Carbing instruction from the homebrewstore

Ok i took the plunge and bought some kegging gear. I got some basic instructions. Refridgerate keg overnight - pressurize chilled keg to 30PSI - rock back and forth for 3 mins with gasline connected the whole time - disconnect gas and leave in fridge atleast ne more day. When ready to serve release pressure and repressurize to 4psi - serve.

Is this an ok method? And can I remove the gas after pressurizing it to 4psi and or do i just leave the tank connected? Or does it matter?

Thanks

Serving pressures will vary, depends on your carb level, how long your beverage hose is, and its diameter. There is no "one size fits all". I serve most of my beers at 10psi, so to me 4psi seems really low.

There are a million ways to carb a keg...

I pressurize to 30psi, I dont rock it or shake it. I let it sit on the gas for 24 hours. I then turn it down to serving pressure and release the excess pressure. Viola, I serve.

They skipped step one.. age beer appropriately. Then chill keg.

Yes, rocking the keg with cold beer in it and 30psi connected will get you very close. However, the one thing I'd recommend the following day is setting your regulator to the pressure that represents the carb level you want to maintain based on the charts. It's probably going to be between 10-14 psi. Vent the keg, then apply the gas disconnect at that new pressure. You shouldn't have to do anything else.

+1 well said Bobby- If you don't vent and set pressure you'll need to adjust it again and again. I just switch off my gas, set, vent, open up to new pressure.

Don't forget to purge the keg several times after you seat the lid. Have to get all that nasty air out.

I pressurize to 30psi for two days, then drop it back to about 15psi for the rest of the week.

As mentioned above, it seems everybody has their own method.

The Pol said:

I pressurize to 30psi, I dont rock it or shake it. I let it sit on the gas for 24 hours. I then turn it down to serving pressure and release the excess pressure. Viola, I serve.

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I must be doing something wrong because there is no way my beer is fully carbonated after 36 hours @ 30 psi. After 36 hours I purge the keg and dial down my regulator to the serving pressure. I do rack to the keg and put it in the fridge so it takes some time to come up to temp maybe that is why it takes longer?

Yes... the 24 hours will only work with a keg at serving temp. I generally cold crash, so when I rack to my keg, the beer is already 35-40F. I then put it on the gas in the fridge and 24 hours is all it needs at 30 PSI at serving temp. I then turn off the gas, release the pressure, then dial my regulator up to 10psi to serve, and turn the gas back on.

I have done all of my brews this way, and never had a problem with carbonation after 24 hours.

The Pol said:

Yes... the 24 hours will only work with a keg at serving temp. I generally cold crash, so when I rack to my keg, the beer is already 35-40F. I then put it on the gas in the fridge and 24 hours is all it needs at 30 PSI at serving temp. I then turn off the gas, release the pressure, then dial my regulator up to 10psi to serve, and turn the gas back on.

I have done all of my brews this way, and never had a problem with carbonation after 24 hours.

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OK cool maybe I will try to up it to 48hours since I don't have the room to cold crash. I need to experiment some.

You could just keg the beer, let it cool overnight, and then hook up the gas for 24 hours.

Ok i am new to the kegging thing too, when you rack to your keg and you are going to force carb do you still add priming sugar? and how much

Does anyone else out there hook the gas (first) to the "out" port? Hit it at 30PSI for 24 hrs, vent, drop to serving psi and change gas to "in" port? I have been told by LHBS it will take half the time to carb if you do the gas to the "out" port first.

JKHomebrew said:

Ok i am new to the kegging thing too, when you rack to your keg and you are going to force carb do you still add priming sugar? and how much

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No, that is the purpose of force carbing to eliminate the longer wait time of carbing with sugar. Plus, it this way you are not adding any non-malt sugars to your beer.

Sparky said:

Does anyone else out there hook the gas (first) to the "out" port? Hit it at 30PSI for 24 hrs, vent, drop to serving psi and change gas to "in" port? I have been told by LHBS it will take half the time to carb if you do the gas to the "out" port first.

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I have heard this as well, I would be interested in hearing an answer as well.

Ceedubya said:

I have heard this as well, I would be interested in hearing an answer as well.

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Wow that is interesting.

If I hook up my gas to the GAS port... it takes 24 hours at 30PSI. It only takes 24 hours to carb a beer to 2.5 volumes of CO2 at 30psi while putting it on the GAS port already.

So if your LHBS sayes it will take half the time if you hook it up to the liquid OUT port, that would be 12 hours.

Sparky said:

Does anyone else out there hook the gas (first) to the "out" port? Hit it at 30PSI for 24 hrs, vent, drop to serving psi and change gas to "in" port? I have been told by LHBS it will take half the time to carb if you do the gas to the "out" port first.

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It's absolute rubbish. Bubbling the CO2 up through the beer may speed the process up but we're talking extremely minor gains here. I personally just pressurise to beer temperature +4PSI and keep it at that until it remains constant. It usually takes 3-4 days before it stops absorbing gas, at that point it's basically ready to serve though you may wish to condition it for longer of course.

And my apologies, being UK we're now degrees celcius so the above refers to 19c room temperature = 23PSI carbonating pressure.

Hooking to the out port doesn't help on normal dip tubes. The thought is that the gas will "bubble" into the beer and absorb faster, but the bubbles from the gas out tube are so big they just quickly float to the top. Basically your going to end up with X lbs of CO2 with a contact area of the top surface of the beer. For the out tube to do anything you would need a stone or something down there to produce lots of tiny bubbles that would spend time in the beer.

I have a Hefe in the kegorator. I force carbed at over 20 PSI as Hefe's are supposed to have a higher Co2 volume. When I dispense at 20 PSI I get foamy foamy mofo.

If I dial that down to 10 PSI or so to serve, will the Hefe slowly drop down to 10 PSI equvalent over time? Does the Co2 in the beer equalize back into the headspace, effectively screwing up my beautiful force carb job?

Up until now I had pale ales etc. which I sat/forgot at 11 PSI, so this is a new issue for me.

Thanks

Yeah, you cant simply increase the PSI if you want more volumes of CO2. There is a point when your beer line no longer offers enough resistance and it will be foam when it comes out of the faucet. You need to dial it down, or get longer beer line.

If you turn it down, the beer will eventually equalize yes, at 10PSI...

To carb at about 21psi, youd get 3.5 volumes of CO2, good for a heffe, but you'll need about 8' of 3/16" ID beer line (you probably have hlaf that). OR place your faucet higher.

This is what is commonly referred to as "balancing" your draft system.