Kegging Newbie

I am a new brewer, and I am making the jump to kegging after only three batches.

My plan is to transfer from primary fermenter into the keg, expel the air with CO2 and then condition in the keg at 68F / 20C for 3 to 4 weeks.

I then plan to drop the temperature of the keg to 40F / 5C and then force carbonate.

Is this procedure okay, or should I rather be force carbonating while it conditions? The range of temperature required for force carbonating is below the temperature range for conditioning which I think is why I feel it's better to condition first and then carbonate.

Thanks.

 

Assuming you have achieved what you want in the primary fermenter I don't see the point in conditioning at room temp for three weeks. Once primary is done I transfer to keg and cool and carb.

What do you think is happening in those three weeks? Seems like a waste of time to me but someone can correct me. Maybe if it's a barley wine or big roasty brew.

 

+1, I primary for 2-3 weeks, then rack to a keg and immediately cold crash and begin carbonating. Let it condition while it clarifies and carbonates (in the cold).

 

Unless it's something I want to have extra time on(a big IPA, stout, etc) I primary for 2-3 weeks, then cold crash the fermenter for several days and then rack to a keg. I find that I end up with a lot less residue in the keg this way.
Roland

 

This^^^

 

You might consider this as a method:

Before you rack to the keg, fill it with Star-San; then use CO2 to push the Star-San out of the keg into a 5-gallon bucket (or another keg if you have it--even better so you're ready the next time). With my setup, I use a jumper from the OUT side of the Star-San-filled keg to the OUT side of a cleaned and empty keg; this keeps Star-San in rotation and every time I want to fill an "empty" keg with beer, I just blow the Star-San out of it and into the next keg.

That will replace virtually all the air inside the keg with CO2. When you've blown out all the Star-San, invert the keg and allow whatever dregs of Star-San remains to splash out (pop the lid so you can do this), and then proceed to rack the beer to the keg. You'll need to keep the lid cracked to release the pressure that builds as you fill it.

Then, use a Quick Disconnect for the liquid (OUT) side of the keg to fill the keg from the fermentor. Here's a pic below that shows how I do it, but you can also just connect that QD to a siphon. This transfers the beer from the fermentor to the keg with minimal exposure to oxygen because it fills the keg from the bottom, using the dip tube of the OUT side.

In this way you'll absolutely minimize the contact of your beer with oxygen, both in purging the receiving keg of oxygen before you fill it, and limiting how the beer contacts air as you rack from the fermentor.

 

Thanks guys, I think that tells me what I needed to know, and then some.

I did think in future I would rack to secondary, cold crash and then rack to keg, but it seems even that isn't necessary, which is encouraging!

Also as soon as I get another keg I'll be doing that "starsan jumper" method for sure.

Thanks again!