Kegging In Time For Thanksgiving

I would like to transfer from a secondary to a keg to a temp controlled chest freezer tomorrow and hope to have the beer ready to serve for Thanksgiving. I have read the sticky about transferring from the carboy to the keg and I have a pretty good understanding about what I need to do but it seems that there are a number of ways to skin this cat and I am still a bit confused.

*I read about cold crashing but I am still not certain as to what this is/involves and how this is beneficial for kegging the beer

*What kegging procedure would you recommend in order to have the beer ready in 9 days?

*Should I/is there any benefit in chilling the empty Corny prior to transferring the beer into it along with the co2 or is this a waste of time or even a bad idea?

Any other pointers would also be greatly appreciated. Montanaandy

crash cooling is taking a vessel from ferm temps (ales) and stick it in the fridge below 40F. this sleeps the yeast to flocculat (settle out), cause protiens, hops, etc to settle out as well. cold beer can dissolve more co2 than warm beer. the only time i refridgerate is when the keg is filled.

cold keg? no point as long as it is not been in the oven, or a trunk all day in a texas summer.

make sure all o-rings, and both poppets are in good order. fill with water to verify pressure containment if these items are not new. sanitize the keg with boiling water or something like starsan. i recommend starsan. a few cups inside. close and roll arround on the floor for a few minutes. turn upside down. shake good. hook up gas. pump said starsan or boiling water out the tap you plan to dispense through to clean the dip tube to tap.

pressureize to ~10psi. pull off gas. vent. there will be a cloud of co2 in bottom of keg. rack same as usual avoiding splashing. keep in mind to get the lid inside, you cant fill up to the top. stick the lid in to see what i mean how it would dip into the liquid.

keg lube a pinch on the orings. set gas to 30psi. pressurize to seat lid. vent pressure relief a few times to purge headspace. stick in fridge according to temp, and co2 volumes required... basicaly ~10-20psi range average. let sit a week to chill/carbonate. if the tap/psi is balanced for the storage temps you should have foam free, not flat beer.

depending on how soon you kegged, the first pints may have sediment. i recommend when its carbonated and ready to drink, double serving pressure. pull a pint. drop regulator back down. vent pressure relief. this will blast the sediment out of the well arround the dip tube. if not done, the first few pints will be clouded up.

mordantly said:

depending on how soon you kegged, the first pints may have sediment. i recommend when its carbonated and ready to drink, double serving pressure. pull a pint. drop regulator back down. vent pressure relief. this will blast the sediment out of the well arround the dip tube. if not done, the first few pints will be clouded up.

Click to expand...

That's a good tip. I will try this on my next keg. I just resigned myself to the first few beers being hazy but this sounds like an easy thing to try.

Mordantly - thanks for the great precise & detailed instructions.

One other question - you mention doubling the serving pressure. What would the normal serving pressure be (and the resultant doubling of it). Thanks, Montanaandy

Since you have 9 days, you can let your beer carb at serving pressure like mordantly said, but in a pinch, you can force carb in 24 hours.

Simply fill the keg like he said, but then set your final pressure at 30psi. Keep it here for 24 hours, shaking the keg every 4-6 hours or so (whenever you think about it).

When 24 hours (approximately) is up, shut off your gas and bleed all the pressure off. Then start the gas and set for your serving pressure (10psi?) and you're ready to go.

It's not as exact for setting specific volumes of carbonation, but it works in a pinch.

I cool my kegs overnight in the fridge, ("cold crashing" basically, but not really, since real cold crashing is chilling your primary/secondary before transferring to the keg...but whatever, you get the same results by just directly chilling the keg...as others have mentioned, the sediment gets blasted out right away)....

Then, after chilled, I hit them with 30 PSI for 48 hours. NO SHAKING. I find I don't overcarb this way, but I DO overcarb if I try to shake them.

Everything else others said here is perfecto.

Great advice guys which I will certainly follow. Montanaandy

For a stress free and perfect carbonation, carb at serving pressure. You have the time, might as well use it. I would crash cool it tonight and keg tomorrow night. Set to 10psi and forget about it till Turkey day. If you take a chance and do the shake carb, you may or may not be serving up foam.

I prefer more than a week if carbing at serving pressure, but it will definitely be mostly done. I personally do a day or two at 30psi and then down to 12psi serving pressure and its ready after 3-4 days.

I did a batch this way just last sunday, so hopefully by the end of the week it will be ready for bottling to take home to the parents.

JesseRC - yep that is the plan. I am crash cooling tonight and tomorrow evening into the keg. Set to 10 psi and then figure out what to brew next. Thanks, Montanaandy