Best forced carbonation method

I am about to use my new co2 tank on my keg in about a week from now, and was wondering what was the best method. How much psi do you use to a 5 gallon batch, and for how long? Are there any other techniques you use to create a great carbonation in the beer?

This carbonation chart shows how to carbonate your beer in one week.

Good luck,
Wild

I just listened to an old BrewCaster Sunday episode that delt with Doc describing his brewday. Jamil and McDole were also in the studio. Both of them said force carb using a chart like the one posted above. McDole uses 30psi and shakes till he "knows its done" Damn telepathy! Or he hits it with 30 psi for no more than 48 hours, bleds off the pressure and then put it at serving psi for a few days. Jamil does approx the same thing, but also said you can set your serving psi and shake the crap out of it till no more co2 goes in. Take a whole lot more shaking and more time than the 30psi shake, but no overcarb problems.

Of course this is all at serving temp too.

Ender

Then there's my preferred approach: set the psi per the CO2 volume per the chart above, and leave it for 7-10 days. Assuming you have your tap lines balanced for the serving psi, you'll have a properly carb'd beer in about a week with no shaking or real potential for over-carbing.

there's several perfectly correct ways to force carb a keg.

i don't like shaking it...

let it settle out.

30 psi @ as cold as you can stomach it for an ale, for 24 hrs seems to work. then i drop the pressure down to serving and w00t!!!! two days max. i let me ales sit in primary for four weeks before even looking to keg them.

I dont really understand how to read the chart. What do all of the number represent? Which of those numbers in the temperature line would i want to pick?

BrewMunster said:

I dont really understand how to read the chart. What do all of the number represent? Which of those numbers in the temperature line would i want to pick?

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The temps are on the left and the psi to apply is across the top. Find the temp of your fridge on the left and follow it across to the desired PSI, then go up to find the right psi to use. The temperature of your beer affects how much C02 it will absorb, that is why you have to find what temp you be carbing at to get the proper PSI. If you read the text you will know that the chart wants you to do this for 4-5 days to reach the prefect carbonation levels.

malkore said:

Then there's my preferred approach: set the psi per the CO2 volume per the chart above, and leave it for 7-10 days. Assuming you have your tap lines balanced for the serving psi, you'll have a properly carb'd beer in about a week with no shaking or real potential for over-carbing.

there's several perfectly correct ways to force carb a keg.

Click to expand...

This is my preferred method. Not only is there no risk of overcarbonation, but all of your beers will benefit from another week of aging!

uglygoat said:

i don't like shaking it...

let it settle out.

30 psi @ as cold as you can stomach it for an ale, for 24 hrs seems to work. then i drop the pressure down to serving and w00t!!!! two days max. i let me ales sit in primary for four weeks before even looking to keg them.

Click to expand...

+1

This is my preferred approach. I doing my secondary conditioning in the keg, and prefer not to shake things up too much.

Is there a taste difference between forced carbonating and priming the beer with sugar?

BrewMunster said:

Is there a taste difference between forced carbonating and priming the beer with sugar?

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Initially (the first two or three days), I think there is. It seems like quickly forced carbed beers have more of a carbonic acid bite. After a few days at serving pressure, though, I think that changes and it's the same.

I like kegging- no bottle sediment! The first two pints have some, but after that, the beer is clear with no yeast sediment. My non-hombrewer family and friends really commented on that.

There is a thread somewhere that talks about how to avoid all sediment in kegging. I thought it was by Bobby_M, but I couldn't find it searching.

Don't quote me, but I believe someone said if your dip tubes are bent style, bend them a little more and if they were straight, cut off about 3/8" with a pipe cutter.

Sediment falls out...no pick up. Sounds like a good idea.

I go 30 psi for 36-48 hours, then reduce to serving pressure for 2 days.

ohiobrewtus said:

I go 30 psi for 36-48 hours, then reduce to serving pressure for 2 days.

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I use this too and have perfectly carbed beer every time, it is the easiest for me and works without fail.

MNBugeater said:

...Don't quote me, but I believe someone said if your dip tubes are bent style, bend them a little more and if they were straight, cut off about 3/8" with a pipe cutter.

Sediment falls out...no pick up. Sounds like a good idea.

Click to expand...

Sounds familiar...

It's a little different for pinlock kegs I think. After discussing cutting the tube on some other thread, a lot of folks suggested bending the tube. If I so much as tweak the tube, I can't get it back in the top of the keg. The clearance on pinlock kegs must be tighter.

Anyway, there are two trains of thought on kegging and sediment.

If you NEVER move your kegs (they stay in your kegger from first to last pour), you can go ahead and bend or cut your diptube so it stays off the very bottom. The sediment will eventually crash out and never get picked up.

If you move your keg around to parties and stuff, you have to make sure the beer is sediment free before it ever hits the keg. That means extended aging in primary or seconday and/or the use of finings/crash cooling prior to the final kegging.

BrewMunster said:

Is there a taste difference between forced carbonating and priming the beer with sugar?

Click to expand...

Some will argue there is, some there isn't... My own take on it is there is little difference as long as you allow for the difference in the age of the beers when comparing the two methods. In other words if it takes 3 weeks to cask condition your beer you can't compare it to beer you just force carbonated straight out of the primary/secondary.

GT

BrewMunster said:

Is there a taste difference between forced carbonating and priming the beer with sugar?

Click to expand...

Anecdotally I can tell you there is a difference.

When I started doing 10-gallon batches, I thought I'd save CO2 by priming one keg and forcing the other.

The primed keg had a distinct yeast bite to it.

Wouldn't leaving your co2 tank flow in the keg for 2-3 days, reduce the co2 in your tank by a lot?

I shake mine at room temp at 30 psi for 3-5 mins then place them in the keezer under 10 psi and forget about them for weeks/months...

Others (waiting in line) I shake at room temp at 30 psi for 3-5 mins then place then forget about them for weeks/months...I check/top them off to 10 psi every week or so.

BrewMunster said:

Wouldn't leaving your co2 tank flow in the keg for 2-3 days, reduce the co2 in your tank by a lot?

Click to expand...

No more than necessary to carbonate the keg, unless you have a leak.

My preferred method is to just hook up the gas about forget about it for a week or two. Chances are, I want to give it that time to age, anyhow. If I want it ready in a few days, I set the pressure to my desired holding pressure, shake for five minutes, and then leave it for a few days.

I do not like setting the pressure high and then reducing it. The trouble I had to go through bleeding and then equalizing was never worth saving a day or two.


TL