Natural Carbonation in Keg and CO2 tank

Hi everyone!

After two and a half years of bottling I decided to start kegging. I will continue to carbonate beer with priming sugar like I did so far.
I will use CO2 tank just to seal the keg and to pour the beer from keg. I have few questions regarding this method:

1. How can I be sure that I properly sealed the lid?

2. After I siphon the beer, add priming sugar and seal the lid do I have to leave the CO2 connected to the keg or it doesn't matter? I recently made 9% ABV tripel that took 3 months to carbonate and I don't want to have my regulator occupied while waiting for beer to carbonate.

3. For the ones who use this method with natural carbonation, how many kegs you managed to pour with 5 lb CO2 tank?

Thanks!

1. Some lids won't seal all the way until they are under pressure. I have a couple kegs that won't seal under 30 psi. It just takes a quick hit of co2.

2. Once the lid is seated you don't need to keep the keg hooked up to co2.

3. I have no experience with natural carbonation. Of kegs so I can't comment in regard to how long your tank should last. I'm too impatient to wait for a natural carb these days!

CroHomebrewer said:

Hi everyone!

After two and a half years of bottling I decided to start kegging. I will continue to carbonate beer with priming sugar like I did so far.
I will use CO2 tank just to seal the keg and to pour the beer from keg. I have few questions regarding this method:

1. How can I be sure that I properly sealed the lid?

I check my pressure with a spunding valve and use a StarSan spray to check for bubbles.

2. After I siphon the beer, add priming sugar and seal the lid do I have to leave the CO2 connected to the keg or it doesn't matter? I recently made 9% ABV tripel that took 3 months to carbonate and I don't want to have my regulator occupied while waiting for beer to carbonate.

I hit the keg with 15 PSI to seal the keg and just leave it there. The spunding valve will belle off any extra CO2 and I set and forget it it 7 PSI for the duration.

3. For the ones who use this method with natural carbonation, how many kegs you managed to pour with 5 lb CO2 tank?

I just pushed my 10th keg with a #5 bottle and it still reads 750 PSI.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

See reply in red above.

If the o-ring seal on the keg is dry, I put a little bit of keg lube on it and rub it in. I believe Keg Lube and Plumbers Silicon Lube are the same thing... Plumbers Silicon Lube

I then take 2.5oz of table sugar and boil it in a a cup or two of water and dump that into the empty keg. Siphon the beer into the empty keg as quietly as possible. Install the lid and then I pressurize it to 25 psi or so with C02. I then take a spray bottle of Star San and spray the fittings and the lid seal area and look for bubbles. If there are no bubbles, I dry them off with a paper towel and put them in a warm place for two or three weeks or whenever.

The first couple of pulls will be cloudy with yeast but it clears up.

Thanks for the answers! While sealing the lid, do I have to fully open the valve on the top of the CO2 tank, and then regulate the inflow with valve on the regulator?

CroHomebrewer said:

Thanks for the answers! While sealing the lid, do I have to fully open the valve on the top of the CO2 tank, and then regulate the inflow with valve on the regulator?

Click to expand...

Yes. Leave the main valve fully open, and adjust pressure with the regulator. Turn individual kegs on and off with your distribution manifold, if present.

I naturally carb all of my kegs. I use Tasty Brew's calculator to figure out how much priming sugar I need for each keg. I use the bottle priming calculator and then cut the amount in half. Seems to work well, but may be slightly undercarbed, which is OK with me because once on the gas for a few days they seem to get where they need to be. I may try upping the priming sugar next batch to see if I notice any difference in carb levels. http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html

Once you rack your beer to your keg and add priming sugar be sure to "burp" your keg while seating the lid to purge any oxygen in the head space. I usually open the pressure relief valve 5 or 6 times with the gas hooked up at 20-30 psi and call it good.

I plan to make a spunding valve or just buy a gas side pressure gauge to keep track of the pressure in naturally carbing kegs. Seems like a good idea!!

I've not counted how many kegs I get per 5# tank, but I'd say 10+. I've had my kegerator up and running for 6 months and am on my second tank. And I go through kegs pretty quickly.

I know it's fodder for argument but I dont consider adding sugar to be "natural" carbonation, I think that has to be the sole result of the grain-bill creating the CO2. IMHO

Thanks BigTerp. Spunding valve seems like a great idea, I am also considering buying it.

CroHomebrewer said:

Thanks BigTerp. Spunding valve seems like a great idea, I am also considering buying it.

Click to expand...

Not a problem.

I was going to build one, but once I sourced all the parts it would only be a few bucks more to buy one. I'm not really interested in the pressure release function, although it would be handy to prevent overcarbing i guess, but just to be able to keep an eye on keg pressure to #1 - ensure the keg is holding pressure and #2 - to see when it's pressured up to appropriate carb levels.

Here is what I've been eyeing up. http://www.williamsbrewing.com/KEG-PRESSURE-TESTER-P715.aspx

So, I purchased 2 gauge CO2 regulator (Y type - one gauge for CO2 tank and one for kegs).

If I got everything wright, after I siphon beer, I push 20 psi to the keg to seal it and few times open the release valve to purge oxygen. I set 20 psi by regulating the valve that goes into QD on the keg while main valve on the tank if fully open, wright?

And second question is, if I have two kegs on tap, and I need to seal another one, should I temporarily close both valves that go on the QDs, close main CO2 tank valve, attach one QD to new keg, open valve and seal it? And then put it on 2 dispensing keg like before?

Thanks!