Keg and carb question !!

Have just set my first AG homebrew in my keg to age a while... Like all new home brew noobs I am very excited to taste the beast in there )) I set the PSI to 12 and let it sit there for a while... The ultimate question is when will she be carbed ?? I set her in the kegerator on saturday, wanted to know when you guys think she will be ready ?

 

I force carb at high pressure with a carb stone to get it done faster, but that way I'd say you'd want to let it go at least 4 or 5 days.

 

Assuming 12psi is the correct pressure for your serving temp and desired carbonation, 2-3 weeks until it is perfectly carbed.

If I am really desperate to get a taste, I will do 30psi for 24 hours, then purge the headspace and turn the CO2 back down to serving pressure for the rest of the week. That said, I find that most of my beers needed the extra weeks to taste their best anyway, so rushing it doesn't do me any good.

 

So i'll practice parience and dicipline for the next 3 weeks

 

I put my keg in the keezer for 24 hours to chill, then I set it on 30 psi for 24 hours, after that I set it on 20 psi for 24 hours then I set it on 10 for 24 hours. 95% of the beers I make (IPA's) come out perfect this way. When I'm ready to serve, I release some pressure from the keg and set my regulator to 5 or 6 and tap away. So, usually in 4 days or so, I have perfectly carbed beers.

 

I'm also a fan of forced carbonation at higher pressures. You still have to give it a week to adjust to the change in pH. No reason you couldn't be drinking it Friday evening.

 

My pipeline is such that i dont get around to my beers until they are at least a month old and at least 2-3 weeks cold conditioned. Thus i dont like to wait any longer and have perfected the shake the keg method. I hook my co2 line to the beer out side of the keg, it makes little bubbles at the bottom of the keg and helps alot with co2 absorption. I set my reg to 35-45 psi and rock it back and forth until i feel im pretty close to where i wanna be, always erring on the side of caution. Iv never rly timed how long this takes, and it really depends on the headspace inside the keg, less headspace takes longer to get the co2 into solution. But heres the trick, i turn the tank valve off and continue shaking. Once the reg has drained of pressure, the low side gauge will start going down as well, keep shaking until it stops going down and thats how much co2 you have in solution. I go until i get between 15 - 20. If you're below that, open the tank valve and shake some more. Im actually thinking of getting another pressure gauge and hooking it up to a gas in disconnect so all i have to do is close the regulator valve.

Haters of the shake the keg method will hate, but iv been doing it this way for 3 years and i have only once over carbed a beer and it wasnt a big deal.

 

I do 30 psi at 42F for 3 days, then drop pressurize to serving pressure (12 psi) for a week before I even tap the keg. Right now I have more beers than faucets, so the good stuff is on the cobra. Avoid using a cobra on a highly pressurized keg. They have a reputation for leaking.

 

2 weeks at 12 psi but I totally like what Beer-lord is on to something...gonna try that with my next batch, cheers!

 

If you're going to wait 2 weeks, you might as well naturally carbonate with priming sugar and save the CO2.

 

This method also works well at your desired serving pressure. My kegs carb at 11-12PSI so i just hook up the gas and rock the keg back and forth at this pressure till i stop hearing bubbles. no chance of over-carbing this way. And also no messing with regulator pressure. I also hook it up to the gas in post (mismatched disconnects are always a royal pain to unhook for me) and when I rock the keg I just make sure the gas post is at the bottom. Same effect as using the beer out tube I think.