What's the proper way to force carbonate?

I know we have a kegging FAQ thread but almost every one of the links in that thread gives different methods to force carbonate and none of them explain it all that well.

I need step by step from the time I pull my carboy out of the closet to the time I'm pouring a beer. Anyone?

1. Pull carboy out of closet
2. Flush cleaned and sanitized keg with co2
3. Siphon beer from carboy to keg
4. Close off keg, hook up gas line
5. Set regulator to about 5 psi, open up line to keg, and vent from the pressure relief valve in short 1-2 second bursts for about 10 seconds total (purging any remaining oxygen in headspace)
6. Adjust regulator to 3x your maintenance psi (look at any number of available tables online to see what setting you will be keeping it on according to the temperature and the volumes of co2 you desire)
7. Let keg sit at the 3x maintenance psi setting for 24 - 36 hours
8. After that time, close off the gas line, purge the headspace with the pressure relief valve, re-set regulator to maintenance pressure, and open up the gas line again.

All told, you should have carbed beer in about 5 days.

Notice that nowhere in that list does it say to shake your keg. DO NOT SHAKE YOUR KEG. You WILL overcarbonate your beer if you set your regulator to 30 and shake your keg for 15 minutes. You'll spend the next few days gassing off the headspace, trying to get the pressure back down to reasonable levels and then gassing it up to the maintenance level, which basically means you will have saved no time vs. just upping the pressure for a couple of days instead.

I can't tell you the correct way, but I will tell you how I did it last week for the first time. I expect that I will be corrected and this will help me improve my process as well.

Wash and clean Keg with oxy clean. Use CO2 to push it through dip tube.
Rinse and do the same until runs clean.
Sanitize keg.

Cap Keg and fill with CO2 at low pressure (5 lbs).
Release pressure when ready to rack. Open lid and start racking beer into keg, keeping splash to minimum or nil. Cap keg. Turn on CO2 up to 8 psi.

Refrigerate keg.

When down to temp. Hook back up to CO2 and turn up to 30 psi. Set keg across your knees and shake and shake and shake. Keg will get very cold and pressure gauge will fluctuate. You will hear the gas filling the keg. As you stop shaking the pressure will go up and when you stop it goes down. Let it keep going until the gas stops. Rerefrigerate for a day or two.


That's where I am now. I expect that I will release the pressure on keg and then hook up to serving pressure 10-11 lbs. Squeeze the trigger!!!

That didn't take long to see I was doing it wrong, LOL.

not to complicate matters, but what about priming in the keg? what's the general consensus? to add sugar, or not to add sugar? i've been on the fence about this one for a while...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/force-carbonation-vs-priming-keg-corn-sugar-114807/

Please read previous poster... DO NOT SHAKE. You will inevitably overcarb or have backup into regulator if not careful. Just do 30 psi for 2 days, purge, return to serving psi and enjoy in a few days. Or heck, just set it and forget it at serving psi. Your beer will thank you and in return you will thank it. Cheers.

I primed in a keg once. Keyword: ONCE. You end up serving a bunch of trub in the beginning and losing some beer in the process. Just force carb for a couple of days and store off gas if you don't have an open tap.

jessup said:

not to complicate matters, but what about priming in the keg? what's the general consensus? to add sugar, or not to add sugar? i've been on the fence about this one for a while...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/force-carbonation-vs-priming-keg-corn-sugar-114807/

Click to expand...

I've read that leads to sediment in your beer. Last thing I want to do after racking& clearing my beer is to reintroduce more sediment! Plus, you're still looking at a week+ with priming sugar.

I was never able to get good results trying to force carb at high pressures. I follow TTB's steps 1-5 but then just hook up the keg to my normal maintenance/serving pressure. Within 7-14 days my kegs are all nicely and consistently carbed. Since I am going straight from primary to keg I'm not usually in a rush to tap.

To set pressure I use the chart below. I tend to keep it at 14 PSI with the beer at 40* to get about 2.6 volumes because I brew a lot of belgians, wheat, and hoppy pales.

http://www.homebrew.com/pdfs/CO2chart.pdf

chickypad said:

I was never able to get good results trying to force carb at high pressures. I follow TTB's steps 1-5 but then just hook up the keg to my normal maintenance/serving pressure. Within 7-14 days my kegs are all nicely and consistently carbed. Since I am going straight from primary to keg I'm not usually in a rush to tap.

