Re-carbonating flat beer in a keg system?

[srpratt]

I brought 2 growlers of homebrew to Thanksgiving meal. I now have about 1/2 growler left of beer, but it seems to be relatively flat after all of the travel, bumping around, change in temperature, etc.

Can I just take this beer, add it back to the keg, crank up the psi and shake-shake-shake as if I was re-carbonating the beer?

Are there risks for contaminating the beer in the keg? I'm genuinely curious and this logically makes sense as an "easy" solution. All you're doing is trying to make CO2 soluble again using Henry's Law.

Thoughts? Wisdom?

Thanks!

Steve
Seattle, WA

 

[srpratt]

To clarify: I'd be adding the cream ale flat beer back to the cream ale beer in the keg (about 2 gallons left).

 

[d3track]

I'd just cook with it at this point

 

[day_trippr]

It's flat because a half-filled vessel will lose ~one volume of CO2 to the headspace.
So, a 2.4 volume beer becomes a 1.4 volume beer. No shaking required.

As for recarbonating in a keg: unless you fully purged the air out of that keg (How To: fill it with sanitized water then push the water out using CO2) you'd be oxidizing the beer as much as carbonating it...

Cheers!

 

[Thorsbrew]

I dont know that id feel comfortable adding it back to the keg.

However i would use this carbonation cap i have with an empty soda bottle to recarb it.