Keg Force Carbing Methods Illustrated

What if your serving temp is around 50 degrees will chilling the keg, carbonating, and then letting it warm back to 50 change the carbonation

I hear room temp alot what temp range are you guys talking about room temp for me is around 60f and sometimes colder

Why not carb at your serving temp? Just consult a carb chart for psi.

tektonjp said:

Why not carb at your serving temp? Just consult a carb chart for psi.

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It's not always possible if you have a small 2-keg fridge.

Bobby_M said:

It's not always possible if you have a small 2-keg fridge.

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I understand that. I carb kegs outside the fridge all the time.

I thought he was thinking he had to carb at a cold temp, then bring it back up to serving temp. . I wanted to save him the trouble and extra step To be honest, hard to tell what he was asking.

Is it necessary to purge the keg after boost carbing for 24 hours? Can't you just drop to serving pressures (12psi)? I've always sealed my keg with 30 psi and then placed it on 12 and let it slowly carb over 2-3 weeks. New to this method

flabyboy said:

Is it necessary to purge the keg after boost carbing for 24 hours? Can't you just drop to serving pressures (12psi)? I've always sealed my keg with 30 psi and then placed it on 12 and let it slowly carb over 2-3 weeks. New to this method

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if you boost carb at 60 psi you for 24hrs you need to burp it just because you have a can with 60 psi in it then you slow the gas to 12psi creating back pressure. To stop the back pressure you simply burp it.

sealing with 30psi isn't really boost carbing if you turn the carb to 12 psi right after. if it takes 2-3 weeks to carb up for you that really isn't boost carbing because that this the set and forget method turn around time.

Ok sorry I am a total noob I just finished my first beer and I just racked it to a keg I never wanted to bottle so I bought the keg stuff right away. I have an IPA in a keg and the rest of the hardware in front of me just assume I know how to hook everything up and I wanna get it carbonated as fast as possible because I am impatient and wanna try my first beer what do I do . I tried reading through the thread but it just overwhelmed me any help would be great

30 psi for 36 hours, purge keg, then 12 psi and drink. Keep it cold while carbing.

Nmillard said:

Ok sorry I am a total noob I just finished my first beer and I just racked it to a keg I never wanted to bottle so I bought the keg stuff right away. I have an IPA in a keg and the rest of the hardware in front of me just assume I know how to hook everything up and I wanna get it carbonated as fast as possible because I am impatient and wanna try my first beer what do I do . I tried reading through the thread but it just overwhelmed me any help would be great

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The fasted way I know how is 60psi for 24 hours. I usually have a room temp keg, put in keezer and push pressure to 55-60psi. Hold that 24hrs and then disconnect gas post, lower gas to 12 psi and then burp the keg and put reconnect the gas. It will serve a pretty good carb that way. The carb will stabilize on the 12PSI from there. Make sure you are serving with a long enough hose (start with say 10-12ft). If the pour is too slow cut a foot off and try again. Better to have a slower non foaming pour than to short firehose.

mciaio said:

30 psi for 36 hours, purge keg, then 12 psi and drink. Keep it cold while carbing.

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This is what I will try. Thanks. 60psi sounds like trouble to me

CidahMastah said:

if you boost carb at 60 psi you for 24hrs you need to burp it just because you have a can with 60 psi in it then you slow the gas to 12psi creating back pressure. To stop the back pressure you simply burp it.

sealing with 30psi isn't really boost carbing if you turn the carb to 12 psi right after. if it takes 2-3 weeks to carb up for you that really isn't boost carbing because that this the set and forget method turn around time.

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I wasn't trying to boost carb with this method. I was trying to purge and seal up my keg. And then just putting it in on 12 psi and letting it slowly carb. I always got good carbonation in 2-3 weeks this way. This will be my first attempt at boost carbing. 60 psi sounds like trouble to me. I'll do 30 for 36 hours and see how that works. Thanks

flabyboy said:

This is what I will try. Thanks. 60psi sounds like trouble to me

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I am not telling you something I read (so it isn't trouble), I have been using this technique ever since I have owned my keg system (about a year and a half). Never had a problem with it, and it is very reliable.

How much line would you recommend for kegs sitting at 42 degrees on 12 PSI? Right now
I have 7 ft of 3/16 line and the first pour can be a bit foamy. I have thought about getting a longer line, but not sure how much longer I should go

I use 10 ft and the pours are fine, albeit slow. I honestly hate having that much tubing, though.

