Priming in a keg

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

slackerlack

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 11, 2010
Messages
132
Reaction score
0
Location
Carrollton
So I am going to be priming my first keg soon and had a few questions. I know when I fill a bottle, I leave some head space for the CO2 to build up. When I fill my keg, and put the priming sugar in, how much head space do I need? I have 6 gallons of beer ready to go into a keg, but I only have a 5 gallon corney keg. Trying to figure out what to do with that other gallon.
 
Don't fill the keg so high that the beer is above the bottom of the gas-in tube. This can lead to back flow, and you'll get beer into your gas lines.

You'll also need to pressurize your keg (30PSI?) to ensure a complete seal, else your priming fermentation CO2 will just leak out of the keg, rather than carbonating the beer.

Take this with a grain of salt -- I tried to prime a keg and gave up. Now I just set them on gas at 12PSI and forget them for two weeks.
 
You don't need a lot of headspace in the keg. Put the rest in bomber bottles. 1/2 tsp of corn sugar in each. I fill the keg up then bottle the rest. Never looked.
 
Wait wait, I am not supposed to put sugar in the keg to get the natural carbonation like a bottle? I have not heard of this. I have heard of the set and forget method of "force carbing", but I thought you could carb with sugar.
 
Put the rest in bomber bottles. 1/2 tsp of corn sugar in each.

So this for goes transferring into a bottling bucket and just filling the bottles up off of your siphon with a wand on the end?

How did you figure this was a good amount of sugar into individual bottles... bomber as in 22 oz I assume?
 
I thought you could carb with sugar.

You can carbonate a keg with DME/sugar, as you would bottles. Check the google search function on this site, there's a lot of people that carbonate their kegs with DME/sugar.

[ame]http://www.google.ca/search?as_q=priming+keg&as_oq=sugar+dme&as_sitesearch=homebrewtalk.com[/ame]
 
Wait wait, I am not supposed to put sugar in the keg to get the natural carbonation like a bottle? I have not heard of this. I have heard of the set and forget method of "force carbing", but I thought you could carb with sugar.

You can naturally carb in a keg the same way you would as a bottle. The rule of thumb is to use half of the amount of sugar for the same volume of beer if naturally carbing in the keg. Personally, I use whatever the carb calculator tells me in Beersmith, but I'm sure you could find something similar online for free. Let the keg sit at room temp for at least three weeks, then chill and hook up the gas as you normally would. You will have quite a bit of sediment on the first couple pulls, after that, you're good to go.
 
You can naturally carb in a keg the same way you would as a bottle. The rule of thumb is to use half of the amount of sugar for the same volume of beer if naturally carbing in the keg. Personally, I use whatever the carb calculator tells me in Beersmith, but I'm sure you could find something similar online for free. Let the keg sit at room temp for at least three weeks, then chill and hook up the gas as you normally would. You will have quite a bit of sediment on the first couple pulls, after that, you're good to go.

Do I still need to put gas in the top of the keg or just let it do its thing like a bottle?
 
Let it do its thing for at least 3 weeks. Chill it... then put the gas on it.

I usually do this method when the keezer is full. I fill the corny and let it wait in line until there is an opening. When there is, it goes in and is ready to join the party.
 
Do I still need to put gas in the top of the keg or just let it do its thing like a bottle?

Yeah, you need to pressurize the keg after adding the sugar and beer, in order to get the keg to seal completely. If the keg isn't sealed, the CO2 produced from fermenting the sugar/DME will just leak out instead of carbonating the beer.
 
Sorry I just got what you were asking, yes, hit it with the gas prior to letting it sit and do its thing. You will want to purge it a couple times to get the oxygen out, then fill it with the gas for a few seconds until you don't here anymore bleeding in. Then take the gas off, set it aside, and leave it alone.
 
IS IT JUST ME....OR WTF???

Sorry.

6 gallons???

IDEAL.
Fill the keg and prime for 5 gallons.

Bottle 1 gallon, *or however much you want* and syphon the other gallon.

Let it sit warm, for 3 weeks.

Pressurize to 15 PI. check after a week.
 
So I am going to be priming my first keg soon and had a few questions. I know when I fill a bottle, I leave some head space for the CO2 to build up. When I fill my keg, and put the priming sugar in, how much head space do I need? I have 6 gallons of beer ready to go into a keg, but I only have a 5 gallon corney keg. Trying to figure out what to do with that other gallon.

You can use sugar to prime a keg. I use 1/3 cup boiled in water. It works better than DME. The yeast may be a bit tired and simple sugar will be easier for the tired yeast to digest.

The exception is Krausening: http://***********/stories/techniques/article/indices/41-lagering/970-kraeusening-techniques
I like to use Krausening to resolve fermentation problems like acetaldehyde or diacetyl. The fresh wort with very active yeast does a great job of cleaning up a "green" beer and accelerates the maturation process of lagering.

I use both techniques all the time. There is some benefits to using natural carbonation. I Like to add to the keg to handle any oxygen that is picked up during the racking process. The renewed yeast activity will metabolize the oxygen and prevent oxidation/stale beer.
 
slackerlack said:
I see several threads about priming with sugar. Not sure what JayWeezie was talking about. Maybe he can explain further.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/priming-sugar-keg-305496/

My mistake. I guess you can you use it to carbonate. I was thinking the OP was going to use both.
But why use both if you can just use CO2.
Adding the priming sugar will just get you right back to a bottled beer taste. When kegging gives you a cleaner beer. IMO.
 
