If I carbonate at a target volume, will carbonation change when the vessel is cooled?

Hi All,

So I got my kegging setup set-up last night, threw 5 gallons or so of lemonade in the first keg, sealed it at 10 PSIG, purged a couple times, then sat back and had a thinkin' session.

My keg fridge is en-mid-constructus, but I'd like to start the force carbonating now. My target is 2 volumes of CO2, so at room temp of 69*F, I set the pressure on my regulator to 25PSIG and left it sit.

Here's the issue: is it bad for the beverage to carbonate at a different temperature/pressure than it will be served? Just wondering if anyone else does this and how effective it is.

The other question is how long will it take to fully carbonate to 2 volumes? Days? Weeks? I'd prefer not to bruise the beverage by shaking, but will if that's how it needs to be done.

Thanks!
jkpq45

As long as you calculate the pressure/volume correctly, the keg will be fine when you cool it.
A week is enough time.

I had kegging equipment before I had a kegerator, so I did exactly that: Force-carb at cellar temperature. It works fine.

Dispensing carbed beer at cellar temperature is a bit of a hassle, however. I ended up blowing down the keg to 5 PSI or so for serving (thru a picnic tap) into a growler or 2l bottle, then chilling that bottle. Blowing down half or 3/4 empty kegs goes through a lot of CO2.

Then, I bought a kegerator. That simplified a lot of things, even though I'm still dispensing through picnic taps.