Question on Kegging

I was going to put those corney kegs that I got for free to use later this week but my question is, once the beer has fermented and I rack it to the kegs, do I need to chill those kegs or can I keep them at room temp for a while before chilling and serving?

I'm looking at a Pale Ale recipe.

You can hit 'em with some gas and disconnect and leave at room temp for a while if you like. Won't hurt anything. Probably a good idea to check once in a while to make sure they still have pressure.

How much gas would you hit it with? 5lbs?

I set the dial to 10-15 psi and then purge it a couple of times to make sure all the air is out of there. Then you can disconnect the gas and store. Just make sure it doesn't get too hot

Make sure you carbonate it fully if you want to just pull it out and drink it later.
Otherwise the beer will just absorb any O2 you put in there and it will be flat.

If it were mii I would pressurize to 30psi to set the lid gasket, purge the head space and leave at 30psi for 2 weeks before putting in the fridge.. When in the fridge I would set the pressure to 12, purge head space and allow a couple days to settle before taping... If your not ready to put in the fridge after force carbing for 2 weeks it's ok to leave at room temp and allow the keg to sit and condition.. If your just going to charge up the keg and not fully force carb we will hear from you soon because the keg is loosing pressure and you think it's leaking but it's just absorbing the co2 decreasing the head pressure...

Does everyone force carb their kegs? I figured the 7-10 days for primary fermentation, an additional week in the carboy to clear it, maybe with a shot of a fining agent and then put it in the keg and corn sugar for natural carbonation....it it sounds like that's not what your recommending.

Correct?

dpalme said:

Does everyone force carb their kegs? I figured the 7-10 days for primary fermentation, an additional week in the carboy to clear it, maybe with a shot of a fining agent and then put it in the keg and corn sugar for natural carbonation....it it sounds like that's not what your recommending.

Correct?

Click to expand...

Yup, but most that naturally carb cut 1-2 inches off the dip tube so you dont suck up a thick layer of yeast and still set the gaskets with a little gas!!

Ok, so if you don't mind let me take this a step further.

After the primary fermentation takes place (7-10 days in the bucket fermenter, I put it in the carboy for another week or so to drop the sediment, or use a fininig agent to speed the process up....

Then fill the keg.

At this point its still not carbonated....and I want to be able to store the beer for a few weeks before tapping, how would I force carb it and be able to store it?

dpalme said:

Ok, so if you don't mind let me take this a step further.

After the primary fermentation takes place (7-10 days in the bucket fermenter, I put it in the carboy for another week or so to drop the sediment, or use a fininig agent to speed the process up....

Then fill the keg.

At this point its still not carbonated....and I want to be able to store the beer for a few weeks before tapping, how would I force carb it and be able to store it?

Click to expand...

Sorry, misunderstood the comment before... Force carbing at room temperature for me (set and forget) is applying the gas at 30psi for 2+ weeks and then removing the gas and moving the keg somewhere else for storage.. I have more than 1 co2 cylinder so I am able to dedicate one for force carbing.. For someone that only has 1 cylinder because it's used for dispensing beer you can unhook from the other keg and hook up the one ready for force carbing and do a blast carbing method wich is set the psi at 30 and shake the **** outta it for 5 min, disconnect the gas and put it somewhere for storage

If you wanted to carb with sugar, you can put about 1/2 of the sugar you would use if you're bottling. Then just enough pressure to seal it. Leave it at room temp for a couple of weeks to condition and carb up. The hook up the CO2 to serve it. You'll want to pour out the first half pint or so as it will have the sediment from the natural carbing process.