But why use both if you can just use CO2.
Adding the priming sugar will just get you right back to a bottled beer taste. When kegging gives you a cleaner beer. IMO.

Please explain what is "bottled beer taste"

I don't exactly agree to the premise that artificial carbonation is somehow superior other than it is faster and leaves a little less sediment in the keg.
However, using sugar to carbonate can actually improve the flavor of the beer. The renewed fermentation can and does reduce oxidation, acetaldehyde and diacetyl in the beer leaving a "cleaner" beer as it relates to off-flavors.
If you are concerned about residual yeast in the keg, a simple transfer to a clean keg after natural carbonation can satisfy that need.
 
Given that carbing my first 3 kegs did not use a measurable amount of co2, and the fact that you "re-green" the beer, I never ended up naturally carbing a keg.

If there is no room in the fridge, I open the door, hook the keg up and jump it to 54 PSI.

unhook it, sit it someplace coolish.
 
So the CO2 from my tank and the CO2 from a yeasty's butt are chemically different?
I don't think so. If they are the same, and both go into solution the same way, then given all other variables remain constant, bottle and keg should be the same taste.
Of course they will pour differently. And that visual will throw off your taste perception. Do a blind taste test.
 
calpyro said:
Please explain what is "bottled beer taste"
I just feel like adding that lil bit of sugar can affect the taste. Pouring it out of a keg tastes much better to me.
 
My mistake. I guess you can you use it to carbonate. I was thinking the OP was going to use both.
But why use both if you can just use CO2.
Adding the priming sugar will just get you right back to a bottled beer taste. When kegging gives you a cleaner beer. IMO.

The most common reason people prime kegs to carb is a full keezer/kegerator. By priming naturally you have a fully carbed keg waiting to be tapped as soon as there's an empty spot, with no waiting for it to force carb before you can begin drinking it.

I'm not sure where you got this idea, but adding priming sugar isn't going to result in a different taste than force carbing. It might change the mouthfeel slightly, but even that is debatable. Those who do believe there's a difference in mouthfeel all agree that naturally carbonated beer is superior to force carbed beer. Several commercial brewers are so convinced that it produces finer bubbles and better mouthfeel that they go to great expense to naturally carbonate their beers rather than force carb them.


I just feel like adding that lil bit of sugar can affect the taste. Pouring it out of a keg tastes much better to me.

It's being poured out of a keg either way. ;)

My guess is that you're associating naturally primed beer with bottled homebrew that has sediment on the bottom which either hasn't been compacted completely, or was poured in such a way as to disturb it. If the sediment is disturbed at all and mixes with the beer, it does change the flavor, but this is completely unrelated to the discussion at hand. Bottled homebrew tastes the same as kegged if the sediment doesn't get disturbed. You've obviously never had homebrew that's been naturally carbed and then served out of a keg, and yet seem convinced that it would taste different. Trust us, it doesn't.
 
I'm running into a similar situation. I'm going to be priming my keg since I won't get my co2 tank until a few weeks after kegging.

Will it cause problems if I separate my 5 gallons between 2 corny kegs if I'm only using corn sugar to prime? I will have no access to a co2 tank for 2-3 weeks. I'm doing 2 kegs as one is mine and the other is for a friend.
 
yipp said:
I'm running into a similar situation. I'm going to be priming my keg since I won't get my co2 tank until a few weeks after kegging.

Will it cause problems if I separate my 5 gallons between 2 corny kegs if I'm only using corn sugar to prime? I will have no access to a co2 tank for 2-3 weeks. I'm doing 2 kegs as one is mine and the other is for a friend.

It will be hard to figure out the correct amount of priming sugar due to the large headspace. You normally need less priming sugar for carbing in the keg rather than bottles, but in your case I'd use the same you would to bottle, and the if it's slightly under carbed you can bring the carb level up once you get your CO2 tank. You'll also want to use keg lube on the lid o-rings since you need a good seal and won't be able to give it a blast of pressure.
 
I've kegged plenty of kegs already and I have NEVER primed it with sugar. Hell, you can go on AustinHomeBrew and when you go to purchase priming sugar, the one option says "Do not add sugar - I keg". I just set my psi to 30 psi in my keg after filling it, roll it around to saturate it, then let it set in the kegerator for 36 hours, release the pressure and reset it to serving pressure, usually around 8-10psi. Plenty of threads on here about that.
 
I would fear not having the keg seal properly with the priming sugar. Lots of wasted time if all the CO2 leaks out of a partially sealed keg. It just builds CO2 too slowly for my liking. To each his own though.
 
mciaio said:
I would fear not having the keg seal properly with the priming sugar. Lots of wasted time if all the CO2 leaks out of a partially sealed keg. It just builds CO2 too slowly for my liking. To each his own though.

It builds enough pressure to verify a sealed keg within a day at the most. I've carbed ~8 kegs this way, and they all sealed fine, but I verified the seal after a day each time just to be sure. Now I have a second CO2 tank at my shop where I do my fermentation so I can seal the kegs with pressure when I prime to carb.
 
just pull the pressure release valve for a split second after a day or two. you will know if it has sealed
 
It builds enough pressure to verify a sealed keg within a day at the most. I've carbed ~8 kegs this way, and they all sealed fine, but I verified the seal after a day each time just to be sure. Now I have a second CO2 tank at my shop where I do my fermentation so I can seal the kegs with pressure when I prime to carb.

How do you go about verifying the keg has sealed this way?
 
Back
Top