To set pressure I use the chart below. I tend to keep it at 14 PSI with the beer at 40* to get about 2.6 volumes because I brew a lot of belgians, wheat, and hoppy pales.

http://www.homebrew.com/pdfs/CO2chart.pdf

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Also known as the wise, patient man's method.

TTB-J said:

Also known as the wise, patient man's method.

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It helps to have 3 other kegs already tapped!

A carbonating stone connected to the gas side with tubing works well to speed the carbonation up. The only caution is that it is very easy to back beer up that connection if the regulator pressure drops off because your gas in is now submerged in beer.

When I use a stone I usually set the regulator at 20-25psi for 24 hours, then vent the keg, remove the stone and reset the regulator to serving pressure which is almost always 12-14psi for me.

Contrary to what everyone else has said... I shake my kegs every time and rarely overcarb them in doing so. But I also check the carbonation regularly when I do it and I stop when I think it could use "just a little more".

I do get them cold first, and after shaking, I let that sit overnight at serving PSI and it's usually fine. I'd say I maybe overcarb one in 15 doing it this way, but it's not too hard to release some of that carbonation either. Just shut off the gas, shake some more and release the pressure from the keg. Do that a few times and it's done.

I do advise to make sure you have check valves on your regulator(s) though, without them, it's not hard to suck beer back into your regulator.

In my opinion, slow and steady wins.

Here's how:

Take out fermenter and rack beer to keg.

Give the keg a big shot of co2, and purge. Do it again, and make sure the lid is sealed. Put it in the kegerator at 12 psi.

Ten days later, hook up tap. Pour about 3 ounces of beer which will be yeasty sludge. Toss it, and then drink beer until the keg is empty.

helibrewer said:

A carbonating stone connected to the gas side with tubing works well to speed the carbonation up. The only caution is that it is very easy to back beer up that connection if the regulator pressure drops off because your gas in is now submerged in beer.

When I use a stone I usually set the regulator at 20-25psi for 24 hours, then vent the keg, remove the stone and reset the regulator to serving pressure which is almost always 12-14psi for me.

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I also use carb stones, but my method is different. Keg the cold beer in sanitized, purged keg, put gas to gas in, pressure set at serving pressure. Let it sit 48-72 hours. Beer is ready to serve. Leave carb stone in keg.

TTB-J said:

1. Pull carboy out of closet
2. Flush cleaned and sanitized keg with co2
3. Siphon beer from carboy to keg
4. Close off keg, hook up gas line
5. Set regulator to about 5 psi, open up line to keg, and vent from the pressure relief valve in short 1-2 second bursts for about 10 seconds total (purging any remaining oxygen in headspace)

Click to expand...

I think everyone can agree on this first part, but there are a lot of different ways to do it after.

For example, I am impatient and always shake. Instead of getting crazy and setting to 3x serving pressure, set it to the actual pressure you want so that it can't overcarb.

6. Find your ideal carbonation level, and set the pressure based on the CO2 table linked above.
7. Shake the keg. As CO2 dissolves in the beer, you should hear the CO2 regulator hiss a bit as more CO2 is drawn into the keg.
8. Shake the keg until it stops hissing or your arms get tired
9. Drink an 80% carbed beer and think, "Damn, this is going to be perfect in a week."
10. Put keg into kegerator
11. Hope that you don't drink all of the fairly well carbed beer beforel it is perfectly carbed

Having a keg already tapped really helps the wait.

I chill my carboy for a day or so, keg. Lay a towel on the ground, set PSI to 30, roll with my foot for 400 seconds. Cut CO2. Leave for a couple hours, bleed excess pressure, set gauge to 12 PSI and serve. It gets it about 80-90% of the way there, it'll finish in a day or so. Works for me.

What about conditioning in the keg prior to or at the same time as force carbing? I have kegged exactly one brew (my first). It has an apple cider flavor that I was told would disappear with aging. However, I chilled it right after kegging and force carbed it, which I am assuming would cause the yeast to go dormant. Should you keg first, let it condition for a while, then force carb?

mappler said:

What about conditioning in the keg prior to or at the same time as force carbing? I have kegged exactly one brew (my first). It has an apple cider flavor that I was told would disappear with aging. However, I chilled it right after kegging and force carbed it, which I am assuming would cause the yeast to go dormant. Should you keg first, let it condition for a while, then force carb?

