First Time Kegging Question

[CarolinaMatt]

Hi All-

Will be trying my hand at kegging for the first time. I have a session ipa and session brown ale that are both around 4.5-5% abv. My plan is to keg this Friday Night and have it ready for a beach trip that we are leaving for next Thursday in the afternoon. So it will be getting about 5.5 days in the keg being carbonated.

Being my first time I'd rather not do the entire burst carb thing and do not want to over carbonate it.

My plan is:

Two 5 gallon kegs hooked up to a dual regulator
Cold crash to 40 degrees Wednesday evening so it's ready to keg Friday
Beer will be at 40 degrees in my keezer
Shooting for 2.30-2.50 volumes
Applying 10-10.5 PSI
Agitate it a 2-3 each day for maybe a minute each time -- not a full on shake
Then I'm going to fill a few growlers/bottle with my last straw bottle filler and toss in the cooler

Do you guys think I will get to my desired volume/carbonation level and good enough to serve for my trip? I understand it may not be perfect, but hopefully good enough for this trip

 

[bleme]

I think your plan would give you about 75% of your desired carbonation in the time you have. I would go 30 psi for 24 hours, 12 psi after, and no shaking/agitating. Those charts everyone posts take 2 weeks, which you don't have.

 

[Rob2010SS]

To be honest, I'd rather do the burst carbonation instead of a modified version of force carbonation (agitating the keg). I don't like the idea of agitating the beer to get the CO2. Burst carbonation is as simple as setting your regulator to 30 psi for 48 hours and then dropping it to desired serving pressure. It's quicker and you don't have to agitate the beer.

If your concern is over carbonation, do 30 psi for 36 hours and then drop it to serving pressure. It will not be fully carbed at 30 psi/36 hours so dropping it to 10-10.5 after that will help it even out.

 

[CarolinaMatt]

I think your plan would give you about 75% of your desired carbonation in the time you have. I would go 30 psi for 24 hours, 12 psi after, and no shaking/agitating. Those charts everyone posts take 2 weeks, which you don't have.

okay thanks for the quick feed back! Following your suggestion, you think I will be relatively close to 100% carbed in 5.5 days? Thanks!

 

[Rob2010SS]

okay thanks for the quick feed back! Following your suggestion, you think I will be relatively close to 100% carbed in 5.5 days? Thanks!

Yes, I can tell you that following one of those will have you almost 100%, if not 100%, in 5.5 days.

 

[CarolinaMatt]

Yes, I can tell you that following one of those will have you almost 100%, if not 100%, in 5.5 days.

Great! With the shorter duration of 30 PSI and then lowering eliminates the risk of an over carb

Yes, I can tell you that following one of those will have you almost 100%, if not 100%, in 5.5 days.

Sounds great! Pretty low risk of over carbonation at 36? Wasn't sure with them being lighter beers if that made a difference. Thanks!

 

[Rob2010SS]

I just did a pale ale at 30 psi for 48 hours and it was not over carbed. Any longer and it would have been for sure. I would say low risk of over carbonation at 36 hours.

Brulosophy has a table on his carbonation method page found here http://brulosophy.com/methods/carbonation-methods/ I pretty much use this as my standard guideline for carbonating kegs. Table is shown below as well...

 

[CarolinaMatt]

I just did a pale ale at 30 psi for 48 hours and it was not over carbed. Any longer and it would have been for sure. I would say low risk of over carbonation at 36 hours.

Brulosophy has a table on his carbonation method page found here http://brulosophy.com/methods/carbonation-methods/ I pretty much use this as my standard guideline for carbonating kegs. Table is shown below as well...
View attachment 562721

Okay great and thanks for the article! What exactly is the difference between his low/moderate and High? Is that just saying 16 hours at 30 PSI for a relatively low carbed beer? Sorry for being a novice haha

 

[Rob2010SS]

Lol, no worries. We all have to start somewhere, you know? When I first kegged, how do you think I learned about it? From this forum lol.

Yes, he doesn't give values to define low/moderate/high. As you put it, he's simply stating that 16 hours at 30 psi will result in a low carbed beer.