quick question on kegging

I am going to do my first kegging this weekend into a corny keg. I am opting for set and forget instead of trying to force carb. I realize it needs to be cold to carb, but here is my question... Does the keg need to be cold when I first connect the gas or can I connect, stick gas/keg in fridge, come back in a week-ish and drink?

Also, I am planning on going 12psi on a 5 gal keg in a 34 degree fridge with 5 feet of beer line going to a cobra faucet. Does this sound ok for a nut brown ale? (info taken from carb chart)

I am trying to play everything safe this batch and not experiment around too much.

i just connect the gas in and put it in the fridge. i don't wate for it to cool down it seems to work good for me.

You can just rack the warm beer to the keg connect the gas and throw it in the fridge. The beer doesn't need to be cold to carb (think about bottling carbing) but liquid absorbs gas better as lower temps. I usually just use the set and forget method at 10 psi for all beers, but 12 for a brown sounds good.

I would chill it for about 2 days, and then hook up to the gas to avoid chill haze.

JonClayton said:

I am going to do my first kegging this weekend into a corny keg. I am opting for set and forget instead of trying to force carb.

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Both "set and forget" and "cranking to 30psi for two days... yada yada..." are Force Carbing methods as opposed to using priming sugar to Naturally Carb.

That being said, I think you are right on the money using "set and forget" at 12 PSI. I usually put my kegs in the keezer and hook up gas right away, but after reading what JOHN51277 says above I might try chilling it first.

Guntr, you are correct, I apologize for my bad terminology. I guess I should say I am not going to try the super fast force carb methods, at least not on my first few kegs. Thank you everyone. Here is to hoping for good results.

JOHN51277 said:

I would chill it for about 2 days, and then hook up to the gas to avoid chill haze.

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Why would this create chill haze? It's never been a problem for me.

Sea said:

Why would this create chill haze?

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+1... citation needed.

if you guys don't mind i'm gonna hijack this thread and ask a quick question of my own. The gas can be stored in the fridge right, and also does the gas have to be hooked up the whole time you are carbing your beer or does it just stay pressurized? This is my first brew and first time kegging.

I keg, then Put in the fridge with gas attached (10 psi). I purge the air off a few times. The when it's cold I crank up the pressure to 30 psi and shake it 100 times. Put it back in the fridge for an hour, turn pressure down to about 6 psi and purge to equalize at 6 psi. Let stand for 15 to 20 minute and enjoy. It's been working for me.

I have a couple more questions, so I will add them here instead of starting a new thread.

1) I set my gas to 12 psi when the tank was at room temp. I moved the tank/keg into the fridge and allowed it to chill. The PSI dropped to 10 when the tank chilled as expected, so I readjusted the regulator back to 12. I read some older 2008 threads on this forum stating that the gauges are off in the fridge. Did I do the right thing? Should I have left it alone and not readjusted once the tank chilled? I want to run it at 12psi.

2) Along the same lines.. I would like to locate my tank outside the fridge eventually, but since it is in a garage would I constantly be fighting temp related pressure issues since the garage warms/cools during the day?

3) The disconnect on my gas side seems to be finicky. It worked fine when I first tested but the second time I tested it seems to want to leak. I took it off and put it back on and wiggled it a number of times and now it seems stable, but if you wiggle the disconnect it will start leaking. I suspect the o-ring on the keg post, does this sound reasonable?

4) Just to make sure.. on a "Set and forget" force carb, do I need to purge the keg at all?

Anyone? I apologize for the newbie questions. I promise I will relax after my first pint

I don't think the regulator is supposed to care what temp it is.. it should stay at whatever pressure you set it for.

Might as well just pop on a new o-ring and see. Use a little keg lube so the new one doesn't get torn.

Always purge a keg before and after filling (unless it's a closed transfer, like from one keg to another, then before only). To make sure you have only CO2 in your keg, fill it with no-rinse sanitizer to the tippy top then push it out with CO2. You can just fill and vent a few times, but it's not 100% and uses more gas (but is what I usually do anyway).