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Chilling will slow and in some cases may even stop aging, so you shouldn't put the keg into the kegerator until after it is done aging.

You can force carb at room/cellar temps, but you need to increase pressure to compensate for the reduced solubility of CO2. As an example from the carbonation chart, the conditions to carbonate to 2 volumes are:
3psi @ 31F
7psi @ 40F
11.5psi @50F
16psi @60F

Yooper said:

In my opinion, slow and steady wins.

Here's how:

Take out fermenter and rack beer to keg.

Give the keg a big shot of co2, and purge. Do it again, and make sure the lid is sealed. Put it in the kegerator at 12 psi.

Ten days later, hook up tap. Pour about 3 ounces of beer which will be yeasty sludge. Toss it, and then drink beer until the keg is empty.

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This... I am all about slow and steady. I also enjoy KISS so this technique is best for me.

So, if I have to condition the keg at room/cellar temp, then why would I force carb and not just dump a little priming sugar in and let it carb up naturally?

mappler said:

So, if I have to condition the keg at room/cellar temp, then why would I force carb and not just dump a little priming sugar in and let it carb up naturally?

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Cellar temps are a little cool for carbonation- but if you can manage 65-70 degrees, that works fine.

You need 1/2 of the priming solution you would use for bottle, so I would use about 2.5 ounces of priming sugar by weight.

TTB-J said:

DO NOT SHAKE YOUR KEG. You WILL overcarbonate your beer if you set your regulator to 30 and shake your keg for 15 minutes.

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after reading all the way through this thread, i have to bring ^this^ back up. really, don't shake, roll, rattle, etc. not only will you over carb the brew, but i've heard more than one person talk about driving off their hops flavor and aroma when they shook the keg to carb it. i've seen at least on thread here talking about it too. like anything else in brewing, patience is key here. if you want the keg carbed quickly, set it to ~3x serving pressure for a few days, back off to serving pressure, purge and let sit for ~24-48 hours, then drink. 4-5 days total, not long at all to wait for beer seeing as you should've already been waiting a few weeks at that point.

mappler said:

So, if I have to condition the keg at room/cellar temp, then why would I force carb and not just dump a little priming sugar in and let it carb up naturally?

Click to expand...

Don't forget you'll get a little extra sediment this way. It just means pulling off a couple extra pints after letting it chill and settle out.

I put my beer in the keg. Lock the lid on with 30 psi. Check for leaks. Release the pressure. And then put 11-12 PSI on the keg and let it sit for a week or two. There's no rush in my opinion... The beer still needs to condition a bit.

I would again like to point out that a CO2 stone put in the keg will carb up cold beer in 2 to 3 days at serving pressure. It's quick and very gentle on the beer. No need to mess with turning regs up and down, no shaking, purging (other than the O2 purge when you are initially kegging)., etc The stone can stay in the keg, no need to remove it. A stone and a piece of hose to run from the gas dip tube to the bottom of the keg will cost you about $17. Totally worth it. They are much easier to clean than people think, soak it in PBW (I keep it attached, in the keg while soaking the whole keg). Once the soak is finished, put the gas on the post and run rinse water over the stone until it goes clear. After soaking in santi, push any residual santi out with gas before filling keg. It only takes a few seconds.

So up until this point I have force carbed in my fridge because I had room. I just purchased 4 more kegs so that I can get a pipeline going.

If I am force carbing these kegs in my brew room should they still be force carbed at 12 PSI like in my fridge or do they need to be at higher pressure since the room is 65ish?

crazybluerider said:

So up until this point I have force carbed in my fridge because I had room. I just purchased 4 more kegs so that I can get a pipeline going.

If I am force carbing these kegs in my brew room should they still be force carbed at 12 PSI like in my fridge or do they need to be at higher pressure since the room is 65ish?

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Check the chart:

http://www.homebrew.com/pdfs/CO2chart.pdf

Note, as temperature goes up, so too does the required PSI to maintain the same volumes of CO2 in the beer. On the other hand, the colder the beer, the more CO2 it can absorb.

Edit: It should go without saying that you should not use the 3x pressure method if you're doing this at room temperature - it would take something like 90-100 psi and that's not a safe level to have your regulator set at (if it even goes that high).