What psi do I need to force carbonate at?

I'm about to Keg for the first time tomarrow and wasn't sure what the psi should be set to. It will all be stored in my newly built Kegerator. Any advice would be helpful. Thanks

There are different psi per each style... one of the more common styles wants about 2atm's which I think is about 11psi... but you should look for a calculator of some kind... I'll edit when I find one I know of...

Edit:OK here's a good one:

http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/carbonation.html

I also use my built in one that came w/ BeerAlchemy for my mac, I think other apps for brewing would contain that too, but not sure...

ideally you wanna force carb to reach a specific CO2 volume in the beer (per above link)
but also you wanna be able to dispense at that same psi. otherwise you are constantly screwing with the regulator and you get inconsistent pints.

10-12psi is a common range for the average serving temperature. you'll need anywhere from 6-10 feet of tap line to balance that.

Remember that it depends on what the temp is. A better reference would be Volumes as it will not vary with a temp.

Say you serve your beer at 35* and 10psi but if I searched at 45*, 10psi wouldn't be enough to give the same carbonation as you would have at 35*

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/keg-force-carbing-methods-illustrated-73328/

Most of what you need to know.

IMO set and forget is the only way to go. I've tried the burst carb method and I've ended up with overcarbed beers that need to be purged off or make a lot of foam in the lines from CO2 coming out of solution. Find the pressure you need based on the temp and desired volumes, set it and forget it.

Mike

pompeiisneaks said:

There are different psi per each style... one of the more common styles wants about 2atm's which I think is about 11psi... but you should look for a calculator of some kind... I'll edit when I find one I know of...

Edit:OK here's a good one:

http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/carbonation.html

I also use my built in one that came w/ BeerAlchemy for my mac, I think other apps for brewing would contain that too, but not sure...

Click to expand...

Great link, my only question is, the page doesn't indicate how long it will take to reach that carbonation level. Any ideas?

I think I remember hearing that it takes 1-2 weeks to reach carb levels if you just set it and forget it... I prefer to do the "raise psi to 30 and shake for about a minute" to get it close and then set it where I want and leave it for a day or two... its usually almost perfect by then.

All good advice above, set and forget works well, but for your first keg 2 weeks can seem like an enternity. You can shake the keg for a few minutes at 30 psi for a jump start on the process, or you can just simply up the pressure say to 30 psi for a day or so to cut some time off the process. In the end, green beer is still green beer, so the set and forget method is the best overall if you can handle the wait. You'll find a method that works for you.

Formula's are cool but here's what I do after siphoning the beer into the corny-

Run your pressure to 30 psi over night and then the next morning drop the pressure down to 6-8 PSI for stouts, 8-10 for ales and 11-12 for lagers let that sit for 1-2 days and you're good to go.

I've tried the force carbonation method (rolling the keg in your lap under high pressure) and prefer to let the beer naturally carbonate undisturbed over 2-3 days.

Actually, days 4 thru MT keg are the best tasting beers.

I keep my kegerator at 35F air temp 36F water temp and my beer from the tap is around is around 38F.

I have a couple related questions:

1) If I usually bottle at 2.5 volumes CO2, would I carbonate to the same level or less in a keg? Sounds like a dumb question but I've heard things that don't make it obvious to me.

2) Once I reach my desired carbonation, if I disconnected the CO2 and began dispensing beer, how long would my pressures hold up? My dad does it this way and says he still has the same CO2 tank going on 2 years. Otherwise, how long do 5# CO2 last? Of course, it depends how often your dispensing but how well does the pressure/carbonation hold, or would I be better off just keeping the CO2 connected the whole time, even if I drink a few pints a week?

Volumes of co2 is a standard method of measuring carbonation level. It doesn't matter how it was achieved. If you disconnect the gas source from a keg and dispense, you will lower the carb level with every pour. Whether or not you're OK with the slow degradation of co2 volumes is a personal decision. You will NOT have enough residual pressure to dispense the entire keg though. The only way you will lose CO2 by having the gas connected full time is if you have a leak. Obviously disconnecting the gas is not a way to fix a leak.

Thanks Bobby, and thanks for all the videos, etc that you do too. I agree with you that volumes of CO2 is a standard no matter how you get there, I've just read a few posts here and there (can't find them) that if you bottle at 2.5 volumes, you might choose to serve it on draft at 2.0, or that commercial breweries do this. Would live yeast bottle conditioning and/or travel/storage considerations account for this difference in packaging?