First kegged batch, does this sound right?

I am about to keg my fist batch of beer. I want to cask condition (which I think is how I say carbonate by priming and letting the yeast do it's thing in the keg.) I have been in the primary for about 1 month, I decided to skip the secondary. When I rack, do I need to use a "bottling bucket" or can I just put the priming solution right into the keg and rack onto that? I think I have read that I want to purge the keg with CO2 before racking, and then when the keg is full use a little pressure to seat the lid and avoid oxidation, I figure 10psi. I don't have my keggerator yet so I was going to be conditioning at room temp 65-72. I know that I'll likely have some sediment at the bottom of the keg, and therefore in the first few pints, but I can live with that.

Am I missing any thing or going down the wrong path in some way? Thanks for all the help, this forum has been a wealth of information so far, and everybody seems great.

you dont need to use a bottling bucket. Just add the priming solution to the keg, and rack on top of it. Everything else sounds right on.

Cool, I'm going to go pressure test my free keg right now.

This wouldn't be cask conditioned, that term is "reserved" for ales that are not carbonated. What you're doing is bulk conditioning with natural carbonation. I do about half of my ales that way.

Why bottle conditioned is carbonated and cask conditioned isn't? I can't say anything other than "Tradition, TRADITION!"

No real need to purge the keg before you fill.

Hook up the CO2 after you've filled and lidded. Pull the release valve a few times to purge the O2 out at that point.

Leave about 15-20 pounds of CO2 in the keg, disconnect and condition at around 70 degrees.

You may have to bump the pressure up to 20psi or more to get that stupid lid to seal. Then drop it back to down with the release valve a bit. Make sure you have the gas line on the in side, otherwise changing pressure can push beer into your gas tubing.

I also just got my first set of kegs and have noticed that the lid on one is loose while the other closes tightly? i assume that is normal and the loose one will seal once i hook up some CO2?

So I've just cleaned and sanitized my keg and siphon and other goodies, but... I don't have the CO2 and regulator at home yet. Would it be tragic to put everything into the keg tonight and bump it up to pressure tomorrow night? I am just being lazy, but I don't want to sanitize my racking equipment again tomorrow. I figure it would be about 20 hours in the keg with what feels like a good seal but it would be sitting under air not CO2 and it may not quite seat the lid w/o the CO2. I would imagine that worst case is that I somehow screw up the carbonation and have to force it later, but I could be wrong. There shouldn't be any contamination since the beer will be pushing out some CO2 to blanket the top of it soon anyway.

Also, I tried to search, but apparently "Keg" is either too common or too short for a search here, how much sugar do I need to use when naturally carbonating in the keg? I've seen mention all over the place of needing less in the keg, but no links to any sort of system to figure it out. I'm using corn sugar and the recipe calls for 3/4cup for bottling, but only mentions force carbonating for kegs. The keg will be at about 70deg. F.

Any advice for an impatient, lazy noob?

Don't worry about it sitting in the keg overnight. About 5 ounces of sugar is right regardless of keg or bottle. If it turns out to be too much, it won't matter because eventually you'll be venting it and hooking it up to CO2 for serving. If it's overcarbed, just keep venting the degassed CO2 out of the keg until you get the level you want.

Also, loose keg lids are a sign that the big o-ring that seals the lid is worn out. It may seal, but it will likely be at least a tiny bit leaky. To check, pressurize the keg to 25psi, then disconnect the gas. release the pressure using the blowoff valve. Lower the pressure to approx. 12psi and reconnect the keg. Listen to the regulator and you should hear some gas movement then it should stop completely. Also, spread some soapy water over the lid and look for bubbles. If it's leaking at all, replace the gasket. Even if you get it to stop by messing around with it, it will leak again, and right at the beginning of a party, you'll figure out that your tank is empty party over

Thanks for the reply. The important one ended up being the quantity of sugar, because I went back to work to borrow the CO2 tank and regulator.

It's time to prime and keg. Wahoo!!!

Yippy!
In the keg.

Mighty easier than bottling, even including cleaning up an old keg, and running to work to get the regulator and CO2. And now... we wait. Hopefully I get a Sanyo for Christmas so I can draw cold pints from it, otherwise I'll be keeping the keg in my storage closet in an un-heated part of the house.

Just out of curiosity: Why did you prime the keg? Forced carbing can be done in a few minutes once the beer is chilled to serving temp.

