Can I Natural carb a half batch in a keg?

[NickThoR]

So, I am currently regulatorless, so I cant force carb, and I would rather not bottle. I am hoping I can calculate the amount of sugar to add to carb my beer, then push it with a hand held 16gram co2 thing.

The issue, is I'm pretty sure i need more sugar, since it will have quite a bit of head space. All the calculators are pretty vague, so has any one done this or know the actual formula (including a headspace variable) to figure the amount of sugar i need?

 

[NickThoR]

a thought -
what if I added the regular sugar for kegging (1/4 cup), filled the keg with the beer i have, leaving 2.5 gallons of head space, empty a 16 gram co2 into the keg, seal, then hit it again a few times to seal and be sure. [ one 16 gram co2 = 8.76L at room temp, which is 2.3 gallons of co2. ]

It seems logical to me,all the air is purged out once the sugar and yeast start to make more co2, it has nowhere to go, so it carbonates, not wasted in the head space.

Would this work?

 

[NickThoR]

bump.

Im probably gonna try this out today, ill post back with results if anyone is watching

 

[solbes]

I just did this with my Belgian blonde that I split. Half went into a 5 gallon corny, and half was blended with a sour to make it more subdued.

I added the regular amount of priming sugar (1/2 cup of corn sugar) and it carbed plenty. I certainly would not go more than that. 1/3 cup would probably be fine for medium carb level. Also not sure I would worry about purging with a CO2 cartridge, unless you have issues with the lid sealing, are going to move the corny around, or are going to keep the kegged beer longer than a month or two.

 

[eltorrente]

Yeah, I would at least try and purge the head-space with CO2, and get at least a little pressure in there first, otherwise your beer could end up tasting like cardboard - like a half-filled bottle.

I looked on Beer Smith, hoping to find a calculator that determines needed corn sugar, based on head-space in a keg, but it doesn't have one. I would think you would need at least 10psi or so in there, but that's just a wild guess. Sorry I've never attempted this before.

Whatever you do, I wouldn't touch the keg for at least 3 weeks. Don't pour a test glass or anything. Just let it sit and hope for the best.