DIY Corny Keg Carbonation Lid

Toymaker said:

How well does it work?
Is the aerator heavy enough to sink to the bottom, or does it float?
Do you do anything special to carbonate? Shake, swirl, lay down, stand up?

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JuanMoore said:

Nice job! I just secured the tubing to the gas diptube for mine since I'm too cheap to buy an extra gas post.

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bbentley40 said:

Ok, please forgive my ignorance on this.. but what is the purpose? Why does hooking the gas up to the gas in not work just as well?

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JuanMoore said:

By breaking the gas up into millions of tiny bubbles and releasing it from the bottom of the keg, the surface area of the beer exposed to the gas is increased exponentially. This means you can accurately carbonate a beer in less than a day as opposed to 2 weeks. While there are other ways to carbonate a beer quickly without a carb stone, they often result in excess carbonic acid and rarely result in the exact desired carbonation level.

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Adeering said:

But you are guessing and have the chance for over carbing, for less parts ( diffuser stone and tubing) you can connect to the already gas in port

A possible benefit to the lid is its not keg specific, so if you have two taps you only need two diffuser stone/lid assemblies

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CidahMastah said:

Not to be a debbie downer but that seems like a lot of parts to throw at a corny that already has a perfectly fine gas/liquid post.

I can carb a corny to near perfect carb in ~ 24hours by simply taking a room temp corny and tossing it in the keezer. Then put the PSI up to 55 for ~24hours (no shaking). Then kill the gas, burp and reset PSI to serving (say 12psi). The keg is ready to go and perfectly balanced in the next couple days, but near perfect carb for drinking that day. just sayin'

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kevink said:

I do this too and it works great. The problem with any quick carbing option is that the beer is never really ready even after a week on the gas. The improvement from one to two weeks is huge, so I don't even drink very much until its been kegged for at least two weeks. Ymmv of course.

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kevink said:

Wait. So you're bottling after you carb in the keg? Why?

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CidahMastah said:

My co brewer bottles all of his stuff because he doesn't have a kegerator yet. I came up with this method early on because I would hear Wednesday that he wanted to bottle Friday. So I needed a way to get it carbed and stable for bottling in a hurry. This method is my golden ticket for that.

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CidahMastah said:

When a keg kicks I usually always have one in the pipeline I have been dying to try. So I boost it to get in on active duty ASAP. 5 taps and I still wish I had more. Which is silly in a way for how much I actually consume.

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kevink said:

Why doesn't he just use priming sugar?

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kevink said:

If you have a keg in the pipeline, can't you just have it hooked up to the gas and carb it at serving pressure so it's ready when you are? I could understand if your kegreator is usually full and your kegs in the pipeline had to sit outside of it.

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kevink said:

as soon as I keg I hit it with around 35-40 psi for a day, turn it down to serving pressure for 5-6 days, drink a few over the next week, then it's usually ready to go.

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CidahMastah said:

My method isn't guessing any more than this method is (in fact it is less guessing since you have to keep turning the PSI up each hour).

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JuanMoore said:

I've never cared for the carbonic acid bite I seem to detect for beers that have been burst carbed by shaking or high pressures. I don't seem to get that with the carb stone. It usually fades and becomes unnoticeable after a week or two for me, but I've heard others say that their beer that was overcarbed using a burst carb method never completely lost it.



I completely disagree. As I mentioned in my first post in this thread, you can also use the set and forget method with a carb stone. You've learned your system well enough to prevent overcarbonation, which by your own admission means you're stopping short of full carbonation and letting it take a few days at serving pressure to get the rest of the way there. With the carb stone it's perfectly carbed to match the serving pressure every time, not slightly overcarbed, not slightly undercarbed, but perfectly carbed. This is true for any carbonation level or temperature, and there's no worries about when to turn the pressure down. There's absolutely no way to overcarbonate using a carb stone because the pressure never gets over serving pressure. What happens if you forget or get distracted and it stays at 50psi for an extra day? What if you want to change your serving temp or carbonation level? What about other people with a slightly different serving temp, serving pressure or desired carbonation level than you? Sure they can eventually get their system dialed in like you have, but it's going to take some trial and error (guessing) to get there. I'm not discounting your method or it's merits, but to say that it's less guessing than using a carb stone is ridiculous.

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John_FL said:

Maybe a dumb question. Can I just use the cheap stones intended for an aquarium aerator?

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bruin_ale said:

Do you have a setup like this for each keg, or do you open the keg and retrieve the stone when you want to carb the next batch? I'm specifically interested in what Juan is doing, since I don't really care to modify my keg lid and spend a bunch of money on parts if I don't have to (although, having a separate lid setup like this might be the answer to my question as it'd be easier to just swap it out with a regular lid when the beer is carbed).

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barryfine said:

I force carbonate without a stone and have gotten great results! I don't see any need to pump the gas up so high though. I just use the following chart to dial in the exact force carb pressure for the temperature of the beer. I've bottled after 3 days and the carbonation was just right.

http://www.kegerators.com/carbonation-table.php

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JuanMoore said:

They usually have larger than ideal holes, may not be food safe, and are difficult to clean and sanitize. The SS stones aren't that much more expensive, I think I paid $10.



