Priming sugar for kegs

Riming sugar that comes in the extract kits for kegs or force carbonation.

What is the question.

What is the best way to carbonate? What's the easiest?

Clintdowns said:

What is the best way to carbonate? What's the easiest?

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if you're kegging why not just force carb it?

Clintdowns said:

What is the best way to carbonate? What's the easiest?

Click to expand...

There are a couple of ways to carb up a keg. One is force carbing with a co2 tank, the other is to use priming sugar and let it sit at room temperature for 2-3 weeks. Either way works just fine, and I can't tell a difference between kegs carbed up with either method.

If you use priming sugar, use 1/2 of the "normal" amount. So, for a 5 gallon batch of pale ale, you'd use 2.5 ounces of priming sugar instead of 5 ounces like you would for bottling.

Yooper said:

There are a couple of ways to carb up a keg. One is force carbing with a co2 tank, the other is to use priming sugar and let it sit at room temperature for 2-3 weeks. Either way works just fine, and I can't tell a difference between kegs carbed up with either method.

If you use priming sugar, use 1/2 of the "normal" amount. So, for a 5 gallon batch of pale ale, you'd use 2.5 ounces of priming sugar instead of 5 ounces like you would for bottling.

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Do you know how to force carb? I'm brewing my 2nd batch tomorrow morning. 1st batch was brewed last Saturday. I think I'm gonna bottle the 1st batch but then keg. I have a deep freezer that I got off Craigslist and waiting on my JC 419 temp controller in the mail. I just ordered 3 5 gal corny keg kits from corny keg with a 4 gas splitter. Not sure how to force carb.

Clintdowns said:

Do you know how to force carb? I'm brewing my 2nd batch tomorrow morning. 1st batch was brewed last Saturday. I think I'm gonna bottle the 1st batch but then keg. I have a deep freezer that I got off Craigslist and waiting on my JC 419 temp controller in the mail. I just ordered 3 5 gal corny keg kits from corny keg with a 4 gas splitter. Not sure how to force carb.

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It's easy! You just set the psi to the correct pressure, often about 12 psi at 40 degrees and put the kegs in the kegerator with it hooked up. In about 10 days, they are carbed up. You keep it at the same pressure, all of the kegs, all of the time.

There are other ways to make it happen faster, like using a higher psi for the first 24-36 hours. But if you have a 4 way gas splitter, that's hard to do because you could overcarb some kegs while trying to do this.

Begin2Brew said:

if you're kegging why not just force carb it?

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I'm of this same opinion. I usually carb as I bulk age at room(ish) temps. I use a chart like this to get the correct psi. If you go this route you need to unhook the gas and put it in the fridge for a couple days before tapping and hooking up the gas again.

Edit: I should mention I have multiple co2 tanks. So one in the fridge and one out is not a problem.

Yooper said:

There are other ways to make it happen faster, like using a higher psi for the first 24-36 hours.

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I tried this once. Bad idea for me. It was a pain and by the time I finally got it where I wanted, it would have been easier to set it and forget it.