carbing a keg before the 4th? (2 days...) and sour bottling questions

[dawn_kiebawls]

Hello old friends! I've taken quite a long hiatus for various reasons, but I won't bore you with the details. Here's the situation: I have two fermentors of a funky Rye Saison (brewed in September of '20) and a Golden Sour (brewed June of '20) and I want to finally drink them! My brother stopped into town unexpectedly and I he's hounding me to get them on tap for the 4th of July, which is 2 days away at this point! The only time I tried bust carbing it got way over carbed and I ended up wasting a batch of 12 month old cider and with how much time I've invested into these two batches I don't want to go down that road again.

So here are my questions:

1) Can a keg be 'properly' carbonated in two days? Keep in mind it is still at room temp so a considerable amount of the time would be chilling it.
2) Where there's a will, theres a way. But, would it be worth it to force carb two, long aged beers? Is there a noticeable difference between a burst carbonated beer and either a 'set and forget' style or even a keg/bottle primed with sugar?

As badly as I want to pour a glass of these beers I feel like if they don't get bottled they should at least be carbonated via the set-n-forget method, but that may just be me being worried about goofing up another batch.

Also, since this is in the bottling and kegging forum: what would be the best way to go about bottling an aged sour? In addition to the Golden it's almost time for me to package a Rodenbach Clone (this one will be in bottles). I like the simplicity and consistency of individually priming each bottle. I have been advised to use GoFerm as a bit of an insurance policy but I'm not sure if I would be able to add the dry GoFerm into the bottles right with the sugar or would it not get dissolved properly?

Any thoughts/opinions/instructions are very much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[JohnSand]

When I keg carb with pressure, I use 30 psi for 30 hours, then turn it down to 12. It works well, and fast. After the thirty it isn't quite right, but it has carbonation and is drinkable. I believe my kegs chill pretty fast in the fridge, a few hours at most to get to serving temp.
I haven't aged anything in the fermenter, so I can't comment on that. But even if you overcarb it, you can bleed that pressure back off over time. I've also read that a floating dip tube helps as the beer at the top carbs first.
Good luck, keep us posted.

 

[cactusgarrett]

what would be the best way to go about bottling an aged sour?

My go-to process for long-term and barrel aged sours is to re-yeast with CBC-1 (2g/5gal) and include GoFerm. Transfer to a bottling bucket and add everything there. Dispense and close.

 

[dawn_kiebawls]

When I keg carb with pressure, I use 30 psi for 30 hours, then turn it down to 12. It works well, and fast. After the thirty it isn't quite right, but it has carbonation and is drinkable. I believe my kegs chill pretty fast in the fridge, a few hours at most to get to serving temp.
I haven't aged anything in the fermenter, so I can't comment on that. But even if you overcarb it, you can bleed that pressure back off over time. I've also read that a floating dip tube helps as the beer at the top carbs first.
Good luck, keep us posted.

Thanks for the advice! After your 30 hours at 30psi do you purge the headspace before dropping it to 12psi or just dial it down to 12? Thanks again!

 

[JohnSand]

Yes, I purge it.