Force carbing in basement, then moving to fridge

I am having a major brain fart here. I have 2 kegs on tap in my bar but in the spirit of being a homebrewer, I have a few other kegs of beer in the basement waiting for their turn. Now, I have a 20lb CO2 tank (regulator on it's way)...I should be able to carb the kegs-in-waiting at room temp, so that when they are called for duty in the bar then can be changed out and ready to drink once they cool down?

If my understanding is correct I can use the carbonation chart and carb them (30'ish PSI I think...not looking at it right now) at room temp, then when their turn comes up, blow off the co2 in the headspace, and put them in the bar fridge hooked up at serving pressure (10-11psi), giving me a seamless transition?

Are there any holes in my plan here? I know that other homebrewers accomplish this, I had just never given it serious thought until I found myself with a spare co2 tank.

I hope this post/question makes sense, thanks guys (and girls)!

I carbonate at basement temperature all the time. Works just fine for me. I typically put it at 20 PSI for a day or two, monitoring and adjusting as I go.

That's all it takes.

I'm seriously jealous on the basement. They don't build them around here, because they would be full of water in the winter.

cabot said:

If my understanding is correct I can use the carbonation chart and carb them (30'ish PSI I think...not looking at it right now) at room temp, then when their turn comes up, blow off the co2 in the headspace, and put them in the bar fridge hooked up at serving pressure (10-11psi), giving me a seamless transition?

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I want to do the same, when you put the 30 PSI do you have to leave it connected to the co2 tank all a long, or you just put the 30 PSI disconect it and when you want to use put it back on the co2?

2001SE said:

I want to do the same, when you put the 30 PSI do you have to leave it connected to the co2 tank all a long, or you just put the 30 PSI disconect it and when you want to use put it back on the co2?

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When carbing, you will want constant pressure until you are all carbed up. The inital blast of 30psi CO2 will not last and will be absorbed by the beer. Keeping the pressure turned on will ensure that the CO2 is properly in solution.

Measure your basement temp, refer to chart, set pressure and leave it connected for 3 weeks.

When the kegger position/tap opens up, remove that keg from the basement gas, chill it down over night (do NOT vent the pressure until the beer is cold), vent, apply serving pressure (which should also be derived from the charts based on beer temp and desired carb level).

Thanks folks, great information as always. Why no-venting of the pressure until the beer is cold? Wouldn't that extra pressure get absorbed when the beer gets cold, then overcarbing your beer?

cabot said:

Thanks folks, great information as always. Why no-venting of the pressure until the beer is cold? Wouldn't that extra pressure get absorbed when the beer gets cold, then overcarbing your beer?

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The pressure overall will drop when the beer gets cold. The small amount of extra CO2 absorbed from the headspace will only serve to maintain the pressure balance between the air and beer.

Moonshae is right. Boyle's law asserts that pressure and volume are inversely proportional to each other at fixed temperature. You can rearrange that to say given the same volume, pressure goes down proportionally with temperature. 30 psi at 70f will reduce to 15psi at 35f in a sealed system.

Nice, makes perfect sense! Thanks

not to hijack the thread, but if i didn't want to naturally carb a keg while waiting, but also didn't want to leave the keg hooked up to the gas, could i hit it w/ gas, purge a few times, disconnect it, then set it aside until a spot opens up? would this have any adverse effect?

golfguy819 said:

not to hijack the thread, but if i didn't want to naturally carb a keg while waiting, but also didn't want to leave the keg hooked up to the gas, could i hit it w/ gas, purge a few times, disconnect it, then set it aside until a spot opens up? would this have any adverse effect?

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Your beer won't be carbonated. It'll have a layer of CO2 over it, like a carboy has, but it will be flat.

Spunkmeyer said:

Your beer won't be carbonated. It'll have a layer of CO2 over it, like a carboy has, but it will be flat.

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oops, guess i should have explained that i didn't want to carb that way. since cold beer obsorbes co2 better, i just wanted to store the kegs at room temps and then fully carb using the set it and forget it method in the kegerator.

golfguy819 said:

oops, guess i should have explained that i didn't want to carb that way. since cold beer obsorbes co2 better, i just wanted to store the kegs at room temps and then fully carb using the set it and forget it method in the kegerator.

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+1

This is the same question I have. I don't have a basement, so storage temps for me are 75 to 80 degrees (for the summer, although our other season isn't much colder). My other option would be to naturally carbonate them, but I don't know how if that will be affected by the higher temps.

Joe

golfguy819 said:

oops, guess i should have explained that i didn't want to carb that way. since cold beer obsorbes co2 better, i just wanted to store the kegs at room temps and then fully carb using the set it and forget it method in the kegerator.

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There was a pretty substantial thread about this a little while back:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/can-i-keg-store-later-118566/

Short answer: it will be OK.

Bobby_M said:

Moonshae is right. Boyle's law asserts that pressure and volume are inversely proportional to each other at fixed temperature. You can rearrange that to say given the same volume, pressure goes down proportionally with temperature. 30 psi at 70f will reduce to 15psi at 35f in a sealed system.

Click to expand...

Boyle's law is based on absolute temperature. Rankine is an absolute scale whose degrees are the same size as Fahrenheit. 70 F is about 530 R, so reducing to 35 F (495 R) only will reduce pressure by 6% or so.

This neglects the additional CO@ that will be absorbed at the lower temperature.

Thanks, that makes sense. Even so, I wouldn't want to vent the gas while the beer is warm. Let it chill, absorb, then vent.

Spunkmeyer said:

There was a pretty substantial thread about this a little while back:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/can-i-keg-store-later-118566/

Short answer: it will be OK.

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Thought I had read through everything.... must have missed that one. It's all probably a moot point as I can't seem to brew as fast as I drink. I figure one day I will catch up, or start making larger batches, and this knowledge will be needed.

Joe.