Kegging Hard Root Beer

So I decided it was time to start kegging, and bought a kegging setup off amazon. Should be here this week. The first brew I was going to keg is 3 gallons of hard root beer. I've been bottling and naturally carbing the previous batches and they came out really good, more of a beer head then a soda head. These are probably really simple questions but I want to do it right.

I have two questions-
1. I understand that root beer is force carbed at a higher psi then beer, so should I treat this as a root beer or a normal beer?

2. It's a 5 gallon corny but I only made 3 gallons of beer, is there a different method of carbing if there is this much head space?

1) That depends on how much carbonation you want. Traditionally, root beer is carbed much higher than real beer. If you want a traditional highly-carbed root beer, you will need to do so at a higher pressure (maybe ~30psi), and you will have to adjust your kegging setup to compensate (longer lines, maybe 20').

If you are okay with a lower carbonation (beer level), then you can carb it exactly the same way and use the same length of lines as you would for a beer setup.

2) If you are force carbing, then 3 gallons in a 5 gallon vessel is fine. You can force carb the same way you would a 5 gallon batch. It may require a bit more C02, but that's about it. Just be sure to thoroughly purge out all of the oxygen after you keg.

If you are natural carbing, it may be a bit more tricky since you have more headspace.

Thank you for the incite, I will be force carbing, and mostly likely treating like a beer, instead of root beer soda. Ill try to get as much O2 from the headspace as possible.

Bauerbrewery1989 said:

So I decided it was time to start kegging, and bought a kegging setup off amazon. Should be here this week. The first brew I was going to keg is 3 gallons of hard root beer. I've been bottling and naturally carbing the previous batches and they came out really good, more of a beer head then a soda head. These are probably really simple questions but I want to do it right.

I have two questions-
1. I understand that root beer is force carbed at a higher psi then beer, so should I treat this as a root beer or a normal beer?

2. It's a 5 gallon corny but I only made 3 gallons of beer, is there a different method of carbing if there is this much head space?

Click to expand...

A bit off topic, but what did you use for a recipe? Will be interested to hear how it tastes when you're done. I've made several non-alcoholic RBs (with higher carb levels) but no alcoholic versions.

Its a I've been working on for awhile now. Here is the basic one gallon recipe- https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f78/grandpa-willies-hard-root-beer-419417/

Also I've been getting some incite on the ingredients forum, here's a link to that too- https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/hard-root-beer-recipe-416406/

I've made the recipe twice and bottled, tastes great.

Bauerbrewery1989 said:

Its a I've been working on for awhile now. Here is the basic one gallon recipe- https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f78/grandpa-willies-hard-root-beer-419417/

Also I've been getting some incite on the ingredients forum, here's a link to that too- https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/hard-root-beer-recipe-416406/

I've made the recipe twice and bottled, tastes great.

Click to expand...

Can you post your 3 gallon recipe and how you will be doing it when using a keg instead of bottle? I am really interested in trying it this week and out of all the recipes for Hard Root Beer on the Internet yours seems to be the best.