Do you bleed off pressure to pour after carbonation is complete?

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midwestbiker

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I've searched and cannot find the answer so here is the question. I have been carbonating my first keg for a few days at 25 PSI and 40 degrees. I believe it is about done now but don't know what the best method or best practice is to reduce the pressure so I don't over carbonate or the beer doesn't shoot out the tap.

What is the best pressure to maintain after the beer is carbonated (noting there may be minor tweaking based upon the setup) for pouring out of the tap? I do have Perlick faucets.

Dave
 
Set it at your serving pressure. You should probably bleed off first just so you don't get excessive foaming from trying to serve at the high pressure.
 
By "serving pressure", he means pick a a carbonation level, then use a calculator like this:

http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/carbonation.html

to determine how many PSI that is at your system's temperature.

And yes, you'll need to empty the headspace in order to lower the pressure after you turn down the regulator. Your regulator won't dump that extra CO2 back into the tank...

You can also just pour a few beers instead of venting, that'll help bring the pressure down :p

A lot of us just use the "set and forget" carbing method, where you leave the keg at serving pressure for a couple weeks to slowly carbonate. If you aren't in a hurry, it's the most foolproof method.
 
I like the set and forget and will use that in the future. Had to rush the carbonation on this batch so we can enjoy on Thanksgiving. Thanks for the link too.

Dave
 
I have 2 methods I use:

Method #1 (slow method): Set psi to serving pressure and let sit 1 to 2 weeks. 1 week is good, 2 weeks is spot on.
Method #2 (faster method): Set psi to 30 for 2 to 3 days. Turn off gas, purge keg. set psi to serving pressure (usually 8 @ 38 degrees for most of my beers)for 2 days and its ready to go.

I hope that helps.
 
I like the set and forget and will use that in the future. Had to rush the carbonation on this batch so we can enjoy on Thanksgiving. Thanks for the link too.

Dave

If it's been at 40 degrees and 25 psi for "a couple of days", turn it down and purge today. It'll be overcarbed if you don't!
 
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