Paranoid beginner

Just connected my first keg to my new CO2/regulator. When I cranked up the CO2 to force carb, it made a gurgling sound, which I assume was the CO2 entering the beer. I just want to make sure I do the right thing, probably paranoid. Did I miss anything?

thanks

Sounds like you have the gas on the beer out post. That's fine and how I do it. Yep, it gurgles. Now turn the gas off and shake that thing like no other.

Repeat.

BendBrewer said:

Sounds like you have the gas on the beer out post. That's fine and how I do it. Yep, it gurgles. Now turn the gas off and shake that thing like no other.

Repeat.

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I haven't kegged yet but putting the CO2 in line on the beer out post is not good. First of all, how will beer come out? The beer out dip tube goes to the bottom while the gas in dip tube doesn't go down more than 2 inches. Plus I have heard when you put the gas on the beer out and the beer out in the gas post, they freeze up and it is hard to get them off.

Sometimes if you put the fitting on the out post it gets stuck. Put it on the in post. Crank up the regulator to 30 psi. Lay the keg on your lap and roll it back and forth for a few minutes.

h22lude said:

I haven't kegged yet but putting the CO2 in line on the beer out post is not good. First of all, how will beer come out? The beer out dip tube goes to the bottom while the gas in dip tube doesn't go down more than 2 inches. Plus I have heard when you put the gas on the beer out and the beer out in the gas post, they freeze up and it is hard to get them off.

Click to expand...

Well, you don't leave it on there. You just put it on the OUT to force the gas through the beer instead of just hitting the beer on the head with it. It is part of the whole FORCE CARB process.

I have kegged. Lots. Would you like to learn more?

You guys rock! Dark basement and a habit of trying to do to many things at once caused me to put the in on the out and so on. Thanks for your help and the info on doing what I did to force carb.

BendBrewer said:

Well, you don't leave it on there. You just put it on the OUT to force the gas through the beer instead of just hitting the beer on the head with it. It is part of the whole FORCE CARB process.

I have kegged. Lots. Would you like to learn more?

Click to expand...

Actually yes please explain because it doesn't make sense to me.

I have been around soda kegging for a while, yes a little different than beer kegging (which I am getting into) but still uses the same keg. Personally I would never put the air line on the beer out post as it can get stuck and possibly ruin the post.

From the sound of it, you use burst carbing. I would think that since you are shaking the keg, it wouldn't matter if you hit the beer with the CO2 on top or on the bottom, you are shaking it all up anyway.

And don't take this as me saying you are doing it wrong or bashing the way you do it. I actually really want to learn how you keg because I have never heard of this way before...and like I said, I have always known it as a bad thing to put the air on the beer out post (and know from soda experience). The guy I know that owns a soda factory actually gives pin locks to customers that have come back with broken ball locks because they don't remember where to put the air in and beer out connects and ruin posts.

Sorry for being chippy.

I guess one could ruin a ball lock if they were reckless about it. When you hook the gas line to the beer out ball lock it doesn't really LOCK or at least you don't need or want to get it on that much. You simply connect it enough so that gas flows into the keg which causes the gurgling the OP was concerned about. As the gurgling stops, the keg is pressurized at 30 psi. Hearing this makes you realize just how 'gassy' the beer instantly becomes inside the keg. Taking the gas line off and shaking the crap out of it at this point forces that Co2 which is throughout the beer into solution rapidly throughout almost all of the beer. You can witness just how much Co2 is absorbed through 3-5 minutes of shaking by hitting the beer out post again with 30 psi and listening to just how much gas has to enter the keg again to get it back to 30 psi. That lost gas has been absorbed into solution already.

If you just 'Hit it on the Head' as I mentioned, meaning you just put 30 psi in the head space on top of the beer and then agitate it you are only forcing a small amount of overall Co2 into a very small surface area of the beer, the top. It will take much longer for the same amount of Co2 to enter solution doing it this way.

I force carb when I need to but most of the time given my pipeline I just hook a new keg up normally, set it to 12 psi and forget about it. I prefer to do it this way.

Oh I gotcha. I never thought of not locking it lol That does make sense. Basically making the air dip tube go to the bottom of the keg. This will give the CO2 room to move up the keg instead of trying to push it down into the beer. Pretty good idea. If I need to burst carb, I will probably try this way to see how it works.