Carb then Disconnect

sorry i know i've asked a similar question before but........ if i carb a keg can i then disconnect, leave in the keezer, then wait for a keg to kick and reattach the carbed keg and still have it be carbed?

i went through my old posts but couldn't find my original question. seems the answer was "no" but for some reason i can't get my head around as to to why it wouldn't work. if i don't have any leaks in the keg then why wouldn't it hold the carbination?

edie said:

sorry i know i've asked a similar question before but........ if i carb a keg can i then disconnect, leave in the keezer, then wait for a keg to kick and reattach the carbed keg and still have it be carbed?

i went through my old posts but couldn't find my original question. seems the answer was "no" but for some reason i can't get my head around as to to why it wouldn't work. if i don't have any leaks in the keg then why wouldn't it hold the carbination?

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If the keg is sealed properly, you can carb it up now, disconnect it, and let it sit for years and it will still be carbed when you tap it later.

well that makes sense to me. thanks

I wish i could get my kegs to seal that well .....

they should seal that well. i've got a kef of pilsner that i carbed up in January, but it had off flavors (unhealthy yeast) and it's been sitting in the garage for 10 months. still carbed and pressurized just fine. (but still tastes like crap)

SOmetimes it takes a blast or two of 30 psi to get my kegs to seal. If I just try serving pressure often that won't seal them. Once they seal I can bleed pressure to serving pressure and have no leak.

I wonder if there isn't a thicker O-Ring we could use for the main seal that might make easier to get a seal???

I will carb a beer then let it sit around for a month or two disconnected. Then when there is free space I hook it up and all is fine.

I agree on the higher psi to seal the keg, mine took about 30psi to get a good seal then dialed it down and vented to serving

want to make sure i've got this straight - i'm going to carb @ 13psi for the usual 5-7 days then disconnect and leave in the keezer and wait for a spot to open up - correct?

we have 3 taps but room in the keezer for another 2 or 3 kegs and would like to extend the pipeline a bit. figure doing it this way we should have a never ending supply of brew.

edie said:

want to make sure i've got this straight - i'm going to carb @ 13psi for the usual 5-7 days then disconnect and leave in the keezer and wait for a spot to open up - correct?

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Well, I won't claim TRUE or FALSE on the 5-7 days @ 13psi (my beers take longer than this to carb properly), but your thinking is accurate. You can carb it up at whatever pressure you normally do for whatever amount of time your normally do at whatever temperature you normally do, and then disconnect it and it'll be ready when you are.

edit: I don't have room in my little kegerator for more than 2 kegs, so I prime them with sugar, seal then with 20psi, and let them sit at room temp for a couple of weeks. Then when a keg in the kegerator kicks, I move one of the new ones into the kegerator. When it's cold, it's carbed and ready to drink.

5 - 7 days doesn't sound long enough, at least a couple weeks @ 12 psi for me @ 38F 3 weeks is better.

akthor said:

5 - 7 days doesn't sound long enough, at least a couple weeks @ 12 psi for me @ 38F 3 weeks is better.

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perhaps, but that's not the point of his question.

akthor said:

SOmetimes it takes a blast or two of 30 psi to get my kegs to seal. If I just try serving pressure often that won't seal them. Once they seal I can bleed pressure to serving pressure and have no leak.

I wonder if there isn't a thicker O-Ring we could use for the main seal that might make easier to get a seal???

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It does exist, and for the life of me I can't remember which online company sells it. But you can certainly get it from McMaster or even Amazon as I recall. You could also try a Silicone o-ring as it should be softer and form better to irregularities of a deformed lid or keg.


edit - Like this http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000SSOOVK/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

When I picked up my corny kegs (still full of soda) from the Coca Cola distributor, they had been sitting on a pallet on a parking lot for at least 5 -7 years and they were still carbed.

we've kegged 3 batches now at 13psi. started tasting on the 5th day and by the 7th plenty of carbination for me. could be i might be rushing it but 5-7 works fine.

thanks for the feedback -

GSM said:

I wish i could get my kegs to seal that well .....

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That's what she said.

samc said:

It does exist, and for the life of me I can't remember which online company sells it. But you can certainly get it from McMaster or even Amazon as I recall. You could also try a Silicone o-ring as it should be softer and form better to irregularities of a deformed lid or keg.


edit - Like this http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000SSOOVK/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

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that looks pretty much like the o-ring that comes in the kit that my local homebrew store sells. one of their kits comes with the o-rings to rebuild 2 kegs, including the connector and dip tube o-rings. $6.50 for the kit! check em out!
http://www.homebrewery.com/beer/beer-keg-gaskets.shtml

This is exactly what I do - pressure up to 20 or 30 psi to drive the CO2 into solution, then only have to add a bit of pressure every now and then to keep the beer flowing.

