New to kegging and co2

ok I'm sorta new to the kegging aspect of beer. I used to keg beer with my friend but he was in charge of it so I'm really not knowledgeable on how the co2 works.
I got my co2 tank filled (the tank that is a little bigger than a 2 liter bottle of soda), i have my regualtor attached and i have it all set up with corny keg filled with beer.

Its reading about 18lbs of pressure on the regulator. From what i know we are supposed to have 5lbs of pressure when conditioning the keg and when drinking....

How can i get that 5lbs of pressure rather than the 18? Is it just a simple twist of one of the knobs? Both my friend and I were unable to figure out how to keep the CO2 flowing to the keg while keeping a low pressure of 5lbs..?

Turn the screw or knob on the regulator down and release pressure from the keg till it stabilizes at 5

Turn the valve on the tank all the way open, and adjust the screw on the regulator until the low pressure gauge reads 5 lbs.

5psi sounds awfully low for CO2 volumes though.

i was told to keep the pressure at 5lb if i prime the keg. They also said 5lbs is your target pressure for when you drink it.. I was also told that if i dont want to prime it with sugar i can shoot the pressure up to 25-30lb, that way i could drink my beer right away....thats just what ive been told, i havent found a book with any of these details

You seem to have gotten some rather incomplete information.

All of these pressures are really dependent upon what temperature your beer is at, because liquids can dissolve gases differently depending on their temperature. Cold beer will dissolve more CO2 and thus, you can use a lower amount of pressure. The opposite is true for warmer beer.

If you have your beer at like 38 degrees, you are going to have undercarbonated beer more than likely at 5 PSI. If you put the pressure at 25-30, then you are most likely going to have overcarbonated beer unless you are very careful. It seems as though the sweet spot is somewhere between 10-15, when you leave this for more than a week you should have perfectly carbonated beer and a reasonable pour as well.

What temperature is your beer, what length are your beer lines, and did you prime your kegs with sugar or not?

You need to read around a bit more 12 psi is the pretty commonly used psi for set and forget priming and carbing.

Ozzie53 said:

i was told to keep the pressure at 5lb if i prime the keg. They also said 5lbs is your target pressure for when you drink it.. I was also told that if i dont want to prime it with sugar i can shoot the pressure up to 25-30lb, that way i could drink my beer right away....thats just what ive been told, i havent found a book with any of these details

Click to expand...

the beer is "conditioning" now at around 65 degrees, we have primed it with sugar and our beer lines are about 4-6 feet each. I read to condition it at about 70 degrees.

Yes, you can prime the keg with a half cup of sugar at 70F for 3 weeks...like a big bottle.

But, as you dispense beer, you'll lose pressure, because 5psi won't maintain the same CO2 volumes because you'd need more like 12psi to carb it without priming.

5psi would work for dispensing, but its better to balance the system so you can simply leave it set at 12psi and have the right carb levels and dispense properly as well.