When you keg condition...

What PSI are you storing your beer under? I put 23PSI on mine at 60F, which comes out to 2.5 volumes at that temp... how much pressure do YOU use when you keg condition your beers? I will have (6) conditioning at the same time and want to know how others do it and why. Thanks!

I have room for 6 kegs in my kegerator. If I have it in there and I have it on the gas I leave it at serving temp. anywhere from 7-13 psi depending on beer style. If it is not on gas or even not in the kegerator I only pressurize enough to fill the headspace with CO2 and purge the air. Then I just leave it alone.

I recommend cooling it. CO2 will absorb faster at cold temps.

Special Hops said:

I recommend cooling it. CO2 will absorb faster at cold temps.

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I am not concerned with absorption of the CO2... I am not concerned about carbing it at this point, it will not be on tap until Dec 1st... Meaning I dont have to chill it and carb it until Nov 30th. 24 hours and she is good to go. Just curious for people with say, oh, 8-10 kegs of beer aging... what is your pressure. Thanks

Again, just for aging/conditioning I do not think it needs to be pressurized. Just keep it cool and stable temperature wise and make sure it is purged of air.

That is my opinion of course.

When doing a long term conditioning in the keg, I just go ahead and prime it with dextrose and let it naturally carb itself up. That way, when it ready to tap all I need concern myself with is cooling it down overnite.

Aside from that, all you really need be concerned with is getting the beer away from O2.

I dont put much pressure on it at all. 12 or so PSI. Put it on for a few minutes, purge, a few minutes more and then set it off to the side.

I just give it a big enough squirt to seat the lid, and ensure no leaks. Then, purge it and do it twice more. I think it's set at about 20 psi while I do this. I don't carb them up until I'm ready to drink them. They stay at room temperature until then.

I regularly have kegs sitting in rotation at room temperature, and follow the same procedure that Yooper outlined above. You need to purge the headspace of O2 and hit the keg with enough pressure to do this as well as seat the lid. 20 psi for a few minutes should do the trick....Blast, purge, blast then set it aside.

I've primed in the keg before, but have to deal with more sediment as a result. When you prime in the keg, it's really just a big 5 gallon bottle.

I have been kegging for a while, just never had one sitting around for any period of time. I know it has to be pressurized enough to seal, like any keg. I was just curious if ppl used some arbitrary number like 10, 20 or 30 PSI, or if yall calculated the correct PSI for the desired # of volumes of CO2.

Id have to say I will never be using dextrose to carb a keg, it seems redundant when I can simply pressurize the keg to say 23psi, which will give me 2.5 volumes of CO2 and call it good.

Yooper, your tecnique is basically what I did the other day, and I respect your opinion, you answered my question without giving me "kegging 101" knowledge, thanks! And, I have learned over the years that you know what you are talking about, thanks, great minds think alike.

I just purchased (4) more cornies so I will have (8) of them, all full in a couple weeks. I only have (2) taps, one always dispensing the Hause Ale and another dispensing a seasonal or specialty brew. Doing this math you can see why I will have full kegs sitting around for a while. In the past I had two kegs in a rotation and they never sat outside the kegerator, lately I have been brewing 10 gallons a month and will be doing so for a while. My next big purchase now that my HERMS is complete will be a (4) valve gas manifold and a couple more taps bringing my total to (4) on the kegerator. Working less 5 days a month for the past (4) months has allowed my brewing to grow to a whole new level...