Carbing a keg

[Sturg78]

Hello all, I am having trouble getting some info straight regarding keg carbing with CO2:

- I had a low efficiency coming off my mash so boiled down to the range I was looking for. I was left with ~4 gal of goodness to keg in a 5 gal corny. How much does head space effect the pressure I need to put into the keg?

- I have a small competition I am entering my beer into in about 9 days. I had to wait until today to carb the keg as the mini fridge I bought for it took it's sweet time to arrive. If I throw the keg in tomorrow (8 days until competition), what would the best method of carbing be for that amount of time?

- Other then pouring a glass and tasting the beer, are there other indications that the beer has been over carbonated? I am worried about shaking the keg to help carb the beer as I am unsure about how easy it is to overcarb

- If all goes well and I have a nicely carbonated beer come next sat (5/31), how do I go about serving the beer outside of the mini-fridge? I assume taking a keg from 45 deg in the fridge to 77 deg in the sun and dropping the psi to serving pressure would cause a lot of foam. Do I just drop the keg in ice and purge the keg as necessary?

- A question for the future, I intend to convert this mini-fridge into a kegerator. Once the lines are all clean, is there any risk of infection traveling back into the keg? I don't understand how, after the first pour, the beer in the line doesn't get infected or oxidized. Is it overkill to pour out whats left in the lines between beers?

I have had a few of these multiple question posts and this community has been killer answering the questions I have had. Thanks all for the time you have used answering my newbie questions

 

[day_trippr]

- head space really has little effect on force carbonation. It doesn't change the pressure vs temperature = carbonation level equation at all, and will only change the amount of CO2 used.

- it takes a little over two weeks at the appropriate pressure vs temperature as found in our favorite carbonation table for a full five gallons of beer in a corny keg fully carbonate. You're going to be only halfway there using that method.

An alternative is to use that exact same pressure, but shake the keg until no more CO2 can be heard passing through the regulator, let the keg rest for an hour, shake it again, and repeat until no more gas enters the keg. Then let it sit for the rest of those 8 days and you'll be good to go.

- Well, pouring and tasting is pretty much the beginning and end of it. But, again, if you shake at the same pressure as you'd use for a straight-out "set and forget" carbonation, you can't over-carb the keg.

- You definitely can't serve carbed beer at 70-something degrees and expect anything other than a total foam fest.

When I take a keg on the road I stick it in a plastic kitchen trash bin filled with plenty of ice, then wrap the whole works in an old sleeping bag. If the beer is any good and there's a decent crowd, you won't need to worry about more ice...

- If there's a way for lines to infect kegs I've yet to read about it. But you don't need to empty the beer lines between pours - that'd be crazy. I run six+ faucets and just clean the lines every couple of weeks or when a keg is changed out. If you use decent quality beer lines (and not some random vinyl crapola) and have a well set up dispensing system the beer will be happy and so will you...

Cheers!

 

[brdb]

- I have a small competition I am entering my beer into in about 9 days. I had to wait until today to carb the keg as the mini fridge I bought for it took it's sweet time to arrive. If I throw the keg in tomorrow (8 days until competition), what would the best method of carbing be for that amount of time?

@10-12psi, a keg typically takes 2-3 weeks to carb
@30psi, a keg typically takes 48-72 hours to carb
Then there is the shake method if you are really in a time crunch (again typically 30 psi and just shake/roll the keg around for 5-10 min, test carb level, repeat as needed)
Edit: I think it was mentioned above, but temperature plays a big role as well in how much CO2 is absorbed into the beer. The colder the beer, the better it absorbs CO2.

 

[dobe12]

You can carb a keg wihout shaking in 3 days.

Set the pressure to 30psi and hold for 24hrs.
Release pressure and dial back pressure to 20psi and hold for 24hrs.
Release pressure and dial back pressure to 10psi and hold for 24hrs.
Taste
You may have to adjust up or down for a day or two to get it dialed in but it's very possible to carb a keg in 3-4 days without shaking. This is my SOP. Works great!

