First Time Kegging Question

Brewer's Friend 728
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.
S

Scanloni

Active Member
Joined
Dec 6, 2011
Messages
40
Reaction score
0
Location
Rehoboth
My pale ale has been in primary for 4 weeks at about 64 degrees, sitting in basement. I was planning on siphoning into the keg, then hooking up co2, and placing both keg & co2 into kegerator to carb and chill for however long necessary.

I was under the impression that this would be ok, and if I set the co2 at serving pressure (12psi?) it would be ready to serve in about a week?

Or is it necessary to chill brew prior to kegging and hooking up co2 for some reason? And is 12 psi about right? Again, I'm not in a rush to drink, but the sooner the better of course!

TIA
 
You have a couple options, all work, so you can decide which works for you:

- You can crash cool the beer in whatever bucket or carboy it's in now to clear it up prior to siphoning. This is more for clarification, not for kegging.

- You can siphon into the keg without crashing and most of the stuff will drop to the bottom of the keg by the time you drink it.

You don't need to wait to chill before setting up the CO2, just check it after a few hours and make sure the tank is still reading at the same pressure after the temp falls. The beer absorbs CO2 faster the colder it gets.

I personally recommend 30 PSI for 36 hours (not a minute longer, so plan ahead and make sure you will be home and awake) then pop off the gas line from the keg, bleed enough gas out to be under 12 psi, reset regulator to serving pressure (12 psi or so), then let sit for 12 hours and it's ready to drink.

If you go the set it and forget it at 12psi, it might take up to 2 weeks to be ready. The reason some of us to the 30PSI for 36 hours is, it works consistently, it gets beers on tap faster and allows us to enjoy even fresher hop aromas. For my APAs and IPAs, I go this route. If I have something not hoppy or that will be aging, I set and forget.
 
theveganbrewer said:
You have a couple options, all work, so you can decide which works for you:

- You can crash cool the beer in whatever bucket or carboy it's in now to clear it up prior to siphoning. This is more for clarification, not for kegging.

- You can siphon into the keg without crashing and most of the stuff will drop to the bottom of the keg by the time you drink it.

You don't need to wait to chill before setting up the CO2, just check it after a few hours and make sure the tank is still reading at the same pressure after the temp falls. The beer absorbs CO2 faster the colder it gets.

I personally recommend 30 PSI for 36 hours (not a minute longer, so plan ahead and make sure you will be home and awake) then pop off the gas line from the keg, bleed enough gas out to be under 12 psi, reset regulator to serving pressure (12 psi or so), then let sit for 12 hours and it's ready to drink.

If you go the set it and forget it at 12psi, it might take up to 2 weeks to be ready. The reason some of us to the 30PSI for 36 hours is, it works consistently, it gets beers on tap faster and allows us to enjoy even fresher hop aromas. For my APAs and IPAs, I go this route. If I have something not hoppy or that will be aging, I set and forget.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. I like the 30 PSI for 36 hour plan and will try it. Just hooked up the co2 at 30 PSI at 6:00 pm, so if my math is right I should drop it to 12 PSI at 6 am Tuesday morning, right? Then ready to drink around 6:00 pm Tuesday night? What is the reasoning behind "not one minute longer than 36 hours"? Is it a safety or quality concern?

Also, how concerned do I need to be about maintaining 30 PSI as the beer goes from warm to cold overnight? I'm wondering if I'd be better off just disconnecting the gas for now, and then hooking up the 30 PSI tomorrow morning after the beer has chilled overnight? I don't want any catastrophe's overnight.
 
The reason not to carb at that pressure longer than 36 hrs is over carbonation. You can easily add more carb, but getting rid of extra carbonation is a PITA.
 
This is a carb chart so you can set the pressure to get the desired carb level at your temp.

I personally prefer the set and forget method because there is zero risk to overcarb, but it can take up to 2 wks to get fully carbed depending on the beer. That being said, I am able to drink many beers at a week. I just tapped an IPA that's been at serving pressure for 6 days and it's pretty much there. Certainly enough to enjoy.
 
The 36 hours should get you just shy of serving pressure, and then that extra 12 at serving pressure I just use to get me the last little bit there. I like to draw that line so I never forget, gotta stick to the 36.

You'll be fine on the pressure, just hit 30 and it'll probably be there in the AM. I do this all the time.
 
I always chill the beer in the primary to let stuff drop out, then rack cold into the keg. Then I do the most risky carbonation method:

-set at 30 psi, lift the keg up, and shake until I'm tired
-remove gas connection, shake again for 10 seconds
-lower gas to 20psi and repeat the two steps above
-lower gas to 12psi and repeat first two steps

When I do this, my beer is usually 90% carbonated and it only takes a day or so to get to normal.

The danger, of course, is overcarbonating. It sucks if you do it. You also have to be conscious of how much headspace you have in the keg. If you were to half fill a keg, and then shake to carbonate, you can easily overcarb it. If it's full to the brim, it will require a lot of shaking to get it carbed.

Most people figure out some method that gets them close, and then do set-and-forget for a few more days. But I'm thirsty now so I usually can't wait!
 

Similar threads

M
If you wanna chuckle... Read this
Replies
16
Views
1K
Brewer Mike
B
R
How do you go about serving with 100% Nitrogen?
Replies
16
Views
2K
fluketamer
F
J
CO2 Pressure keep going up. Even swapped regulators!
Replies
7
Views
1K
IslandLizard
IslandLizard
griffr311
Force Carbing frustration
Replies
21
Views
2K
OleBrewing
OleBrewing
kurds_2408
Question About Keg Secondary
Replies
9
Views
790
Broken Crow
Broken Crow
SSBrew 300

Latest posts

Back
Top