Just got all my stuff and had a question on the set it and forget it way. After hooking up the CO2 to the keg, do you keep the CO2 on...after hitting the psi you want? Or do you shut it off after hitting the psi amount you want ?

Thanks

abbot555 said:

Just got all my stuff and had a question on the set it and forget it way. After hooking up the CO2 to the keg, do you keep the CO2 on...after hitting the psi you want? Or do you shut it off after hitting the psi amount you want ?

Thanks

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You keep it on the whole time. From carbing to serving.

I guess the answer is "either".
But strictly speaking, if the intent is "set & forget" you would keep the selected pressure (60 psi in this case) on.
The problem is, that if you are not dead certain that you have no leaks - then you might have a "slow difficult to detect leak" & you could lose all your CO2 which is a relatively costly experience.
I use a multiple step method: charge to say 30 psi, allow 36 hours, then boost to 30 psi again, leave 36 hours etc. This way my brew gets to condition while carbing with little risk of an undetected loss of CO2 from leaks.
BTW I only found a leak in my system (which was not revealed during several "soapy water tests") when almost in desperation I lowered my keg into the swimming pool; there it was small slow but steady.
Worth bearing in mind perhaps that for every keg there are 5 potential gas leak points when pressure is applied.

Set and forget at 60 psi? I recently heard a professinal brewer say the brewery hits their chilled kegs with 60 psi for an hour. That sounds more like "set and better not forget". Unless I missed something.

mikeysab said:

Set and forget at 60 psi? I recently heard a professinal brewer say the brewery hits their chilled kegs with 60 psi for an hour. That sounds more like "set and better not forget". Unless I missed something.

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The 60 psi is a boost carb method (without shaking), read post #490 for details. It will get a warm keg up to a servable carb in 24hrs with no shaking. See the details on how I have had success using this method for over a year and a half.

peterlonz said:

I guess the answer is "either".
But strictly speaking, if the intent is "set & forget" you would keep the selected pressure (60 psi in this case) on.

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Wrong. Leaving it on 60psi for more than a day or so, or serving a keg on 60psi is insane. This is terrible advice you are giving. This is a boost carb non shake method only to be done for a short duration or you will overcarb.

peterlonz said:

The problem is, that if you are not dead certain that you have no leaks - then you might have a "slow difficult to detect leak" & you could lose all your CO2 which is a relatively costly experience.
I use a multiple step method: charge to say 30 psi, allow 36 hours, then boost to 30 psi again, leave 36 hours etc. This way my brew gets to condition while carbing with little risk of an undetected loss of CO2 from leaks.

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Those kegs (and all the fixtures) are rated to safely hold 130psi (which means they likely can hold double that without failure). If you have a leak at 60 psi, it will still leak at 30 psi, or 10psi. I get that the above is your preference, but it certainly isn't any safer or more leak sensitive than the one I described.

CidahMastah said:

The 60 psi is a boost carb method (without shaking), read post #490 for details. It will get a warm keg up to a servable carb in 24hrs with no shaking. See the details on how I have had success using this method for over a year and a half.

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Ahh, gotcha. Thanks

Cidah,

When boost carbing at 60 (or i guess any higher pressure) is there a rougg estimate for how many times you should purge or "burp" the keg before throwing serve pressure on it? Thanks!

letmeholleratya said:

Cidah,

When boost carbing at 60 (or i guess any higher pressure) is there a rougg estimate for how many times you should purge or "burp" the keg before throwing serve pressure on it? Thanks!

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I should say I boost carb at 55-60 psi. My regulator (probably yours too) has a safety feature to vent at about 60+ psi. Suffice it to say if you hear hissing that may be the saftey valve venting, back off the pressure to 55psi.

So process is:
a. take room temp keg and put into your keezer
b. set psi to 55-60psi (be sure your beer side post is not connected - it should hold the pressure but let's not tempt a geyser, I am not sure how well you installed your beer line )
c. leave up to 24 hours
d. disconnect gas port and lower psi to serving pressure (i.e. 12psi) - vent the line as needed before hooking back up.
To answer your question:
e. burp your keg fully once and hook up your gas line.
f. let it sit for an hour or two to stabilize a bit then try a pour.

One last thing to keep in mind. I have a pipeline going so I am taking beers that are fully conditioned and fully fermented as far as they are going to go.