B

okay so im going to dig this thread up now. so i just brewed a double chocolate stout. when it is done fermenting and i put it in the keg i guess i need to let it condition for a while. should i let it condition before i carb or will it condition in the keg while it carbs? im thinking about leaving it for close to a month before tapping it, so i figured if i could carb it while it conditions by carbing and disconnecting. for my second question, if i hook up the gas and carb it at around 65F, what would be the procedure for when i hook it up to serve? would i release the pressure from the keg through the releif valve and then pressurize to the correct PSI for the kegerator temperature? because that sounds right to me. sorry to dig this thread up again, but i didnt know how to search for such an involved question. thanks yall

usdsk8er540 said:

okay so im going to dig this thread up now. so i just brewed a double chocolate stout. when it is done fermenting and i put it in the keg i guess i need to let it condition for a while. should i let it condition before i carb or will it condition in the keg while it carbs? im thinking about leaving it for close to a month before tapping it, so i figured if i could carb it while it conditions by carbing and disconnecting. for my second question, if i hook up the gas and carb it at around 65F, what would be the procedure for when i hook it up to serve? would i release the pressure from the keg through the releif valve and then pressurize to the correct PSI for the kegerator temperature? because that sounds right to me. sorry to dig this thread up again, but i didnt know how to search for such an involved question. thanks yall

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Carbonation doesn't affect aging, so it doesn't matter at all if you carb it up while it's sitting or not. The thing is, temperature does affect aging, so you will want it at room temperature to age. You'd have to look at a carbonation table for the 65 degree pressure (I don't know off the top of my head) to get the carb right OR, you could just prime it like a bottle and let it sit at room temperature until you want it in the kegerator. That works fine.

Ok, so then, when it's time to serve. You will pull the pressure relief valve (only to ensure no backup of beer into your regulator) and stick it in the kegerator to chill. You can put it on your correct psi for your kegerator at that point.

edie said:

...this way we should have a never ending supply of brew.

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That's my dream...

Golddiggie said:

That's my dream...

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I'm working on it....7 batches in 6 weeks.

Soperbrew said:

I'm working on it....7 batches in 6 weeks.

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Being between jobs, and having the dreaded Italian disease (Myfundsarelow) makes it more difficult to brew to the level I really want to...

I do have my first two batches ending day 11 in bottles (carbonating/conditioning) so hopefully they'll be 100% ready very soon... I think I'm going to "have to" test at least one of them, if not one of each batch, tonight...

What's the least amount it's safe to put into a 5 gallon corny keg? Say if I wanted to bottle some, and keg some, of a batch (bottle about 5-7L and keg the rest) would that be safe?? Safe as in for the health of the brew... Money is tight, so I probably cannot get a real CO2 bottle and regulator setup, so I'd probably end up with one that uses the 16gram CO2 cartridges for now... That way I can at least charge the kegs with enough CO2 to seal them. I would still prime normally (or with sugars) for carbonation...

Yooper said:

Carbonation doesn't affect aging, so it doesn't matter at all if you carb it up while it's sitting or not. The thing is, temperature does affect aging, so you will want it at room temperature to age. You'd have to look at a carbonation table for the 65 degree pressure (I don't know off the top of my head) to get the carb right OR, you could just prime it like a bottle and let it sit at room temperature until you want it in the kegerator. That works fine.

Ok, so then, when it's time to serve. You will pull the pressure relief valve (only to ensure no backup of beer into your regulator) and stick it in the kegerator to chill. You can put it on your correct psi for your kegerator at that point.

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Sounds great. So here's my plan. When I keg my double chocolate stout, im going to age it for about 1 month or so at about 65F at about 19 PSI to get just under 2 volumes of co2 and then when i put it into my 33F kegerator and get it down to serving temp, I will release the pressure and then put the gas on at around 3 or 4 PSI. So if my keg is sealed well (as it probably should at about 19 PSI for aging) would I need to reconnect the gas from time to time (with the regulator) to check the pressure in the keg and "top off" the gas to keep the pressure constant or just set it to the 19 PSI until it stops flowing and then disconnect and forget it until it's aged and ready to serve? Sorry for the long posts and thanks again for all the help!

New years is coming, 4 on tap