Agitating Keg at low PSI

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

troutab81

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2009
Messages
138
Reaction score
0
Location
Cincinnati, OH
First time kegging here. I have read a couple different views on how to force carb your keg, and both of my homebrew shops have the crank and shake method.

I was concerned about over carbonation, so I decided upon the set and forget method. I set it to 11PSI at about 41 degrees for my IPA. It was racked to the keg at about 63 deg, set the regulator and put in overnight.

Question is:

Can I agitate the keg and speed up the process, similar to the crank and shake method? If so, what is appropriate for my carb profile above? 2 minutes of rocking? 10 minutes of rolling? Agitating until I no longer hear hissing?

Looking for best practices as I am dying to try out my latest brew, but dont want to compromise quality here or screw something up...
 
Also, since it has been chilling for 12 hours... is it ok to crank it to 30 and agitate it in the boost method? If so, how long should I agitate the keg before I crank it back down to serving/regular pressure?
 
Do yourself and your beer a favor and be patient! If you must, drink some as it carbonates. This will give you a feel for how a beer properly carbonates. You can speed up the process a bit by cranking up to 30psi for 24 hours then turn down to 11psi and bleed it. But I will never recommend shaking as a means of carbonation.
 
Thanks what do you think is a good timeline for carbonation? I am certain I will try it every day, but when does it typically come to equiliibrium
 
It will take close to 2 weeks to be fully carbed, but very drinkable after a week.
If you crank up the psi you will shave off a few days, but run the risk of overcarbing, which leads to all kinds of problems.
 
+1 on not shaking, when I need to carb up fast I set and forget at 24psi for 24 hours at 38°, then bleed down to 11psi for serving, this results in an undercarbed beer that picks up in the next few days on the gas, still has a bit of carbonic bite but it mellows out over a weeks time.
 
Note that if you have your reg set at carb pressure, (11 psi in your example), you can shake it FOREVER and not worry about overcarbing, (carbonation is an equilibrium deal). Yes, shaking at 11 psi WILL speed up carbonation, and won't risk overcarbonation, but it will still probably take a while. It can't HURT.

After overcarbing a few times with the crank and shake method, I can't recommend that.

When I'm impatient, however, I do crank to 30 psi and leave it for 48 hours. The keg goes into the fridge warm, I put the gas on it, and start counting the 48 hours. I figure a good 6-10 hours are just the keg chilling, so it doesn't carb as much there. With the crank and do-not-disturb method, I don't usually overcarb, but it still can be a crapshoot.
 
Wow, great information! Everywhere I read says crank and shake. Even my trustworthy local HBS says crank and shake. I guess if you cant find good documentation on how long to shake, etc then it isnt a good process!
 
Wow, great information! Everywhere I read says crank and shake. Even my trustworthy local HBS says crank and shake. I guess if you cant find good documentation on how long to shake, etc then it isnt a good process!

The problem isn't just documentation and timing, but all the other variables...how vigorously are you shaking, are you shaking it mostly upright, (with a small amount of surface area), or on it's side, (much more surface area). Are you slowly swishing it or paint-shakering it. How fast is the gas able to flow into your keg? (distribution blocks, line size, CO2 temperature all affect this)...if you set it at 30 PSI, but due to your shaking your line pressure drops to 15-20 PSI, (because you can't boil CO2 fast enough to replenish what's going into the beer), you'll have less carbonation per minute per shake than someone who has a warm CO2 tank, big lines, few restrictions, and can flow at 28 psi....


So yeah, long story short, if you shake, you could have issues.
 
If you havent already checked it out, the carb table in Wildwests signature is indeed quite nice! I have it printed out and laminated. it stays inside my kegorator
 
I don't have many posts on this forum, but I have been kegging my beer for over a year now. Every one of my beers, I rack warm, put on 30psi, turn it sideways and shake "until I no longer hear hissing". I then put it in the fridge upright at 30psi for 12 hours. I then turn it down to 20psi, turn it sideways and shake "until I no longer hear hissing", then put it back in the fridge upright for 12 hours. I then turn it down to about 5psi (serving pressure) and leave it alone for 24 hours. Thats it. 2 days after racking it in the keg, I am drinking it and it is wonderful. NEVER HAD PROBLEMS. If I am going to wait 2 weeks for my beer to be drinkable, I might as well clean some bottles and just bottle it.
 
I don't have many posts on this forum, but I have been kegging my beer for over a year now. Every one of my beers, I rack warm, put on 30psi, turn it sideways and shake "until I no longer hear hissing". I then put it in the fridge upright at 30psi for 12 hours. I then turn it down to 20psi, turn it sideways and shake "until I no longer hear hissing", then put it back in the fridge upright for 12 hours. I then turn it down to about 5psi (serving pressure) and leave it alone for 24 hours. Thats it. 2 days after racking it in the keg, I am drinking it and it is wonderful. NEVER HAD PROBLEMS. If I am going to wait 2 weeks for my beer to be drinkable, I might as well clean some bottles and just bottle it.

This is a revived dead post, but I will respond nonetheless.

Picture your carbonation as a graph, where the desired line is at 10-12psi or 2.4 volumes. Higher psi will make the carbonation higher faster, lower will do it slower, or lower carbonation.

Your process gets it up near/above the line in a hurry, in less than 2 days. I would predict at your pressures you would be hitting around 3 volumes in that time, equivalent to around 20psi. Then you set it to 5psi, which slowly starts lessening the carb level. If you left your beer in there for a month, you could actually have an UNDERcarbed beer from your originally overcarbed one.

I would draw you a picture, but feeling lazy atm. Hopefully from my hypothetical you can tell why people here push the 'set to the right psi and leave it there' method.

The reason people do this isn't usually "problems" but more "trying to create the best beer possible".
 
This is a revived dead post, but I will respond nonetheless.

Picture your carbonation as a graph, where the desired line is at 10-12psi or 2.4 volumes. Higher psi will make the carbonation higher faster, lower will do it slower, or lower carbonation.

Your process gets it up near/above the line in a hurry, in less than 2 days. I would predict at your pressures you would be hitting around 3 volumes in that time, equivalent to around 20psi. Then you set it to 5psi, which slowly starts lessening the carb level. If you left your beer in there for a month, you could actually have an UNDERcarbed beer from your originally overcarbed one.

I would draw you a picture, but feeling lazy atm. Hopefully from my hypothetical you can tell why people here push the 'set to the right psi and leave it there' method.

The reason people do this isn't usually "problems" but more "trying to create the best beer possible".

I'm not lazy, but I also don't want to draw a picture.

What I can do is point to Bobby's sticky :D

----> https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/keg-force-carbing-methods-illustrated-73328/
 
Back
Top