carbonation question

So this is my fifth batch of home brew. I have always kegged my beer and use my kegerator to "quickly" carbonate my beer. I have never used priming sugar. I had no idea that it is also possible to use priming sugar and then let it set up for another 2 weeks to carbonate.
I dont understand why I would want to do this. It takes longer to do and now I have to add priming sugar to the mix.

Why would I do this instead of the normal way I have been doing it. My local store never even told me about using sugar even though I am kegging it. I just keg it and then pump the pressure up to 30psi for a few days and then the beer is ready to drink. Is that the easy way out? should I do it differently or does it matter at all? please help!!

Thanks in advance.

Beach

Since you have the keg setup and are doing the quick force carb method, you can certainly continue to do that.

Really, the purpose of sugar is to create carbonation. It won't really do anything for you unless you have multiple kegs. For example: If you have 5 kegs, 2 of which are in a kegerator and the other three will remain untapped for a few weeks, why not toss in the sugar to the three kegs and let it keg condition for a while since it'll sit out anyways. Then you won't have to use any co2 to force carb, just dispense because it'll be carbed by the time you put it into a kegerator..

(Of course, priming sugar's main use is when you don't have kegs or a co2 tank)

The "quick carb" is certainly faster and easier, but I wouldn't say it's always better. For one, force carbing quickly can often lead to a little more carbonic bite that takes some time to subside. So I'd argue that even though your beer might be carbed quickly, it still isn't ready to drink for a while after. Second, a lot of people use the quick carb method to carb up a beer very soon after it's done fermenting, which means less conditioning time for the beer, and possibly a less finished final product even though it's carbed and ready to drink.

Of course there are exceptions to every rule. If you brew the beer properly, give it enough time to condition, and then force carb and give it enough time to settle after that, nobody will know the difference. But if you're fermenting for 10 days, rushing it to the keg and force carbing so it's ready to drink in 3 days, you're certainly not doing your beer any favors.

So, like Kevin said, there can be good reasons to carb with sugar if you want. It allows you to keep the beer at room temp after it's already fermented and condition further while fermenting slowly if you already have other beers in the pipeline, etc.

You've got beer any way you slice it, so it's your process that will dictate how successful your carbing methods are.

I think I see both sides of this coin now. Thank you for all your help. To be honest, I do not rush my process in anyway. I brewed a black hole IPA and it has been "done" for over a week and a half now. I am in no hurry. Like I said, until last night, I didnt know about using the sugar when kegging.
Sounds like I am just going to stay the course until I build up a few more kegs. Problem with that is, I have a three faucet tower with a regular Bud Light (shhh, dont tell anyone) and one homebrew keg. I still need to build my so called arsenal just to fill the working tower! good fun.:rockin:

Thanks again,

Beach