First time kegging and force carbing, any tips?

My kegs are due to arrive this afternoon according to UPS. I have my hoses, regulator and CO2 standing by. Any tips or advice on these first two kegs? One is an Amber Ale the other is a Porter.

Hit em with at least 30lbs to seal good. I use a sprayer with soapy water to check for leaks. Some gasket lube is good to solve small leaks. Reduce the pressure once they are sealed good. Set to serving pressure and forget works always. Force carbing is iffy but I do it sometimes.

I force carb by setting the regulator to 30 psi and shaking the keg for 2 minutes. Then I pop the pressure relief valve and set the regulator to 12 psi. I drink a sample and then wait another day before drinking it. It isn't perfect but it usually is by day 3 or 4 this way.

lschiavo said:

Hit em with at least 30lbs to seal good. I use a sprayer with soapy water to check for leaks. Some gasket lube is good to solve small leaks. Reduce the pressure once they are sealed good. Set to serving pressure and forget works always. Force carbing is iffy but I do it sometimes.

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This is what I do. Works great everytime. Gasket lube is your friend!

ive tried the shaking thing 5 times and it didnt work. i dont know why it didnt work but i ended up just set the pressure according to the homebrew book i have (its based on temp and style) and waitied 2 weeks.

best advice is patience!

I'm fairly new to kegging too, with just two batches brewed, kegged and nearly gone (so can't be too bad). I think I went overkill on these first two; I both gave 'em 30 psi/rocked them for 15 min, AND left them at 30 for two days and reduced to 12 psi. They were pretty darned foamy; a gently-tilted pitcher would be 3/4 head, so took some patience to serve (and filling a growler was nearly impossible). I think for the next keg, I'll forego the rocking and just do two days at 30 and see how it comes out.

I have a sidebar question about carbonating on- and off-line...does the rule of thumb of 2 days at 30, then reducing to 12 apply if the keg isn't hooked up to the gas? I have a dual-tap kegerator, with 2 active kegs on; if I want to have another keg on deck and ready to drink, will giving it 30 and then taking it off the gas require more than 2 days to get to drinking carb? I'm no scientist, but I imagine that when the gas goes into solution, the "head" pressure will decrease...true?

Geoff said:

I have a sidebar question about carbonating on- and off-line...does the rule of thumb of 2 days at 30, then reducing to 12 apply if the keg isn't hooked up to the gas? I have a dual-tap kegerator, with 2 active kegs on; if I want to have another keg on deck and ready to drink, will giving it 30 and then taking it off the gas require more than 2 days to get to drinking carb? I'm no scientist, but I imagine that when the gas goes into solution, the "head" pressure will decrease...true?

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I'm not a scientist either, but as I understand it when you pull a keg off gas it's carb level remains more or less where it was when you pulled it off the gas. What gets the C02 into the beer is the constant level of pressure on the surface of the beer. A little bit will be absorbed, but not an appreciable amount. If you want to get the C02 in faster you need to either increase pressure at the regulator or increase the surface area of the head of the beer which you can do by shaking the keg.

I also have just two tap handles to work with at a time. When I have a beer ready to keg and I know I won't have a serving tap available for a couple weeks I'll add some corn sugar to get some natural carbonation from the yeast at room temperature. Essentially it's bottle conditioning in a really big bottle. Then when one of my serving kegs kicks I can hook the new beer and it will already be carbed, I only have to wait for the new keg to get cold. I'll usually shoot to have it just a touch undercarbed since it seems to be easier to increase carbonation in kegs than it is to lower it. This method is documented in Complete Joy of Homebrewing.

Good info, Crispy, thanks. So is there any qualitative difference between natural carbing and force carbing, to your taste? How much corn sugar do you put into a 5-gal keg to bring it up to a conservative carb level, and how long do you give it?

Sure, CO2 is CO2 - it has no idea how it got there. You might have some more sediment at the bottom (the same way your bottled homebrews do), but that'll get drawn off in the first pint. After that you should get great clarity. Papazian recommends 1/3 of a cup of corn sugar per 5 gallon corny - I'd start there.

All I do is pressurize to 12 psi. No shaking, priming sugar, or 30 psi blasts. I far. Dual tap system with a single reg that runs to 2 valves then to the kegs. The only problem I have had is sediment when I don't 2ndary.

Geoff said:

I'm fairly new to kegging too, with just two batches brewed, kegged and nearly gone (so can't be too bad). I think I went overkill on these first two; I both gave 'em 30 psi/rocked them for 15 min, AND left them at 30 for two days and reduced to 12 psi. They were pretty darned foamy; a gently-tilted pitcher would be 3/4 head, so took some patience to serve (and filling a growler was nearly impossible). I think for the next keg, I'll forego the rocking and just do two days at 30 and see how it comes out.

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Have you tried lowering the pressure to 10 and see what happens? Actually, my system is set to 9 PSI. After a few years of kegging, it seems to be the best pressure.

I'm not a shaker, I just connect the keg at serving pressure and forget it. One to two weeks and it's nicely gassed.

I have 3 kegs & 2 taps. I force carb at 35 and shake a few minutes and put it in the keezer with no gas on for a week. When a keg empties I hook up the gas at serving pressure (my gauge reads 15, but not accurate) and it is good in a couple days.

Of course, when you force carb you disconnect the other kegs. After you dial the presure back down it takes me a couple beers to get the serving pressure right again.

There are many roads to Rome, it appears. Interestingly, after getting through about 2/3 of each keg, the foaminess has subsided and the pours are right on spec. On the next pair, I'm going to try just going to serving pressure and waiting a week or so. Per Memorex's advice, I may also try dropping to 9 or 10 too and see if things settles down.

Geoff, don't do too many things at once or you'll never figure out what's what!
If I were you, I would put the next keg at serving pressure (12 PSI in your case) and see what it's like after a few weeks. If the beer has a nice head and good pour, then you know it's fine at 12 PSI. Too much head, turn it down a notch.

I'm just saying I'd like to see you figure it out as soon as possible and enjoy the fruits of your labor

Wise words, Memorex, I will indeed employ the Scientific Method. I'm beginning to appreciate the Publican's Dilemma of keeping ready-to-drink stock on hand, and thus the desire to accelerate the process. A kegerator owner's worst nightmare is to have a party in full swing and run out of gas...!