First time kegging

[ttaylor2258]

Hey guys, I don't post around here much, but a lot of the stuff about kegging confuses me.

I've been a long time bottler who's finally kegging. But I have a unique issue, I suppose?

I don't have a kegerator at the moment and I have no room in my fridge. But my beers entered into a competition that requires a full keg. I plan on kegging next Tuesday and hooking up my CO2 tank to it. The problem is it'll sit at room temp Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday until I drop off my keg next Friday, at which point it'll sit in a refrigerated room for 8 days.

So how do I go about carbonating it properly? I guess if it really comes down to it, I can buy a kegerator so that I can store it at 34 degrees and force carb.

Could I just use for 40PSI at room temp and let it sit for a few days before it gets refrigerated? Would that work? Or do I set it somewhere inbetween for a few days before I drop it off and it should carbonate?

Basically, I'm just completely lost and fear having a flat beer for the competition.

 

[rjschroed]

If kegging your beer is something your seriously interested in and can afford to do it, I'd just buy the keggerator. The trouble with trying to carbonate beer at room temperature goes like this; The warmer your beer, the more CO2 pressure is required to achieve your target volume in the beer itself. The colder your beer, the less CO2 pressure is required.

Theoretically, it could be done under the conditions you describe. 3 days to carb up a keg isn't impossible but you are rushing it a bit. You can shake it up a bit (gently) every now and then and that will help. The trouble I'm having is with the temp. Typically, if I'm in a hurry to carb up a keg, I will set my pressure on the keg to 30ish lbs for a few days at 38ish degrees. At that point, I drop the pressure down to serving levels (My system is balanced to be able to serve at a pressure that maintains carbonation levels on my beers), bleed the extra pressure off the keg and see where I'm at. Usually at this point it's still a little under carbonated.

I guess you could set it at 40 for the three days, gently shake a few times a day. See where your at, if it's pretty flat still, crank it back up to 40 and drop it off that way. As the beer gets cold it should take up some of the co2 in the head space. . . trouble is I don't know if it will make a enough of a difference.

Like I said, if kegging your beer is something your serious about, invest in the kegerator if you can afford to.

 

[rjschroed]

oh yeah. Once you get the hang of kegging down, you'll never go back to bottling.

 

[ttaylor2258]

Well, after I posted I took the keg over to the fridge and figured out a way that I can remove 2 shelves and be able to fit the keg in. So I should be able to do the force carb trick.

So I guess that means kegging Tuesday, purging it, letting it sit for 24 hours in the fridge, then hit it with a lot of CO2 Wednesday while rocking it back and forth and letting it stay in the fridge until I drop it off. That should work, right?

 

[ttaylor2258]

And yes, a kegerator is in my future. But with the money I've spent recently on equipment, I'm not looking to spend another $500 or so for one right now.

 

[rjschroed]

Well, after I posted I took the keg over to the fridge and figured out a way that I can remove 2 shelves and be able to fit the keg in. So I should be able to do the force carb trick.

So I guess that means kegging Tuesday, purging it, letting it sit for 24 hours in the fridge, then hit it with a lot of CO2 Wednesday while rocking it back and forth and letting it stay in the fridge until I drop it off. That should work, right?

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "purging it, letting it sit for 24 hours." My routine goes like this: Starting with a clean and sanitized keg, purge with Co2, fill with beer, close lid, hook up Co2, purge out the headspace using pressure relief valve, hook up to Co2 at 30ish PSI, leave hooked up, check on it in a few days.

 

[antony]

I do this each time:

fill keg, set gas at 30psi, purge air, let sit in kegerator for 36hrs. Purge keg, set gas at 10-13psi (there's calculator's depending on style) for 48 hours. It'll be carbed but will get better if you can leave it another couple of days. I kegged on Monday & the beer is perfect today.

best of luck.

 

[Hoppity]

Curious about the competition. Where is it? I know for sure my keg would have several different lives from keezer to judge.

 

[ttaylor2258]

Curious about the competition. Where is it? I know for sure my keg would have several different lives from keezer to judge.

It's the Stone Homebrew contest on the 28th. It goes straight to a fridge for 7 days, then to a refrigerated truck down to the contest spot where it gets hooked up to the taps there. So it'll be leaving my place and stored at 38 degrees for a week.

So if I keg it Tuesday, set it to 30 PSI, leave it in the fridge and let it go until it stops, if I disconnect the CO2 tank on Friday, it should be good to go, I believe?

Hard to believe it's my first time kegging, I've just never had the space/money to invest into a kegerator so I've just held off. This competition requires a keg though, so I had to at least start the process.

 

[Nagorg]

Why dont you just add priming sugar to the keg? The same amount that you would do for the bottled batch. Carbonation would happen at normal room temps and would be ready for cooling and serving. (if given enough time...)

If you dont have time for that, sounds like force carbing is your only option. Overpressure like you mentioned and shake the keg to expedite the process.

 

[ttaylor2258]

I originally planned to prime with sugar, but I sampled my brew and tweaked the recipe to rebrew it with modifications. It won't be ready to keg until Tuesday, and since it'll be in a refrigerator for a week, natural carbonation isn't possible. So force carbing is the only option. It's a wheat beer, so I wasn't concerned with clarity if I used priming sugar, but it's not an option for me at this point.

The beer tastes really damn good though!

 

[day_trippr]

Given the OP only has three days with the kegged beer to get it fully carbonated - and with zero time to correct an overcarbed keg - the only rational way to go is to chill the keg overnight, then the next day hook it up to CO2, set the pressure per our favorite carbonation table, then shake, rattle and roll the keg until no more gas flows.

Stick the keg back in the fridge for 30 minutes, then pull it out, put it back on gas, and shake it again until the gas stops flowing. Repeat until - you guessed it - no more gas flows, period. Then stick the keg in the fridge and leave it alone until it has to be delivered.

This way you simply cannot over-carbonate the beer (which judges will kill you for) and you're much more likely to hit a solid carbonation level than "burst carbing" - without the risks...

Cheers!

 

[jason1973]

if you can get a carb stone, with either a carb lid or connect to gas in dip tube, toss in fridge connect gas at 14psi 24hrs done.

 

[ttaylor2258]

Given the OP only has three days with the kegged beer to get it fully carbonated - and with zero time to correct an overcarbed keg - the only rational way to go is to chill the keg overnight, then the next day hook it up to CO2, set the pressure per our favorite carbonation table, then shake, rattle and roll the keg until no more gas flows.



Stick the keg back in the fridge for 30 minutes, then pull it out, put it back on gas, and shake it again until the gas stops flowing. Repeat until - you guessed it - no more gas flows, period. Then stick the keg in the fridge and leave it alone until it has to be delivered.



This way you simply cannot over-carbonate the beer (which judges will kill you for) and you're much more likely to hit a solid carbonation level than "burst carbing" - without the risks...



Cheers!

That's the plan! I've watched tons of videos about it and read up on it. I plan to rack to the keg Tuesday, purge it, let it sit for a day, then pump a lot of CO2 into it and repeat.. Thanks for the info!