When to Keg?

Hi Homebrewers,

I've been researching when to keg my beer and found a few answers on HBT, but I want to make sure that what I found is still a best practice.

Basically, the thread said I can keg my brew after about 10 days (I'll check gravity first, of course), fill it with 30psi co2, remove the co2 connection and let it sit until I need it. Is that sound advice?

 

One quick note, I was thinking of leaving it at room temperature.

 

If you're just letting the beer age then yes that's fine. If you want it to carb you will either need to leave the gas hooked up or add priming sugar. Beer will age faster at room temp, so if it's something like an IPA or a wheat that you don't really want to age then you might want to store it cooler if you have the room.

 

I keep the gas hooked up at 30 psi for 24 hours, then relieve all the pressure and reset the gas regulator to serving pressure. Though it's easy to over pressurize the keg that way. The best way is to set the regulator to serving pressure from the beginning and leave the gas hooked up for a week.

 

I've been thinking of doing with with a couple brews. One lager at 3 weeks and an ale at 2 just to free up fermenters. Condition / finish fermenting in the keg and start up a new batch in primary. Just have to make sure that I mark them as such and don't tap them too early.

 

If you can wait then I suggest doing the set it and forget it method of setting the psi at serving pressure and letting it sit for a week or so.
If you want to serve it now then, yes, you can force carbonate. Set the psi between 20-30 and let it sit for a day or so. It helps if you roll the keg on it's side so the gas gets into the beer faster. This method uses much more gas than the set it and forget method- but there's less wait time. Once you think the beer is carbonated purge the c02 and set the psi to serving pressure.
Be sure to purge your keg of oxygen before you start to roll it on it's side or set it and forget. you don't want to oxidize your beer at this point! Good luck.

 

Yes, this is correct. Keg it when it is finished, usually 10-14 days will do it, but let your hydrometer be the judge. As mentioned previously, some beers should not be allowed to age very long as they are much better if consumed young, but most brews will age at room temp in the keg just fine for several months if necessary until they make it to a tap.

 

How would it use more gas? In the end, isn't the same amount of CO2 dissolved in the beer? If you're talking about the 30psi in the headspace vs the 12 (or whatever your normal serving pressure is) wouldn't this be pretty negligible with a full keg?

 

Yup. If the end result is properly carbonated, it doesn't matter how you get the gas into the beer.

Otoh, perhaps this was an allusion to the classic over-carb scenario which the "shake 'n' bake" method can easily produce if not performed correctly - in which case it would use more CO2

Cheers!