I don't really know why. I had the sugar, I don't yet have a fridge, so getting the keg to serving temp and holding it there is going to be a challenge. I think that at some point I convinced myself that w/o the fridge, priming was the way to go. Don't know if it's true or not, but it's done now.

makes enough sense to me. it's nice how quick loading a keg is. But it makes it really hard to talk yourself into bottling an entire batch again.

david_42 said:

This wouldn't be cask conditioned, that term is "reserved" for ales that are not carbonated. What you're doing is bulk conditioning with natural carbonation. I do about half of my ales that way.

Why bottle conditioned is carbonated and cask conditioned isn't? I can't say anything other than "Tradition, TRADITION!"

Click to expand...

Huh? I thought cask conditioned ale is carbonated...just a lot less than us North American's are used to....about 1 volume???

I mean, it has to carb some when they stick it in the cask and seal it...right?

BFauska said:

I don't really know why. I had the sugar, I don't yet have a fridge, so getting the keg to serving temp and holding it there is going to be a challenge. I think that at some point I convinced myself that w/o the fridge, priming was the way to go. Don't know if it's true or not, but it's done now.

Click to expand...

Sounds like you did it right.

It's not necessary to purge the keg with CO2 anyway....when you prime the keg, it will create CO2. Just purge it occasionally and your headspace of oxygen is gone!

Just out of curiosity, how much priming sugar did you use in the keg?

bigben said:

Huh? I thought cask conditioned ale is carbonated...just a lot less than us North American's are used to....about 1 volume???

I mean, it has to carb some when they stick it in the cask and seal it...right?

Click to expand...

You're right. Cask conditioned ales certainly are carbonated. Tap one, and you'll see that for sure.


TL

3/4 cup, like Shafferpilot says, if it is the wrong amount I can adjust the carbonation with the CO2 later. I suppose it could also make it take longer for the sweetness to mellow, but I've got time.

I don't know if it will get better or not, but I've found out that my gas-in line tube is maybe sticking into the beer, so when I try to vent I get a squirt, I suppose I could dispense some out to make head room if it doesn't calm down.

Thanks again for all the advice everybody.

BFauska said:

I don't know if it will get better or not, but I've found out that my gas-in line tube is maybe sticking into the beer, so when I try to vent I get a squirt, I suppose I could dispense some out to make head room if it doesn't calm down.

Thanks again for all the advice everybody.

Click to expand...

I may be wrong, but I dont think you should have it hooked up to gas if you primed it.

Also 3/4 cup is too much for bulk conditioning. Take if off the gas and vent it until it stops venting. Wait a day and vent again....repeat for 2 weeks. Then hook it to gas.

I think you should only use about 1/3 a cup when bulk priming, but Im not sure as I have never done it. However, I dont think you should be shooting gas into it since you primed it.

I was wondering about that. I keep reading that people force carb with around 12psi and a few weeks in the keg, which seemed odd that I would run 10 psi and sugar for natural carbonation. But from both Cubbies and BierMuncher's responses I figured I'd at least put some pressure on. Maybe I'll keep looking for some walk-throughs on naturally carbonating in the keg, since I can't do a search for it. I think I'll make a suggestion to the mods about looking into the ability to create custom words that don't count as being to short or common. It's a freekin' beer forum and I can't do a search for "keg." I could do "natural carbonation" but as you can imagine the results are very broad and mostly include bottle info.

the search function here sucks A$$, get used to it. you can often get results for HBT.com pages on google.

I'm not kegging yet but have been reading up on it.
I think when you are keg conditioning in a corny you want to pressurize the keg after closing it up to ensure everything is sealed. Once that is done you can disconnect the keg and sit it in your brew closet to condition and age.
Once you are ready to drink the beer you should cool the keg to serving temps. Vent the pressure then hook it up to your gas supply at your serving pressure (usually 10-12psi). If its carbonated too much, you may have to disconnect it and vent it several more times, with some time in between each venting, to lower the carbonation level.

Craig

I always have a few full kegs lined up waiting their turn. I prime the keg with 4 oz of corn sugar in solution. By the time I get around to chilling and tapping the keg I only have to use enough pressure to get the beer moving. Naturally carbed keg beer ends up with all these beautiful strings of tiny bubbles from the bottom of the glass. You want more head on the beer? Up the CO2 pressure.
AP