Kegging beer without CO2

I have an IPA I am due to dry hop this weekend. The plan had been to leave the hops in for a week, cold crash for a day or two then move to my keg. This is the first time I will be kegging and having trouble getting CO2 and I'm concerned that the CO2 may not be ready when i am (it might be another 2 weeks away or longer). As I see it I have three options:

1) Leave beer in primary and don't start dry hopping until I have CO2.
2) Dry hop and hope CO2 is ready soon (meaning a potentially long dry hop)
3) do as planned and move to keg on schedule and leave it unpressurised if CO2 isn't ready.

Gut feeling is option 1 is best as option 2 could mean too long a dry hop and option three might expose the beer to oxygen for too long.

Any suggestions?

 

I would dry hop, then pull the hops and use bottling priming sugar- 1 cup priming sugar , 2 cups water. leave it at room temp for a week and you get a decent carb built up.

 

This will work if you know your keg can seal with some pressure. I would wait until you know you can get the CO2, then dry hop. May have to a wait a few weeks but it is the easiest.

 

if your keg is leaking pressure faster than residual yeast can create natural CO2 and pressure, then it is time to buy replacement gaskets/seals and rebuild your keg.

 

My suggestion: dry hop using a bag so that you can recover the spent hops then, if no C02 available soon thereafter , carbonate by priming.

 

Some kegs that hold pressure without any problems still won't seal without a 15-20psi shot of CO2...submitting the keg possible oxidation. Not a huge or guaranteed problem, but potential nonetheless

 

Even if the keg won't hold pressure, you will still have a blanket of CO2 in the vessel. Once the pressure equalizes with the outside, nothing will really be going in or out

Sure, temperature fluctuations will cause a tiny bit of air exchange, but I doubt it is any worse than you would get with a plain old rubber carboy cap.

So it should be fine sitting unpressurized if that's what winds up happening.

 

Well if it doesn't seal, will the slow rate of natural carbing seal it? Otherwise the CO2 (although creating a blanket) will just go out into the air and the beer wont be carbed. I am not trying to say the OP can't employ this method, just pointing out potential problems that could be avoided by just having some patience

 

Not really. Some kegs and seals need some pressure to seat them properly. Doesn't mean they are needing replacment.

Past that, it's not advised even if it seals up to do so. He can't purge the oxygen out of the keg without co2.

 

That is a good idea, Yooper. The portable charger is just plain nice to have around anyway for portable dispensing, so why not use it to precharge the keg? Perfectly sensible.

And Brett- It may very well seal up from the slow build up of CO2. If I picked my best keg and was careful with how I sealed it, I would put the odds at around 80-90%. You could also use some soapy water to test for an airleak once the keg conditioning started, the same way you'd test for a leak in a tire. That could give you a second or third shot at resealing the vessel. Actually, you could use Starsan for that. Even better.

And the worst case scenario is that the beer sits safe but uncarbed for awhile. Annoying, but not the end of the world.

As for the oxygen in the keg, it's just a little headspace, same as bottling. Also, as the bottling gas is produced, it will mix with the O2 and either push it out (if it doesn't seal), or else he can bleed off a little pressure to let out some of the O2. In fact, it'd be good to do it anyway in this case, just to know whether or not it's actually pressurizing.

So, for a normal homebrewer under normal circumstances, I couldn't recommend this approach. But for a guy who's going to have the equipment anyway within a few days or weeks... well, there's really not any harm in trying to keg condition without the precharge.

 

Thanks all. I decided to go with option 1 in the end and have my fingers crossed that the CO2 comes in this week. It's been "it will be here in a few days" for the last 4-5 weeks! Ijust hope that it doesn't sit for too long as I'm concverbned that the hop flavour will reduce.

There are no mini chargers or CO2 canisters available locally (I'm in Jamaica). I wanted to avoid priming in the keg if I could. The keg seems to seal as it was pressurised when it arrived.

 

if you do throw it in a keg to naturally carb you can always wrap the head of the keg tightly in clingwrap. Should at least provide the peace of mind that if there is air exchange it will be the mostly sanitary air that leaks out of it to begin with. Just a thought.

 

Aren't you suppose to go with option #4?

4) Option #1 with "No problem mon"

I'm sure they ship those charges internationally. I'd go with option #1 with also buying a small CO2 charger. Knock on wood: you never know if you'll have a leak and be left high and dry without CO2. The charger will give you piece of mind.

 

Maybe I'm not getting it, but I'd wait until I got CO2. Couple extra weeks of aging the beer can only help it.