Tap-a-draft question

So I've been patiently waiting to use my TAD system for the first time. I've had a beer naturally conditioning/carbing in there for just over 3 weeks now, and I think it's ready, so last night I stuck it in the fridge and turned the temp down in the fridge to help speed up the chilling/dissolving of co2 into the liquid.

Today I opened it and attached the draft, and injected one cartridge into the bottle. The beer bubbled and a tiny bit of co2 left the relief valve, but not much - so far so good. I put the bottle in the fridge.

My question is this, because it has been carbing for 3 weeks, can I drink it tonight? Or do I need to wait longer for the co2 I just injected to dissolve into the liquid?

TIA!

damdaman said:

My question is this, because it has been carbing for 3 weeks, can I drink it tonight? Or do I need to wait longer for the co2 I just injected to dissolve into the liquid?

TIA!

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If you are confident that it is carbonated already from the 3 week conditioning then you should be good to go...the c02 canisters are just to serve the beer, since it is already carbonated. There really won't be much "absorbing" into the beer, it will just be pushing the beer out.

Thanks, that's what I was hoping. I am sure it's carbed from the conditioning, the bottles are rock hard and I even had some leakage. Cheers!

Just pulled my first beer from my TAD system, and it worked flawlessly. Delicious! I'm very happy with this... looks like I'm going to have to order more bottles and maybe another tap.

damdaman said:

Just pulled my first beer from my TAD system, and it worked flawlessly. Delicious! I'm very happy with this... looks like I'm going to have to order more bottles and maybe another tap.

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NICE!!! Yeah, I have that system too and it does indeed work great! BUT I am sure you will still eventually move on to corny kegs and everything...I sure did. The TADs are a great in between solution from bottling to kegging though.

Does a TAD work well for english ales with low carbonation levels? I've thought of using cubitainer but the TAD might keep the ale fresher.

Bassman said:

Does a TAD work well for english ales with low carbonation levels? I've thought of using cubitainer but the TAD might keep the ale fresher.

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I would think so, but perhaps someone with more understanding of how co2 works in these systems can answer.

Basically you can naturally carbonate, which would allow you to prime however much you wanted and control the carbonation that way, or you can use the co2 cartridges to force carbonate, but this takes almost as long because the pressure doesn't exceed 15 psi.

However I'm not sure how this would affect the ability of the TAD system to pour. Just by observing my TAD pouring last night it seems like the co2 from the cartridge just goes right through the beer and into the headspace of the bottle, thus filling the space left by the exiting beer, so I would think it would work for low-carb ales. But I do wonder if, over time, this co2 would be absorbed into the beer if kept in the fridge.

There's no adjusting the pressure level in the TAD. So, if you naturally carb the beer at a lower level, it was gradually move to a higher carbonation level as it sits in the fridge.

I do notice that my TAD gives me lower and lower levels of carbonation as I drink it after the CO2 carts have emptied (I don't change them as soon as they empty... I'm cheap that way) so that might give you some lower level carbonation, but it'll go back up once it gets low enough that you need to replace the carts.

If you keep your fridge on the colder side, you could just pull a pint and let it sit for a couple minutes. It'll warm up to serving temp and lose excess carbonation at the same time.