whats the proper way to...

carb my beer in a keg naturally? I figure as long as my keg will be sitting outside of the fridge I might as well prime it and let it condition naturally.

I think you probably answered your own question. I haven't tried it before, but seems to me that if you keep your head space low enough you should be able to prime the batch before kegging and let it do what it does as if it were bottled.

If I ever get far enough ahead of the demand, I will try it myself.

Cheers.

Prime it same as you would with bottles but be sure to hit it with co2 to seat the lid.

Use slightly less sugar than you would if carbing in bottles. It's very easy to up the carbonation slightly in a keg, but a huge PITA to de-gas an overcarbed keg.

after sealing the keg with my gas and purging the 02,how much if any
pressure should I add to the keg to let it sit and condition?

I use the 10-12psi my regulator is normally set to and in my experience that is plenty to give the gasket a good seal before letting the keg condition.

Use Beersmith or other software to calculate your priming sugar amount. You need less in a keg than you do in a bottle. How much less is up to debate.

Just for kicks, I punched it in for a 5% abv beer at 2.4 volumes and 68°F. 4.12 ounces of sugar if bottling, 2.06 ounces if kegging, so beersmith says "use half of what you'd use normally".

As for pressure, add whatever it takes to seal it, (won't make an appreciable difference on the final carbonation level). Some folks get seals with 12 PSI, mine take 30-35 PSI.

I do exactly what shorty mentions, just use half of what would be appropriate for bottling and it has always worked out.

Are you wanting to naturally carbonate using the last part of CO2 from primary fermentation? If so, that is something you need to be very careful with and know what you are doing. I only know of a couple commercial breweries that naturally carbonate but these are serious folks who are very familiar with what to do.

I know there is a "sweet spot" when you have not reached your FG that you need to seal everything off. It is supposed to be a percentage of your OG/FG but what that is I don't know. I've considered trying this myself but have to decide which batch of beer and keg can be risked as well as potentially destroying the kegerator and getting hurt. If it goes bad it could go VERY bad.

tjcavitt said:

I've considered trying this myself but have to decide which batch of beer and keg can be risked as well as potentially destroying the kegerator and getting hurt. If it goes bad it could go VERY bad.

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Dude, cornies can withstand like 120 or 130 psi. Unless you also throw in a handful of antacid tablets, 2.5oz of dextrose will be fine.