The process is easy, and works great for me because my buddy and I split batches and he doesn't have a keg system. So sometimes I need to carb a keg of his quick so he can bottle (and I don't want the keg to take up one of my spots for a brew on tap). Enjoy!

Ok, cool. I didn't know if you had to let the beer equalize a little more after burping before putting serve pressure on.

I'm usually not too rushed about getting the brew carbed, but i have a wit that is finished and i want it ready for a party this weekend. Thanks for the info.

what exactly is a "slow pour" when you guys are discussing a pour with 10ft of tubing?

how long does it take you to fill up a pint?

johnsocool said:

how long does it take you to fill up a pint?

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According to the Brewer's Association Draft Beer Quality Manual, "it takes about eight seconds to fill a pint glass" on a properly-balanced draft system. We're not selling beer, so we can design our systems to pour a lot slower.

johnsocool said:

what exactly is a "slow pour" when you guys are discussing a pour with 10ft of tubing?

how long does it take you to fill up a pint?

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Also as I have said before, I prefer a slow pour over too fast. At least with a slow pour it might take you 10-15 seconds to fill a pint. With a fast pour you get half foam and half beer.

944play said:

We're not selling beer, so we can design our systems to pour a lot slower.

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+1 - when i first started kegging I was shooting for that 8 second flow rate. Then I was like.. why? If you have more length you have an opportunity to carb your beer in a higher and more broad range. Who cares if your hefe at 14-15psi pours regular speed and your ale takes an extra second or two to fill the glass at 11psi. The result is always the same... a full pint with the proper amount of head.

letmeholleratya said:

Ok, cool. I didn't know if you had to let the beer equalize a little more after burping before putting serve pressure on.

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Your line of thought is correct. Once you boost carb like that it is desirable to let it hang out for a few hours on the regular pressure if you can so it will stabilize. i.e. it is ready to have a drink, but not stabilized enough to bottle. Although you can pour right away I typically let it sit for a couple hours before I pour off of the keg. It is usually fully stabilized and fully carbed (ready for bottling) in 3-5 days max depending on the carb I am looking for.

CidahMastah said:

Your line of thought is correct. Once you boost carb like that it is desirable to let it hang out for a few hours on the regular pressure if you can so it will stabilize. i.e. it is ready to have a drink, but not stabilized enough to bottle. Although you can pour right away I typically let it sit for a couple hours before I pour off of the keg. It is usually fully stabilized and fully carbed (ready for bottling) in 3-5 days max depending on the carb I am looking for.

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Thanks for the help. I took it off 60 last night, purged, and then set it at 12. Today it's carbed pretty well. Should be good for the weekend!

letmeholleratya said:

Thanks for the help. I took it off 60 last night, purged, and then set it at 12. Today it's carbed pretty well. Should be good for the weekend!

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really glad it worked out for you - told you it was easy! Carfbed enough to drink, but not all the way there.

You don't always need to get a keg carbed in a couple days, but when you do... boost carb it!

Thanks Bobby for this thread, and all the great info. Good way to kill a couple days at work going through this. I just kegged for the first time this past Saturday with a basic understanding of the process, then came across this thread, and the more I read, the more questions I had. But after reading all 508 posts... ALL 508 posts... Every question I had has been answered. Every scenario has been discussed... multiple times. If I had a quarter for every time somebody asked "how long should my beer lines be"... haha.

Thanks again Bobby, all the info you and the other seasoned homebrewing vets post on HBT on a regular basis has to be very time consuming, and greatly appreciated by 99.999% of us... I think you know who the 0.001% is. Haha.

Sorry if this question has been mentioned already in this post. I've read about 10-15 pages of this thread sporatically but didn't see it anywhere. So this is my first time kegging and I wanted to try the boost method so I can have some great tasting beer in about 2 weeks when some people will be coming over. I set my Co2 at 30 PSI last night, about 40 degrees in the kegerator, and this morning I checked at it was sitting at about 25 PSI. Does that mean there has to be a leak somewhere? Or could it mean that the beer absorbed some of it already? I never shook the keg at all.

Thanks for any advice guys. And thanks Bobby for this great sticky!

Edit: Oh, and I plan to bring it back down to 10 PSI tonight when I get home and just leave it there for the remainder of this brown ale's life.

