Once I force cabonate do I remove the gas line if I want to serve another keg?

I am serving a lager now, and I anticipate it'll be killed in about 3 weeks. I'd like to immediately move onto my next batch of stout. I originally over-primed the stout with sugar, but I've bleed of almost all the excess gas. Now I want to know if I just give it a good shot of gas if I can then remove the gas line, and move it back to the Lager for serving pressure, and the stout will carbonate over the next 2 weeks. Or do I need to keep applying pressure?

You need to keep applying pressure.

You could probably pressurize it to like 100 psi and let it sit, but there's a bunch of problems associated with doing that, consistency and safety spring to mind.

If you primed it with sugar it should carbonate at room temperature over the next few weeks. You should then be able to drink it fairly quickly when the other keg is done.

JKoravos said:

You need to keep applying pressure.

You could probably pressurize it to like 100 psi and let it sit, but there's a bunch of problems associated with doing that, consistency and safety spring to mind.

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That's exactly the answer I was looking for. I figured it would absorb the gas and the absorbed gas would need to be replaced.

Blender, I did naturally prime, but I primed too much, and bled a lot of the gas off. It's actually pretty good to go now.

You can do it very short term- like for a couple of days. But, with the gas off of the keg, the beer will eventually begin to go flat, to equalize the pressure in the keg. And, you won't be able to push the beer very long, maybe just a few pours.

I carb up beer at home, then take kegs out to the cottage and use those co2 chargers to push the beer. That works great! If you want to try something like that, thsoe chargers are around $15 or so, I believe.

If the lager is mostly gone, you can probably dispense the rest of the keg by applying CO2 once a week. Just as an example: if you are serving at 10 psi and there's 2 gallons in the keg, by the time you hit 1 gallon the pressure in the head-space will still be 7.5 psi.

Sometimes, I'll take a half-keg to a party and over-pressurize slightly. Most of the beer will dispense without going flat.

Wait a second. Why will it go flat? If it is carbed up and remains completely closed off, what makes it any different from a bottle? I understand that if it warms up, then CO2 will come out of solution and into the headspace, but if it's kept cold...

irregardless of temp, a dissolved gas will eventually come to equilibrium with its surrounding atmospere due to osmosis. a near dead keg is awesome when you pull the gas connector to see how much you can get before another charge..

I still don't get it, explain to me how it is any different from a carbonated bottle of beer with headspace sealed off from the world. I'm not saying you guys are incorrect, it just doesn't make any sense to me. I would like to understand.

Once the beer is carbonated, it will not go flat if kept at the PROPER pressure. For example, if you carbonate the beer at 2.5 volumes, and you keep it refrigerated at 40 degrees F, 12.3 psi will keep it in equilibrium. If you'd like to take the keg out of the fridge, increase the pressure to 30 psi to keep the keg carbonated at room temperature (allow the keg to warm before applying any additional pressure).

Here's a calculator that will help:

http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator/carbonation.html?11691411#tag

ive got a keg of gnomes old fanshioned vanilla custom i made the other day sittin in my 60F garage.. needed my fridge for food believe it or not. i got it at 40 psi then have bleed off to pour through my 6ft of 3/16 and cobra or it shoots 10 feet out of the pint all over the garage.

Yuri_Rage said:

Once the beer is carbonated, it will not go flat if kept at the PROPER pressure. For example, if you carbonate the beer at 2.5 volumes, and you keep it refrigerated at 40 degrees F, 12.3 psi will keep it in equilibrium. If you'd like to take the keg out of the fridge, increase the pressure to 30 psi to keep the keg carbonated at room temperature (allow the keg to warm before applying any additional pressure).

Here's a calculator that will help:

http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator/carbonation.html?11691411#tag

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That's strange, I had a maibock that was fully carbed sitting disconnected for close to 3 months, it was in a kegerator @38f. I just hooked it up to gas and filled a growler up, it was perfectly carbed.

The only problem I see, is that if you primed with sugar then you should have let it naturally carb at room temperature. It sounds like you may have done this, but perhaps was over carbonated? If so and its in the kegerator and you're sure that it is now undercarbed, I would hook up the gas. The Lager, if it almost done should have quite a bit of headspace and should pour quite a few beers. If it runs out just hook it up again.

The problem with pouring beers with no gas hooked up, is like Yuri said. Every pull of beer you get, will lessen the pressure in the headspace. CO2 will come out of solution to equalize with the headspace. So eventually it will get flatter after ever pull. This isnt immediate. I only pull a pint a day, so it would be noticeable to me.

wildwest450 said:

That's strange, I had a maibock that was fully carbed sitting disconnected for close to 3 months, it was in a kegerator @38f. I just hooked it up to gas and filled a growler up, it was perfectly carbed.

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Right- I was talking about if you're serving from it, too. There will be enough gas in the headspace to serve a few pints, but if you do that and don't hook it back up to the gas, it'll go flat.

As far as the soda issue- the 60 degree temperature means that the co2 won't be dissolved well in the soda. Chill the soda, and it'll "hold" the co2 better. Also, those lines are just WAY too short for soda. I use 30 feet of line for soda, at 35-40 psi.

Wait a second. Why will it go flat? If it is carbed up and remains completely closed off, what makes it any different from a bottle? I understand that if it warms up, then CO2 will come out of solution and into the headspace, but if it's kept cold...

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The reason it may go flat, even if you do not pull from the keg, is different from leakage from a bottle. With a bottle the cap is a very good seal and 99.99% of the time will not leak at all - at least not in a period of time that you would be around to observe. A keg has several places that it can possibly leak from and they are not designed to provide a positive seal for months or years.

Most kegs will leak minute amounts and over time will lose their pressure if left without re-gassing for an extended period. This varies from keg to keg and some may not leak at all. Under continuous pressure the small amount of leakage is not noticed from the supply end and so is never observed unless the gas is disconnected.

Once a keg is properly carbed, sealed and refrigerated, you should be able to keep it for weeks off the gas without it going flat. Commercial draft beer is stored that way. If you're worried just hook up the gas for a minute or two every four or five days to maintain the proper pressure.... if its leaking or going flat, you should see and hear the change in pressure.

YooperBrew said:

Right- I was talking about if you're serving from it, too. There will be enough gas in the headspace to serve a few pints, but if you do that and don't hook it back up to the gas, it'll go flat.

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Yes, I guess I misread Yuri's post, it seemed he said the beer would go flat without serving. As long as you leave it alone once carbed it will last a good long time.

YooperBrew said:

As far as the soda issue- the 60 degree temperature means that the co2 won't be dissolved well in the soda. Chill the soda, and it'll "hold" the co2 better. Also, those lines are just WAY too short for soda. I use 30 feet of line for soda, at 35-40 psi.

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i know 6ft of line is way to short. its perfect for the 10psi i dispense at from my 40F fridge. even though i bought 100ft roll of tubing at mcmaster, im lookin into the epoxy mixers as restriction in the line to. 30ft must be 1/4 or 5/16?

mordantly said:

i know 6ft of line is way to short. its perfect for the 10psi i dispense at from my 40F fridge. even though i bought 100ft roll of tubing at mcmaster, im lookin into the epoxy mixers as restriction in the line to. 30ft must be 1/4 or 5/16?

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For the soda, I'm using 30 ft of 3/16". I got it from Mcmaster-carr.

not trying to digress here, how does it flow with a restriction of ~60psi?