how long to age before force carbing

ok, my 2nd batch here now, and I have a question. It is going to be a rye pale ale, and I will ferment for 7-10 days. After that I will rack to a carboy for 1 week? and then keg and carbonate and let it sit for 2 more weeks? my question is in regards to the time frame... should it sit in the carboy for longer then keg and force carb? should it be force carbed then sit for 2 weeks? how much time is needed till it can be drunk? what would it taste like or look like if drunk too soon? thanks for the input

E

Me, I'd let it sit in the primary for 3, maybe four weeks. Rack to the keg. Slow carb at serving temp - one week. Drink away.

Welcome to HBT, E-Rok!

For a pale ale, I think a month for fermentation and force carbonation is quite sufficient. My suggestion is to simplify. A secondary fermenting bessel is not needed. Leave your ale in the primary fermenter for 14 days and then, if your hydrometer tests show a stable FG for the last three days, rack your beer to a keg, set your CO2 to the desired level, and forget about it for 12-14 more days. Then enjoy!

EDIT: I'm a relative n00b to kegging, so what I've reported is my schedule. But sounds like pjj2ba may have more experience.

Since you are kegging, what I like to do is once the fermentation has stopped I go ahead and transfer it to a keg. Then I'll let it sit for a week and then I start to carbonate. I like the set and forget method which takes a week or so.

Transfering out of primary sooner vs later is a taste preference - probably fairly subtle in the case of a pale ale. There are still plenty of yeast in suspension to do any "cleaning up" that needs to be done.

Thanks guys, that helps a ton. Now the next question is to dry hop or no, I plan to steal a taste from the fermenter after approximately 2 weeks and see if I want more aroma. If yes then on to carboy for dry hopping, I'd not it will stay in the fermenter till kegging.

pjj2ba said:

Since you are kegging, what I like to do is once the fermentation has stopped I go ahead and transfer it to a keg. Then I'll let it sit for a week and then I start to carbonate. I like the set and forget method which takes a week or so.

Transfering out of primary sooner vs later is a taste preference - probably fairly subtle in the case of a pale ale. There are still plenty of yeast in suspension to do any "cleaning up" that needs to be done.

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if i keg and then let it sit a week before starting the carbonation process should that be done in my kegerator or at room temp (its been warm here in FL)

E-rok said:

Thanks guys, that helps a ton. Now the next question is to dry hop or no, I plan to steal a taste from the fermenter after approximately 2 weeks and see if I want more aroma. If yes then on to carboy for dry hopping, I'd not it will stay in the fermenter till kegging.

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You can always hang a bag of whole leaf hops in the keg. It's easy to sample and monitor that way since you can get a feel for the true carbonated taste. Once you are happy with the hop result, vent the keg, pull the hops, reseal and repressurize....that's how I oak.

Is the point of kegging and waiting a week to let any sediment fall to the bottom

I believe you want to leave as much sediment behind when transferring into the keg. Any trub to transfer over will fall out during the carbing process but will be pulled into the glass when you serve it. The dip tube in the keg pulls from the bottom. After fermentation chill the beer before you transfer it to the keg. As you get near the bottom stop transferring right before you start pulling trub into the keg. Then carb away

I let my beer ferment for three weeks, then rack to a keg and carbonate at serving pressure (aroung 10 psi). Right now I have a pretty good pipeline so I usually wont tap a keg until it has been in the kegerator (carbing) for about 4 weeks.

Eric

It's essentially acting as your secondary fermentation vessel. But, if it's in your kegerator the low temp will cause your yeast to go dormant so you'll want to keep it at room temp unless you just want to start carbing right after you transfer from the primary. It's really just personal preference.

when siphoning into the final keg for carbonating I found there was a lot of crap at the botton that i ended up leaving behind. I t seemed like a waste of a lot of beer. any way to avoid that?

I would finish fermentation in primary and crash cool to drop and clear the beer, and then put it in the keg. If you are worried about aging it longer, there will still be plenty of yeast to clean it up, if you want to carb, it will carb much faster when it is cold from the crash.

I siphoned (racked? is that the same thing?) to a keg and cooled it for 48 hours. Then I siphoned again to another keg and set pressure to 12 psi for 30 hours. I just realized I could pull the crap off the bottom by pouring a beer, which I did, then I pulled the ball lock fitting and am letting it carb for about another week.

E-rok said:

I siphoned (racked? is that the same thing?) to a keg and cooled it for 48 hours. Then I siphoned again to another keg and set pressure to 12 psi for 30 hours. I just realized I could pull the crap off the bottom by pouring a beer, which I did, then I pulled the ball lock fitting and am letting it carb for about another week.

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Siphoning twice is a waste of time and risks oxidizing your beer. Remember that all of the sediment will fall to the bottom in the first keg. Pour three ounces of beer out after a week, and then it will only be nice clear beer left.

I don't move my kegs around, though. I put the beer from the fermenter into the keg, and then let it sit in the kegerator. If you're going to move the beer around, you could easily transfer it into a new keg without siphoning and risk oxidizing your beer. You'd just use co2 to do it.

If I'm moving beer from one keg to another, I use a homemade "jumper cable". That's a black quick disconnect connected to four feet of beerline and then another black QD. Get the new keg, and hook up one QD to the beer "out" post. Put the other black QD on the other keg's "out" post. Make sure your gas is turned on, and just pull the pressure relief valve and the beer will move from one keg to the other, without risking oxidation.

If you're using a keg for a secondary, don't open it up and siphon to a new keg. Either keep it in the fermenter longer, or keep it in the keg. There is no reason to siphon again.

E-rok said:

Thanks guys, that helps a ton. Now the next question is to dry hop or no, I plan to steal a taste from the fermenter after approximately 2 weeks and see if I want more aroma. If yes then on to carboy for dry hopping, I'd not it will stay in the fermenter till kegging.

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Tasting the beer while in the FV will not give you an accurate hop taste or aroma profile of what it will be once it is carbed.

thanks for all the help!!! this is a total learning process right now, and I am figuring things out every day, this has been super helpful!

This has been a very useful thread. Thank you all.

If I rack my beer to the keg after primary, and don't want to chill it yet, what is the recommended procedure? Would I rack to the keg, push in some CO2 at 30psi to clear the headspace and ensure tight seals? At that point, I assume the pressure will drop as that CO2 is absorbed. Would it be better to use priming sugar on a keg that will sit a while before going into the kegerator?

Thanks,
Matt

mappler said:

This has been a very useful thread. Thank you all.

If I rack my beer to the keg after primary, and don't want to chill it yet, what is the recommended procedure? Would I rack to the keg, push in some CO2 at 30psi to clear the headspace and ensure tight seals? At that point, I assume the pressure will drop as that CO2 is absorbed. Would it be better to use priming sugar on a keg that will sit a while before going into the kegerator?

Thanks,
Matt

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Yes, you've got it. Give it a blast of co2, purge, and do it again. Then check the seals (I spray starsan solution around the lid and posts) and set it aside.

If you'd like, you can prime the keg if it's going to sit at room temperature for 2-3 weeks or so. Use 1/2 of the regular amount of priming sugar for bottling. I use 2-2.5 ounces by weight of corn sugar per 5 gallons in a keg.