Trying a new force carb method

I was talking with a couple of the guys at the local brew store and they gave me a new method of force carbing a corney keg.

Hook the CO2 line to the OUTBOUND side of the tank, crank the pressure to 30 lbs of pressure and rock the tank back and forth for 2 1/2 minutes. Let the tank site for 45 minutes to allow the head to clear, bleed off the CO2 and reset to serving pressure.

I'm trying it, but I found one issue, after about a minute of rocking the keg I started to get a lot of back pressure on the CO2 line and it was spitting out where the screw on valve is attached to the hose. I was able to hold it and still allow the CO2 to fill the tank....

Then, when I was done I had to really use some pressure to get the CO2 dispensing valve to come off. I know that using the beer one on the CO2 side will result in it getting stuck and not coming off....but I was worried this one wouldn't come off.

The idea behind this method I was told, is the CO2 is bubbling from the bottom and can be absorbed quicker and easier....now if it wasn't for those two glitches I'd say I'm gonna like this method.

Thoughts?

I believe you are suppose to change the connector so you don't have a stuck connector issue. It should solve all your problems.

Remember that bubbling through the beer won't carb any faster- the bubbles are too big to dissolve. If you want to do something like this, use a carbonation stone so the bubbles are smaller and can actually dissolve in the beer. Even that is only marginally faster, but at least it would work. And you'd be less likely to ruin your regulator by backflow.

If you set the regulator to thirty psi overnight then turn it down to serving pressure the next morning you'll have less to worry about.

Yooper said:

Remember that bubbling through the beer won't carb any faster- the bubbles are too big to dissolve. If you want to do something like this, use a carbonation stone so the bubbles are smaller and can actually dissolve in the beer. Even that is only marginally faster, but at least it would work. And you'd be less likely to ruin your regulator by backflow.

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This.

Getting gasses into water is all about pressure and surface area. Bubbling through the dip tube would do hardly anything at all compared to the sloshing of the keg.

There's an LHBS owner here who insists that all you have to do is bring the keg up to 24psi, put it back in the fridge overnight, and then bring it back to 24psi again and give it another day in the fridge and you're done. No sloshing or anything.

Extensive research into oxygenation of water (to keep fish alive) has shown that aeration stones work mostly because of the exponential increase in surface area caused by the bubbles bursting on the surface -- that, in fact, if you had an oxygen rich environment on top of the water and then pushed nitrogen through the stone, you would greatly increase the absorption of oxygen. The bubbles in the water do almost nothing.

I will try the other hookup, I never thought of that (feel free to hit me with a 2x4 for being so stupid).

These guys swear by it......the one is starting up a brewery in downtown St. Louis (I think the name of it is Dogtown Brewery) and from he's telling me that is the way he's going to carb his kegs.......

TimpanogosSlim said:

This.

Getting gasses into water is all about pressure and surface area. Bubbling through the dip tube would do hardly anything at all compared to the sloshing of the keg.

There's an LHBS owner here who insists that all you have to do is bring the keg up to 24psi, put it back in the fridge overnight, and then bring it back to 24psi again and give it another day in the fridge and you're done. No sloshing or anything.

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When I"m in a huge hurry, I put the beer (it's warm when I keg it) in the kegerator at 30 psi. 36 hours later, I purge and reset to 12 psi. It works fine and I never get backflow or overcarbed foamy beer. If I"m not in a hurry, I set the beer in the kegerator with the other kegs at 12 psi.

The first method is ready to drink in 36 hours, but it gets better over a couple more days. The second method is ready in 7-10 days. No foam, overcarbonation, sloshing, shaking, bubbling, etc.

There are probably as many ways to force carb as there are brewers. But almost all of the "help my beer is foamy/explosive/overcarbed" threads on this forum involve something like shaking, setting the regulator above 12 psi, trying to quickly carb up the beer. That's just something to consider when being impatient!

There was a thread on there the other day where a guy used the rolling method but only at serving pressure. Seems like a decent idea. But doubt I'll try that because it would stir whatever little bit of trub that had settled out get back into the beer.

Dan said:

There was a thread on there the other day where a guy used the rolling method but only at serving pressure. Seems like a decent idea. But doubt I'll try that because it would stir whatever little bit of trub that had settled out get back into the beer.

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I've done that several times and it works fine. Set at 12 PSI and shake for about 30 seconds and you hear the gas start to flow while you are shaking it, then slows down. Let it settle for a few minutes and repeat. When I do this in the AM, by that night it's ready to drink. Maybe not fully carbed but close enough, and you dont risk getting it over-carbed like when you are using the shaking method but at a much higher pressure.

I'll know soon enough, I'm going to pour a glass in my traditional Old Milwaukee Beer glass.

I put regulator between 20 and 30psi and shake the bejeebus out of keg for 15 seconds or so, wait a minute, repeat, then put away in fridge. My beer is also cold at the time of racking due to cold-crashing. I come back in 24 hours and close valve, bleed keg co2, set regulator to serving pressure and voila. Almost carbed, just enough to start drinking. Definitely better as the days go by thereafter, and I keep it on the high end of serving pressure (12psi) for a few days then back it down below 10 usually. I have 10' of serving line.

Yooper said:

When I"m in a huge hurry, I put the beer (it's warm when I keg it) in the kegerator at 30 psi. 36 hours later, I purge and reset to 12 psi. It works fine and I never get backflow or overcarbed foamy beer. If I"m not in a hurry, I set the beer in the kegerator with the other kegs at 12 psi.

The first method is ready to drink in 36 hours, but it gets better over a couple more days. The second method is ready in 7-10 days. No foam, overcarbonation, sloshing, shaking, bubbling, etc.

There are probably as many ways to force carb as there are brewers. But almost all of the "help my beer is foamy/explosive/overcarbed" threads on this forum involve something like shaking, setting the regulator above 12 psi, trying to quickly carb up the beer. That's just something to consider when being impatient!

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+1 on Yooper's second method. Your beer will love you for it.

+1 on the 30/36 (psi/hrs) method, although mine is usually cold from crashing; never had an over carb, though.

Now, I haven't tried the beer yet, meeting with a client in about 20 minutes so don't want that "beer breath". The only downside I can see right now is getting it overcarbed. If that happens, how would I go about solving that problem?

dpalme said:

Now, I haven't tried the beer yet, meeting with a client in about 20 minutes so don't want that "beer breath". The only downside I can see right now is getting it overcarbed. If that happens, how would I go about solving that problem?

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remove from gas, pull release and de-gas completely. Leave off gas and every few hours de-gas. After a day, hook beer line up and pull sample. Repeat as necessary.

sounds like it's much easier to set and forget at 20-30 psi than to do all of the sloshing/overcarbonating/degassing. i guess after a few times you could get it right, i suppose.

eastoak said:

sounds like it's much easier to set and forget at 20-30 psi than to do all of the sloshing/overcarbonating/degassing. i guess after a few times you could get it right, i suppose.

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No, set and forget is around 12-14PSI depending on temperature in fridge/keezer.

20-30psi is the "burst" carb method...much more unpredictable.

tre9er said:

No, set and forget is around 12-14PSI depending on temperature in fridge/keezer.

20-30psi is the "burst" carb method...much more unpredictable.

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oops, got it now.

Thought I would give an update......after I got back poured out a perfectly carbonated American pale ale. First pour had a bit of a head to it but after that all was good. No degassing either.

Thanks everyone

tre9er said:

No, set and forget is around 12-14PSI depending on temperature in fridge/keezer.

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...and the length of your serving line.