 

[StLouBrew]

My (limited) experience has been that trying to rapid carb is a a futile experience. Sure, you can get the fizzies in there. But it seems to me like time just makes makes for better beer. If you go nuts with cranking up the PSI and shaking it, you run the risk of over carbing it. There are methods to then de-carb it, but I've found that doing that diminishes the hop flavor.

On my very first post asking requesting guidance and advice on kegging/carbing, a wise man.. or possibly just a wise-guy said "I knnow you're not going to do this, but just set it and forget it." He was right. I messed around with "burst carbing" only to regret it.

These days I typically ferment for 30 days and let it carb at 10-12 PSI for 2-3 weeks. At that point it's drinkable. Another week or two and it's just plain yummy. That's just my experience - YMMV.

Cheers

 

[dobe12]

My (limited) experience has been that trying to rapid carb is a a futile experience. Sure, you can get the fizzies in there. But it seems to me like time just makes makes for better beer. If you go nuts with cranking up the PSI and shaking it, you run the risk of over carbing it. There are methods to then de-carb it, but I've found that doing that diminishes the hop flavor.



On my very first post asking requesting guidance and advice on kegging/carbing, a wise man.. or possibly just a wise-guy said "I knnow you're not going to do this, but just set it and forget it." He was right. I messed around with "burst carbing" only to regret it.



These days I typically ferment for 30 days and let it carb at 10-12 PSI for 2-3 weeks. At that point it's drinkable. Another week or two and it's just plain yummy. That's just my experience - YMMV.



Cheers

Although this may be true, it doesn't help the op in his situation at all.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[Sturg78]

You can carb a keg wihout shaking in 3 days.

Set the pressure to 30psi and hold for 24hrs.
Release pressure and dial back pressure to 20psi and hold for 24hrs.
Release pressure and dial back pressure to 10psi and hold for 24hrs.
Taste
You may have to adjust up or down for a day or two to get it dialed in but it's very possible to carb a keg in 3-4 days without shaking. This is my SOP. Works great!

Thanks for the info folks!

Does carbing through the "in" side so it bubbles up through the liquid affect this method

 

[brdb]

Thanks for the info folks!

Does carbing through the "in" side so it bubbles up through the liquid affect this method

You can give it a try if you like, but I doubt it really speeds up the process very much because the bubbles are going to be fairly large. You would need a diffusion stone to get the bubbles small enough to really make a significant difference, but for your current brew, just get the beer cold, set regulator to PSI and check the carb level after 48hrs. If the level is good, just drop the pressure down to serving pressure (I usually do anywhere from 10-12) and drink. If it needs some more carbonation, I'd drop the pressure a bit down to 20 for another 12-24hrs and give it a try once more, it should be good by then.

 

[Sturg78]

Awesome! I'll give it a go and update later.

 

[scootermsp]

I had good luck force carbing a "Bells Two Hearted IPA" clone by having my corny in the ref. at 30 PSI for 18 hrs and then dropping it down to 11 PSI (no rolling or shaking)which was the correct serving pressure for the temperature according to the chart. I have found that 24-30 hrs at 30 PSI may overcarbonate the beer. I'd rather have it slightly Undercarbed because it's easier to correct.
This beer was brewed on Dec 3, 2013 and kegged/force carbed a few days before Christmas. It was good, BUT what I learned was that I was ripping myself off drinking it that early. I brought 2 Growlers to an Ice Fishing tournament in late February and everyone agreed it was WAY better than the Dogfish Head 90 minute (granted it was in bottles) everyone else was drinking. When that Corny kicked I wanted to cry! Bottom line is this, get a few Cornys in the pipeline and be patient. You're much more likely to win a competition by putting 30 PSI on that corny just to seal it and remove the gas. LET IT SIT for at least a month or even two. My lesson was learned! Best of luck. -S