Priming for cask conditioning - help

OK, I built a keg out of a 5 gall water bottle that has a screw top. I'll post and article with pics later.

I've never kegged before. I Am wondering about amounts for priming. This will be a cask conditioned ale with low pressure co2 added only after dispensing, to flush out o2. (using a co2 tire inflator)

I usually bottle and I prime based on style using the CO2 calculator with promash etc. But how do I know what to use for a keg? I keep seeing 1/3 to 1/2 cup priming sugar for 5 gallons but that doesn't tell me where I'm at in regards to style and CO2 levels. Help! I'm in the middle of racking to the keg right now.

Doesn't Promash have an option for naturally conditioning a keg and selecting the CO2 level you want? I don't have it in front of my here at work, but I thought after selecting "keg" under the bottling screen that you could select 'forced' or 'natural', and if you select 'natural' you can input the desired level of carbonation and get the amount of corn sugar required. Or I might be totally delusional.

No. It has options for dme vs sugar. At the bottom it has a calulator for force carbonating but nothing for naturaly priming a keg.

BeeGee said:

Doesn't Promash have an option for naturally conditioning a keg and selecting the CO2 level you want? I don't have it in front of my here at work, but I thought after selecting "keg" under the bottling screen that you could select 'forced' or 'natural', and if you select 'natural' you can input the desired level of carbonation and get the amount of corn sugar required. Or I might be totally delusional.

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Yes ProMash does. Choose the bottling/keggins section of your session and select natural. I took an old session and if I wanted a medium CO level of 2.30 and was carbonating 5 gallons at 68 degrees it's telling me 3.86 oz (.25 lbs) of corn sugar. If you were using DME with the same equation they state 7.71 oz (.48 lbs).

Bummer. Here's an article I found:
http://www.classiccitybrew.com/caskale.html
Seems to indicate 6oz corn sugar for 10.8 US gallons and then had a procedure following that I didn't follow

Denny's Brew said:

OK, I built a keg out of a 5 gall water bottle that has a screw top. I'll post and article with pics later.

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You're sure it's strong enough to hold the carbonation pressure?

desertBrew said:

Yes ProMash does. Choose the bottling/keggins section of your session and select natural.

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DOH! I forgot about that section in the session. I was looking in the co2 calc in the main menu. Thanks!

Mikey said:

You're sure it's strong enough to hold the carbonation pressure?

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Yeah, I pressure tested it with compressed air. I'm using a SS tire valve. I will use a shot of CO2 from a bike tire inflator to top up pressure when the keg has been used some what. Basically the same thing they do with some of the plastic kegs for sale online.

maybe i'm out of my element here, probably actually, but doesn't a cask conditioned ale have only the natural carbonation found in the beer before priming? all the cask conditined ales i drink, which i luckily have the oppurtunity to do quite often, have no more carbonation than my beers that come out of the secondary.

Yup you're right, but traditional cask ales should be consumed completely within a day or two due to loss or carbination and possible oxydation. In a pub that's no problem, but at home it makes getting on with work or normal life a challenge.

An acceptable practice is to add a touch of CO2 to the keg to replace the beer that's be consumed so that it maintains carbonation levels.

Mikey said:

Yup you're right, but traditional cask ales should be consumed completely within a day or two due to loss or carbination and possible oxydation. In a pub that's no problem, but at home it makes getting on with work or normal life a challenge.

An acceptable practice is to...

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...invite a bunch of fellow homebrewers over to finish the keg...

Mikey said:

An acceptable practice is to add a touch of CO2 to the keg to replace the beer that's be consumed so that it maintains carbonation levels.

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Yeah, thus the co2 tire inflator. I see people have used these with corny kegs as well for keeping the beer from going flat if using a beerengine, and for dispensing if using a regular tap. 5psi shouldn't effect the beer flavor, at least I wouldn't think so anyway.

Aren't cask ales fully naturally carbonated then vented 24 hours prior to serving with a vented spile to bring the CO2 levels down? Since I keg with cornys, I just release the pressure 6 hours prior to the Real Ale Events we have here and serve with the corny upside down through a homemade beer engine.

Wild

wild said:

Aren't cask ales fully naturally carbonated then vented 24 hours prior to serving with a vented spile to bring the CO2 levels down?

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That's OK if you drink the beer all in one go or within a day or so. The problem is with a keg that gets consumed at a more leisurely pace over several weeks or months.

1) the beer will slowly go flat- really flat
2) there is the risk of oxydation as air enters the keg to replace the beer

Giving it a little blast (1 or 2 PSI) of CO2 is a good compromise.