keg via hitting it with CO2 and venting a couple of times.
After this, I would leave the keg and bottles in the basement elevated (about 65 degrees) or in a bathroom (70+ degrees) to carbonate.
There should be extra head space in the keg, hopefully this will prevent over-carbonating the beer? Alternatively, could I vent it once or twice during the carbonation phase?
That's a good idea.. how did it turn out?
BarnsleyBrewer said:Say if you naturally carb a keg.
Do you have to add co2 to pour a pint when its finished conditioning?
yellowthunda said:i didnt realize putting the same amount of priming sugar in a keg as you would in a bottle will over carbonate it
is there any way to fix this?
If i just depessurize the keg everyday will for a week will it get me back to normal carbonation levels?
copyright1997 said:Not for the first n, but eventually yes. As you serve pints, the liquid that is served will result in lowered pressure in the keg (if you don't have co2 on it at your desired pressure). You don't need a lot of co2, just enough to take the place of the displaced liquid as it gets served.
Yes, vent some and let it sit. Co2 will come out of the liquid and into the headspace until equalized. Repeat over time until you reach the desired level of carbonation.
I sometimes naturally carb so that I can take some of the pre-carbed batch and bottle it. To get the carb level of the keg right, I have a qd with a pressure gauge that I leave on the keg so I can monitor the pressure as it naturally carbs and vent as necessary. I bought it at Williams.
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