How to hook up keg after force carbing?

After force carbing, and letting it sit for a few days, do I bleed the pressure out of the valve before hooking up my C02 and setting it to serving pressure?

 

How did you force carbonate? If it is fully carbed now and you carbed it at a higher pressure than your serving pressure then yes bleed off the pressure through the PRV and then set CO2 to serving pressure. You don't have to relieve the pressure before hooking up the CO2 at serving pressure. Do it after so you don't have to purge again.

 

How long does the bleeding take without blasting beer every where?

I usually naturally prime and just hook up my beer to the serving pressure after letting carb at room temp and then rest in the fridge a week. But this time I dropped it off at my LHSB and them them carb it up for me.

Came back, let it sit in the fridge for an hour or so to settle it out, then started bleeding. Damn beer went every where.

 

Did they carb it at room temp or chilled? You want it chilled before you vent it, otherwise like a hot beer it's going to foam everywhere.
Once it's all chilled to serving temp (likely overnight) then you can vent it and hook up CO2 without any problem. I've never had a cold keg foam while venting. Or you could draw off a few (foamy) beers to reduce the pressure (it would also blow out any sediment in the keg) instead of simply venting it.

 

Did they carb it cold or warm? It may have just been shook up from traveling. Let it sit for a day or 2 then bleed it. Beer should not come out of the valve when you bleed it under normal circumstances. Bleeding the pressure below serving pressure only takes a second or two. Do you know what pressure they carbed it at and for how long?

 

I gave them the keg warm on Thursday, they chilled it over night and carbed it Friday. The place is closed Sunday and Monday so I just picked it up today. I don't know the specific temps or PSI though.

Might be the shaken up beer effect from traveling. Maybe I've filled it too high? I'll try it again later tonight.

But thank you both for answering my question.

 

so I'm confused. sounds like you have a CO2 tank, and you keg...why drop it off to somebody else to carbonate? Why not just do it yourself?

anyway, to answer your original question, you can't go wrong by bleeding out the pressure and hooking it up to your gas at serving pressure.

 

To force carb I keg, bring to serving temp then set the pressure between 24-30 psi for 48 hours. After that I have carbed beer. I use a 5l b bottle and it works like a charm. I've got no leaks in my CO2 system and can carb and serve up to 40 gallons with my bottle.