Kegging Question

Hey guys, I just kegged for the first time, and I'm force carbing it in my fridge under 30 PSI for a couple days...my question is..after it is done carbing do you guys just dial down the pressure to 5-10 psi and the tank on 24/7 or do you turn off the CO2 and just turn it on when you want some brew? And if you leave it on how long does you tank usually last? (I have a 6 pound tank)

Assuming you don't overcarb it at 30psi, you'll eventually want to dial in the pressure using the temperature and volumes chart for your beer style. Yes, the range is like 8-12psi depending. It would be a real pain to keep turning the gas on and off whenever you want to pour so I know a lot of us leave the gas on. Of course, check for gas leaks. With no leaks, you won't use gas up any faster with the tank on or off. You should get 8-10 kegs carbed and dispensed on a 5lb tank.

I wouldn't go more than a day at 30 psi. Bleed off the excess pressure, then dial it down to 5-15 pounds, depending on beer style, serving temperature, line diameter, and line length. Use some of the web based calculators available for this or the line length calculator I posted in the software forum.

I usually go for 20 or 30 PSI for one day to force carbonate, I shake the keg for about 5 to 10 minutes at 3 or 4 different points in the day. After that I let it sit for a day at 20 to 30 psi. Then I dial the keg down to serving pressure 8 psi and let it sit for a week (ok 3 or 4 days) till the pressure drops down a little further. By that time, any excess CO2 above 20 or 30 psi should have hopefully disolved into the beer. Whether or not I go 20 or 30 or somewhere in between depends on the numbers I get off of a chart in one of the books, I forget which one....

I usually set my regulator to 12 and leave it on until the keg is about 3/4 empty. Then I turn it off until I kill the keg and refill it.