Dispensing Co2 from bottom of keg

Does anyone use one of those Co2 stones so that the Co2 dispenses from the bottom of the keg and not the top? Supposedly you can carbonate a beer in 24 hours without the high pressure shake mathod.

Curious how well it works if anyone has tried....

A number of members on other forums have and say they are great. They dont' necessarily dispense from the bottom of the keg, they just make the co2 going into the keg 5 micron bubbles.

This is relatively easy to do.. get a SS airstone, a length of hose and something else to weigh down the hose on the airstone side.. slip that over your "IN" tube on your keg. As long as the hose doesn't feel a need to float back up (why you add weight) you can carbonate as usual, just with the stone hooked up...

There's also ways to do it with a metal rod, since that wont float around at all..

This sounds like a good idea... hmmm... I also have heard of people hooking the co2 to the beer dispensing side to fill a few times.. that way the co2 comes from the bottom of the keg...

Jester said:

This sounds like a good idea... hmmm... I also have heard of people hooking the co2 to the beer dispensing side to fill a few times.. that way the co2 comes from the bottom of the keg...

Click to expand...

I've done this when not doing the shake method to carbonate a bit faster but just during the initial shot & bleed then put it back on the in and let it sit. Don't know if it speeded anything up.

Jester said:

This sounds like a good idea... hmmm... I also have heard of people hooking the co2 to the beer dispensing side to fill a few times.. that way the co2 comes from the bottom of the keg...

Click to expand...

I've done this and it's pretty much useless, the CO2 bubbles just float upward into the headspace (and they aren't fine bubbles, either)... The CO2 absorption into the beer this way is minimal, and no speedier than the 'normal' way.

Jester said:

This sounds like a good idea... hmmm... I also have heard of people hooking the co2 to the beer dispensing side to fill a few times.. that way the co2 comes from the bottom of the keg...

Click to expand...

This will provide little to no speeding up of the carbonation process, as the bubbles coming through are too big to be of any use - they just fly up to the top of the brew, and into the headspace.

Carbonation stones release tiny, tiny little bubbles that greatly increase their surface area exposure.

I kegged my Fat Tire beer Thursday night with the beer stone, put it on 10 lbs of pressure and gave it a go today. it is definitely carbonated, and the bubbles are small enough to give it almost a gunniess-like head, so I'd say the stone works to speed up the carbonatin process, but the body is definitely not there yet. If it was a plain bitter it might be drinakable already, but with 6+ grains I think it is going to need a week in the keg to get the right body...

I have the stones and they work good. I put my keg in the fridge, put the CO2 to 30psi, let it sit for a day. Bleed the pressure off. Return to 10-12psi and serve.