What's your Experience at Carbonating in a keg at High Temps

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New2HomeBrew

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So I kegged my first two batches on Sunday. Right now I have them both stored in my dining room which stays in the high 70's to low 80's most of the day.

I did some reading on carbonation, and looked at the helpful charts at various sites on the internet. The only problem is that none of the charts even come close to the temperature that I am storing the beer at. I extrapolated that I need to have the beer at roughly 30 PSI to carbonate in this high of a temperature.

Does anyone else carbonate in such high temps? If so what is your experience? How long should I keep the pressure at 30 PSI? How long does it actually take for the beer to carbonate? Once It has carbonated should I take the pressure down, and to what level?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers:mug:
 
New2HomeBrew said:
So I kegged my first two batches on Sunday. Right now I have them both stored in my dining room which stays in the high 70's to low 80's most of the day.

I did some reading on carbonation, and looked at the helpful charts at various sites on the internet. The only problem is that none of the charts even come close to the temperature that I am storing the beer at. I extrapolated that I need to have the beer at roughly 30 PSI to carbonate in this high of a temperature.

Does anyone else carbonate in such high temps? If so what is your experience? How long should I keep the pressure at 30 PSI? How long does it actually take for the beer to carbonate? Once It has carbonated should I take the pressure down, and to what level?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers:mug:
Click to expand...

You should try to cool them if you want to force carbonate them, it will work much faster. The colder the beer the more C02 it will beable to absorb, and the fast that it will be able to do so. At room temp you probably would need to leave it for a week with the C02 hooked up at 30-40psi in order for it to carb up. if you had it at say 35-40deg it would take about 24 hours. or you can shake the piss out of it and it would take 15 minutes at the lower temps.
After the beer is carbed, then yes you want to turn it down to serving pressure, wha tever that is for you, usually 8 lbs for me.

Cheers
 
Unfortunatley, I do not have the ability to cool them. Maybe in the future, but for now, can anyone give me some advise on how long it will take to carbonate at higher temps of almost 80 degrees?
 
how are you planning to cool the kegs for dispensing? I can't imagine you plan to drink 80 degree beer...

the warmer the beer, the harder it is to get CO2 into solution,a nd the more rapidly it wants to come out.

you might be better off just putting enough CO2 in them to bleed off all the air inside, so they don't oxidize.

then when you can cool them, force carb then.
 
Check craigslist.org for a location near you and watch for free refrigerators listed in the Free Stuff section. They go pretty fast, so you have to contact them as soon as you see an acceptable one listed to have the best chance of getting it. Then, just hook it up in the garage and throw your keg (with CO2 tank) inside to keep cold. Can't beat the price! :mug:
 
A week and you'll probably want to run the pressure up to 40 psi or so, if you plan on serving around 45F.
 
My plan was to carbonate the beer then on drinking day put it on ice. I know my friends will drink it in one sitting. I may try to get a free fridge as there seems to one or two freebee fridges up there everyday.

For now I have decided to bleed off the presure to about 10 PSI until a week prior to my planned drinking day. Then I'll kick it up to 30 PSI for a week. Hopefully it won't be too carbonated or too flat. I may actually ice it 24 hours ahead of time so that I can taste it first and see if I need to make any last minute adjustments.

Thanks for all the tips!
 
I found this equation on the web which allows you to go outside the bounds of the charts:

P = -16.6999 - 0.0101059 * T + 0.00116512 * T^2 + 0.173354 * T * V + 4.24267 * V - 0.0684226 * V^2
where
P = Pressure needed (psi)
T = Temperature of keg in °F
V = Volumes of CO2 desired

Using this, 30 PSI gets you about 2.25 volumes at 80F, which is a reasonable level for most styles. Course, that will drop rapidly as you chill the beer. I like david's idea about jacking it up to 40 psi. Also, make sure you drop the psi to serving pressure (8-10 psi) and BLEED THE EXCESS PRESSURE from the relief valve before you pour. Otherwise, you'll have a beer fire hose, and your wedding party will go thirsty ;)
 
I don't have a kegerator and I do what you do. My storage room sits at 73F so I force carb my beers at 32PSI which promash says gives me 2.5 volumes. When I'm ready to serve I drop it down to about 8PSI and bleed the pressure from the headspace. Never had a problem.
 
Bike N Brew said:
I found this equation on the web which allows you to go outside the bounds of the charts:

P = -16.6999 - 0.0101059 * T + 0.00116512 * T^2 + 0.173354 * T * V + 4.24267 * V - 0.0684226 * V^2
where
P = Pressure needed (psi)
T = Temperature of keg in °F
V = Volumes of CO2 desired

Using this, 30 PSI gets you about 2.25 volumes at 80F, which is a reasonable level for most styles. Course, that will drop rapidly as you chill the beer. I like david's idea about jacking it up to 40 psi. Also, make sure you drop the psi to serving pressure (8-10 psi) and BLEED THE EXCESS PRESSURE from the relief valve before you pour. Otherwise, you'll have a beer fire hose, and your wedding party will go thirsty ;)
Click to expand...


What do you mean by "That will drop rapidly as you chill the beer"? Sorry for the excessive questions, just want to make sure that the first couple of batches come out as well as possible.

Thanks again everyone for the helpful tips!:mug:
 
I believe he means the pressure you have to apply (30 PSI), if you go below this temp, this pressure will drop quickly.

I am glad you asked this question. I am making some beer for a gathering and am planning on buying a keg (or two), a tank, etc. but haven't come across a good fridge deal.
:mug:
 
Oh and disconnect the liquid line when you have the pressure that high. My LHBS told me the liquid lines can only handle about 20psi, and I'm not particularly interested in testing that theory. ;)
 

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