Yeah, the regulators aren't perfect either. I've found that as the beer absorbs co2, the regulator doesn't always keep the psi where it was. IOW, the pressure drops as the co2 is absorbed into the beer. It's not really supposed to, but sometimes it happens. So, as a keg is carbonating I check and adjust the pressure daily.

Also, what size hose are you using? If 3/16"id hose, you're fine. If for some reason you are using 1/4"id hose, then you'll end up with too much foam with 5' of line.

I've stored my tank in the fridge for extended periods with no noticeable effect.

I am using 3/16" for the beer line.

Before using the keg for the first time I filled with a saniclean solution, hooked up the gas, checked for leaks, and dispensed the saniclean through the cobra faucet.

I just finished reading some old post on purging, sounds like I may have screwed up by not purging the oxygen out as soon as I connected the gas. It's only been 2 days, hopefully if i purge when I get home the beer will still be drinkable.

JonClayton said:

I am using 3/16" for the beer line.

Before using the keg for the first time I filled with a saniclean solution, hooked up the gas, checked for leaks, and dispensed the saniclean through the cobra faucet.

I just finished reading some old post on purging, sounds like I may have screwed up by not purging the oxygen out as soon as I connected the gas. It's only been 2 days, hopefully if i purge when I get home the beer will still be drinkable.

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JonClayton:
Relax!
It's not rocket science...
O2 is bad for your beer. Beer is bad for your liver. But your liver doesn't explode if you drink a beer. It takes a lot of beer, and a long time.
Same with O2 in my experience. I've never let a keg sit for more than a month - but in that time I've never noticed a problem that I would attribute to O2.

My kegging day goes like this:

• Take the lid off of a sanitized keg
• Rack beer into it
• Replace the lid
• Pressurize with 30 PSI to seal, purging a few times
• Put it in the fridge at serving pressure for 2 to 3 weeks to carb
• Enjoy

If the beer needs time to age it goes like this:

• Take the lid off of a sanitized keg
• Rack beer into it
• Replace the lid
• Pressurize with 30 PSI to seal, purging a few times
• Remove gas, let it age at room temp
• After it's aged long enough - get another sanitized keg (Lid on this time)
• Hook up a jumper line from "Out to Out" on the 2 kegs (Black QD's on both ends)
• Apply 3 PSI to the full (aging) keg
• Open the relief on the empty (serving) keg
• Beer goes from aging keg to serving keg, leaving most of the trub behind.
• Put the serving keg (now full) in the fridge at serving pressure for 2 to 3 weeks to carb
• Enjoy

The threads you have read about the pressure changing when you put the CO2 in the fridge are referring to the pressure in the bottle. When mine is warm, it reads around 600 PSI. In the fridge it's around 450 and almost to the "Refill" mark on the gauge. IMO the high pressure gauges should be removed and capped! The tank will read the same pressure, until ALL of the liquid CO2 is gone. Then it will drop to 0 PSI very quickly. That gauge is useful for all of 1/2 a day right before a refill. Otherwise ignore it.

Don't worry about keeping the tank warm or cold. If you're worried about the regulator changing pressure, install secondary regulators inside your fridge to handle the final pressure on your kegs. I'm not worried, so I don't...

Use keg lube to lubricate and seal all o-rings. Always. It's a hell of a lot cheaper than re-filling a tank of gas a week after you bought it because of a little leak.

ravsta:
Always keep the gas hooked up. The carbonating beer will keep absorbing CO2 until the gas reaches equilibrium - If you're shooting for 2 volumes, for instance, you need to let the beer absorb 10 gallons of CO2. Far more than you trap in the headspace of the full keg at 30 PSI.

Sweetsounds, thank you Relaxing now.

I've actually had some success carbing with once-a-day gas application. Right now my keg fridge is full, but I've also got two kegs on deck, just sitting there. So every day or two, I shut off gas to the cold kegs, crank the regulator up to 30 PSI (for ~2.5 vols at ~68F), and hit the on-deck kegs with gas. By the time a space frees up in the fridge, the keg is pretty much carbed. By the time it cools in the fridge it is definitely drinkable.

The gas can be stored in the fridge without issue and I leave the regulator set at 12-13 psi when carbing for a few days, works great.