I just pull it out after the beer is carbed. With the silicone tubing it's not too bad, but I imagine it would be a huge PITA with vinyl tubing. I still use the set and forget for a lot of my beers. The carb stone is nice for hop forward beers that I prefer to drink young though.



That's how I carb a lot of my beers, but it usually takes 10-14 days, not 3. I suppose if you're shooting for 1.5 vol of carbonation it might only take 3 days.

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Using a Carbonation Table Pressure Chart
Published On: Friday, November 21, 2008

Force Carbonating your Home Brew

Carbonating your home-made beer can be a little tricky. This handy carbonation table lists PSI (Pressure per Square Inch) against keg temperature to give you a quick reference guide for carbonating you ales over a three to five day period. This slow forced-carbonation process is the best suited for having foam-free home brew. This chart is color coded to reflect low, mid, and high levels of bubbliness, according to beer type (see key below). There is a faster method for force carbonating ale, however, the quick method tends to make the beer over-foam when first tapped. We will discuss both methods.

When utilizing the "Handy-Dandy Slow-Forced Carbonation Table featuring Pressure vs. Temperature in Degrees Fahrenheit", first consider the level of carbonation desired in the home brew you are making. Most brewers have a preference on either side of the standard carbonation levels, so use the lower side of PSI if you prefer a smoother ale, and the higher side if you prefer a bubblier brew. This table shows different volumes of CO2, based on the following ratio: 1 portion of beer containing 1 portion of CO2 is 1 volume CO2, and 1 portion of beer containing 3 portions of CO2 is considered 3 volumes.

Practically speaking, 1 volume of CO2 is too little for most tastes (blue region), and 4 volumes is too much (red region). Stouts and porters are on the lower side (dark region), ambers, lagers, and most other beers fall in the middle (green) region, with lambics and other brightly effervescent ales rounding out the higher levels of carbonation (the yellow region).

CO2 always infuses into beer more effectively at lower temperatures. Since most kegerators operate at a level of 30 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit, you will notice that the CO2 volumes on the green region are emboldened and italicized. This is to help draw your eye to the area of the table that you will most likely be using for force-carbonating most ales.

The quicker method of forced carbonation, is best saved for emergencies where you need to get beer ready fast. By really fast, I mean ‘overnight instead of 3-5 days’, not ‘a few hours’, although you can probably get by with 5 hours if you modify the technique slightly. The ‘quick and dirty’ method requires you to have an extra long gas line going to your keg. Also, you must chill your keg as much as possible. The idea is that by stirring the solution of CO2 and beer, the two elements will mix more readily. After chilling your keg, hook up the CO2 and pump the regulator up to about 30 PSI.

Now, lay the keg on the deck and roll it back and forth. Make sure that your CO2 bottle is secure and won’t tip over. You will hear more and more CO2 entering into the solution as you agitate it. Do this for about 2-3 minutes, then disconnect the CO2 and let the keg sit and the CO2 settle down into the mixture as it is chilled once again. One to two hours later, go back to the keg and let off the excess pressure. Reduce the pressure to the proper amount of PSI for the beer you are kegging, according to the "Handy-Dandy Slow-Forced Carbonation Table featuring Pressure vs. Temperature in Degrees Fahrenheit". Let the beer settle now, overnight, in a chilled location. In the morning, the beer should be ready to drink.

If you are in a real rush to drink your brew (i.e., you can’t reschedule the wedding reception/bachelor party for later), you will have foam trouble, but you can still use the ‘quick and dirty’ method. You will still have to chill the keg of beer both before and after you apply the technique - by lowering the high pressure of the CO2 during mixing to about 23 PSI, you will improve your chances regarding over foaming. Try and make sure it has at least 3 hours to settle, though. One hour after the forced mixing, and two hours after the pressure normalization.

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CidahMastah said:

Seeing as how commercial breweries don't use set and forget, rather a dialed in boost type carb method I find this carbonic acid thing a little curious.

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JuanMoore said:

AFAIK most commercial breweries carbonate with a carbonation stone. This is sometimes done inline while the beer is being transferred to the brite tank or serving tank, but more commonly in the brite tank or serving tank with the stone secured to one of the ports in the bottom of the tank. The only ones I know of that don't use a carb stone are <3bbl production capacity. Some commercial breweries use spunding valves to naturally carbonate the beer near the end of fermentation. This is essentially the same as the set and forget method, except the CO2 is coming from the yeast instead of from an outside source.

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wailingguitar said:

Let's say your brite tank is at 40F, you might set your relief to bleed off at 13psi and put 30 pounds of pressure on the stone. The gas will diffuse through the beer fairly rapidly and the head pressure will keep a certain amount in the beer. Depending on a few factors, a tank could be carbed up in two or three hours.

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