Carb in keg then disconnect and store?

[hopzicle]

I am brewing an imperial stout for next winter and I plan to age it in the carboy with some oak chips and vanilla bean but after 3-4 months id like to get it out of the carboy and into a keg till next winter my only question is.....

If I keg my imp stout and store it at room tempature, can I put 15 psi ( the recommended for stouts at 65F ) and then disconnect the co2 from the keg will it carb ok or do I need to leave the keg attached to the co2 for a set time before disconnecting?

 

[Rockn_M]

You'll want to keep the co2 connect for a few weeks or until fully carbed before disconnecting.

I've had issues where the internal pressure of the keg decreased and the o-ring loosened a bit and let out all of the carbonation. The beer was still good just took a few more weeks longer than I wanted to carb back up.

 

[atom]

leave it connected for a few weeks until it absorbs the gas... once it has you can disconnect and store and the keg will stay carbed (as long as you have no leaks).

 

[hopzicle]

Thanks for the quick replies.

So set the PSI to the fridge temp and it will be fine once I remove it after a couple weeks and let it sit at room temp? the fluctuation won't over/under carb the beer when I put it back in the fridge next winter?

 

[TallDan]

I am brewing an imperial stout for next winter and I plan to age it in the carboy with some oak chips and vanilla bean but after 3-4 months id like to get it out of the carboy and into a keg till next winter my only question is.....

If I keg my imp stout and store it at room tempature, can I put 15 psi ( the recommended for stouts at 65F ) and then disconnect the co2 from the keg will it carb ok or do I need to leave the keg attached to the co2 for a set time before disconnecting?

As others have mentioned, a one-time co2 pressurization won't do it. The beer will absorb co2 to reach equilibrium and often corny kegs will lose their seal if there is not enough pressure on the inside.

That said, you don't necessarily need the co2 connected full time. I've kegged beers, kept them at basement temperature and just topped off the kegs with co2 as needed. At first, you'll want to top them off at least daily, if not a couple times a day. You'll hear a lot of co2 go into the keg each time. After the first few days, it slows down and you can do it less frequently until it's just no longer necessary. This will vary depending on how much head space you have in the keg, less head space=less compressed co2=more frequent top-offs. I have two kegs of cider and a keg of blonde ale that I carbonated this way just recently. Almost a year ago i did an Imperial stout this way that i'm still drinking now.

 

[Seriuqs]

My experience with kegging is that you will need to leave the CO2 hooked up for a period of time - usually from 4-7 days - for the beer to get carbonated. This allows for the proper volume of CO2 to dissolve in the beer over that time period.

If you only give it the initial 15 psi blast right after you keg your beer and then unhook it, the CO2 in the headspace of the keg will dissolve into the beer, but it wont be a large enough volume of CO2 to bring the beer up to the carbonation level you want. (You can test this by putting 15 psi CO2 into the keg and then unhooking it, then coming by a day or two later and hooking it up to the CO2 again, you will hear the sound of more CO2 going into the keg to replace what was dissolved into the liquid).

Once your beer has been carbed, you can feel free to disconnect your keg and store it at a room temp, and the carbonation should stay intact as long as there is no leak in the keg. I do this with all of my kegs since I have 8 - I put a new beer in the keg, carb it under temp control for a week, then stick it to the back of the "queue" until I am going to drink it.

Hope this helps!

 

[hopzicle]

Thanks guys helps a ton!