Kegging poll & question

Ok my question is to those experienced keggers out there, as this is my first time with it. The method I'm going to use is to naturally carbonate, using a 1/3 cup of corn sugar boiled in 2 cups of water. My question is what pressure do I set the reg to once I've got everything in the keg that I need? I want to purge the air from the head space, but then what pressure do I leave it at. And how long will natural carbonation take in the keg?

Also I've recieved some advice from an experienced kegger that once it's done carbonating, that he sets his pressure to about 25-30lbs when he's not serving it, will this overcarbonate the beer to be stored at that pressure? He also says about every week or so he checks the pressure to make sure it's not leaking and he'll top it off up to 25lbs. Has anyone else done anything like that?

I force carbonate most of the time due to lack of patience and supply. If I have enough beer to carry me or if I'm making a batch for a Real Ale fest, I'll carbonate naturally. When naturally carbonating, I'll add the water and sugar/DME to the keg, rack on top of it, purge the O2, add CO2 to about 30-40#s to seal the lid. Once I've checked for leaks and none are found, I'll release the pressure to 10#s and leave as is at room temp until carbonated (2-3 weeks).

Good luck,
Wild

brendon7800 said:

Also I've recieved some advice from an experienced kegger that once it's done carbonating, that he sets his pressure to about 25-30lbs when he's not serving it, will this overcarbonate the beer to be stored at that pressure? He also says about every week or so he checks the pressure to make sure it's not leaking and he'll top it off up to 25lbs. Has anyone else done anything like that?

Click to expand...

The carbonation tables tell the whole story here. It's going to depend on the temperature you store your keg. The combination of temperature and pressure yields a parameter called "volumes of CO2". This is a measure of the amount of carbonation in the beer (measured in grams of CO2 per liter). For most beer styles, 2.3 - 2.4 volumes is a good number. Below is a list of temps and pressures to give volumes of CO2:

Temp / Press / Volumes
70 / 30 / 2.23
65 / 25 / 2.28
60 / 20 / 2.27
55 / 17 / 2.26
50 / 15 / 2.30
45 / 12 / 2.26
40 / 10 / 2.30
35 / 8 / 2.34

My personal bench mark is 42 F @ 11 PSI. Here is a link to a complete carbonation table. Scroll down to the bottom of the page:

http://sdcollins.home.mindspring.com/ForceCarbonation.html

And just for the record, force carbonation is much more consistent, much faster, and much cleaner (no added sediment) than priming.

Prosit!