Friend's birthday beer/party across town/first time kegging

Long story short, I have a brown ale in primary for a buddy's 30th b-day party the first week of January. I now have the capability to keg, but haven't kegged yet. I need some help from you guys to set a timeline and get a process to get this beer kegged, carbed, and drinkable by the 7th of January.

Being that I've never kegged before and that this beer will be my first "party beer", if you will, I'm concerned about the level of cabonation. I don't want to give the wrong first impression to a large group of people. It could be embarassing.

The wort started actively fermenting on the 11th of November. As of right now, the plan is five weeks of primary, followed by one week of cold crashing, followed by a two week carbonation period. My concern is that I’ve never actually had a target “volume of CO2”, I’ve always just used ¾ cup of corn sugar to 5 gallons of beer with pretty good results thus far. What’s the process for determining the desired volume of CO2 when you’ve never personnally had anything to gauge the scale by? If it helps, I'd like it to be as carbonated as a Dead Guy Ale.

My second concern is transporting the beer to the party without shaking it all up. Would it be better to take it to his shop a couple days early, with the kererator and CO2 and let it sit?

I truly appreciate anything you can offer. I'll try to keep you up to date on the process and I'll for sure post some pics of both the beer and the party.

John

The best thing would be to get it all kegged up and clarified, then transfer from one keg to another using a jumper hose.

Pour a pint or two away to start, to get rid of the sediment on the bottom.

Without disturbing the keg, start the transfer, under pressure, into the second keg, venting as needed to allow flow.

This should prevent your beer from going all cloudy during transport. You have lots of time to do most styles.

Unfortunately, I only have one keg at this time. If funds allow, I will try to get a second one but I really doubt it'll happen.

This is what I would recommend.

Set your pressure to 11PSI and let the beer carb up in the keg for a week or two. Pour a couple of pints before you transport it to remove the sediment. Transport the keg earlier in the day as gently as you can (I strap the keg upright in my Jeep). Setup the keg on gas and let it settle for a hour or so then pour another pint or so.

The cold crashing before racking to keg will help and yes, if you can get it to his shop to finish conditioning (charging on gas), that would be better. The longer it sits in a cold environment, the more it will have settled.

Be sure to keep the gas adjusted for proper pour (11 PSI with Approx 10' of the small diameter fluid line) and pour a pint or two before serving.

Don't worry, it will be fine as long as the people aren't expecting crystal clear beer like they get from Miller/Coors... It should be pretty good or close to with a bit of care.

Once you get it carbed up I would just bring it over the night before and keep it cold

Set your pressure to 11PSI and let the beer carb up in the keg for a week or two. Pour a couple of pints before you transport it to remove the sediment. Transport the keg earlier in the day as gently as you can (I strap the keg upright in my Jeep). Setup the keg on gas and let it settle for a hour or so then pour another pint or so.

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this is what i would do and my birthday is January 7th also