Sippin37 said:

Sorry if this question has been mentioned already in this post. I've read about 10-15 pages of this thread sporatically but didn't see it anywhere. So this is my first time kegging and I wanted to try the boost method so I can have some great tasting beer in about 2 weeks when some people will be coming over. I set my Co2 at 30 PSI last night, about 40 degrees in the kegerator, and this morning I checked at it was sitting at about 25 PSI. Does that mean there has to be a leak somewhere? Or could it mean that the beer absorbed some of it already? I never shook the keg at all.

Thanks for any advice guys. And thanks Bobby for this great sticky!

Edit: Oh, and I plan to bring it back down to 10 PSI tonight when I get home and just leave it there for the remainder of this brown ale's life.

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2 weeks at 10PSI should get you properly carbed (a little low depending on the style and fridge temp). There is no need to boost if waiting 2 weeks. I always set mine to 12 and in two weeks it is fully carbed.

As for the difference in reading on the pressure gage, did you happen to have the CO2 tank outside of the fridge when you initially hooked it up ? The pressure will read differently when inside the cool fridge.

Sippin37 said:

Sorry if this question has been mentioned already in this post. I've read about 10-15 pages of this thread sporatically but didn't see it anywhere. So this is my first time kegging and I wanted to try the boost method so I can have some great tasting beer in about 2 weeks when some people will be coming over. I set my Co2 at 30 PSI last night, about 40 degrees in the kegerator, and this morning I checked at it was sitting at about 25 PSI. Does that mean there has to be a leak somewhere? Or could it mean that the beer absorbed some of it already? I never shook the keg at all.

Thanks for any advice guys. And thanks Bobby for this great sticky!

Edit: Oh, and I plan to bring it back down to 10 PSI tonight when I get home and just leave it there for the remainder of this brown ale's life.

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If you pressured up to 30 psi then removed the CO2 line, it means the beer has absorbed 5 psi of CO2

Sippin37 said:

Sorry if this question has been mentioned already in this post. I've read about 10-15 pages of this thread sporatically but didn't see it anywhere. So this is my first time kegging and I wanted to try the boost method so I can have some great tasting beer in about 2 weeks when some people will be coming over. I set my Co2 at 30 PSI last night, about 40 degrees in the kegerator, and this morning I checked at it was sitting at about 25 PSI. Does that mean there has to be a leak somewhere? Or could it mean that the beer absorbed some of it already? I never shook the keg at all.

Thanks for any advice guys. And thanks Bobby for this great sticky!

Edit: Oh, and I plan to bring it back down to 10 PSI tonight when I get home and just leave it there for the remainder of this brown ale's life.

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I'm no expert in the matter as I just kegged my 4th batch this week, but it seems as you set your regulator, it needs some time to correctly adjust to reflect where the actual pressure is sitting. Over the night, the beer is going to absorb some of the CO2, and my guess is the vacant head space pressure will change with the infusion of CO2 into the liquid which is where your change in regulator pressure is being observed.

The Co2 tank was inside my kegerator for a few hours before I even started to pressurize the keg, and it will remain in my kegerator all the time. I did notice that it takes a minute or so before the needle on the gauge will really settle on a number. So I made sure that it stopped on 30 PSI, and then morning it was at 25 PSI. So I turned it up a bit more to go back to 30 PSI. I guess I'll where it is at when I get home tonight. I'm hoping it is just the beer starting to absorb some of the Co2. I'll bring it back down to 10-12 PSI tonight and take a sample to see how it is coming along.

My biggest concern was just that there was a leak. So to me it sounds like there shouldn't be. Thanks guys

I have a been Carbing a cider at room temp at 25 psi for about two days now. I have not touched it yet but was wondering what my next step would be and how long it may take.

?

Pull a pint or wine glass its probably done...

Back on topic... I usually do the two days at 30 psi myself. I have to say bobby isnt off by saying its poor planning. I often think up a recipe too late to get it done by that holiday or that game... I plan on starting to brew now with better planning leaving me a few weeks to carb slowly. The extra time in the keg doesnt hurt you end result at all.

P.S. Bobby really knows how to start some posts... ;-) this started in 2008!...

I can't believe it's been that long already.

Hello all,

I just read all 52 pages of this thread......wow, thanks bobby! Being new to brewing I do have one question though....
If I'm shooting for a balanced system and using 10' of 3/16" line on say 10-12lbs of psi does it matter what kind of end I have on it? Can I use a picnic tap on that or would I have to use something else?