I have a question that I think was already answered. But..here goes. If I am kegging my beer, do I still need to add the Dry Malt Extract?? some places I have read, they say use 1/4-1/2 (~2-4 oz.) of what comes with the recipe kit if kegging. Not sure why this would be necessary as I thought the DME was for carbing the bottles, since I will 'force carb' the beer, why would I need this? thanks
I will re-explain this in hopefully an easier format for everyone to see.
Natural carbonation in kegs with CO2 tank- In this method you use DME or corn sugar to carbonate the beer. The CO2 tank will only be used to "seat the seals" right after you put the priming sugar (usually half of what you would have used if putting carbing in bottles) into the keg with the un-carbed beer, and to also serve the beer. Though it may not be necessary to "seat the seals", most people do it if they have a tank because a quick 40 psi shot of co2 forces all of your o-rings to seal. Then you could remove the co2 tank and let the beer carbonate with the sugar.
Forced carbonation in kegs with CO2 tank (no DME used at all)- This is the most commonly used method of keg carbonating and serving. Once you rack your fermented beer into the keg, you look at a carbonation chart with will recommend the carbonation level you should use at any given temperature corresponding to the PSI pressure level you would need to reach that carbonation level. For the beer to carb right you should have it at a very low temp level, mid 30's is best because it will carb quicker at a lower pressure. So now you simply let it sit in the refrigerator of choice for about a week, I noticed that mine usually take 4 days to fully carb. Then you have to decide if your going to serve at that this same temp or base your serving temp off of the beer style. If the temp will be changed you must revert to the carb chart again for serving pressure. After the beer is carbed fully you can remove the CO2 tank at any time and the carbonation will stay in the beer as long as you DO NOT draw any beer out of it. Once you draw beer out of it you have lost pressure and the carbonation will slowly start to pull out of the beer until the pressures are equalized in the amount of dissolved CO2 in the beer and the CO2 in the head space above the beer in the keg.
Natural Carb with No CO2 tank- This is the least desired method. You will put in your DME and rack the beer on top of it in the keg, close it up and let it sit for a couple weeks to carb out. There will be pressure in the keg the same as in bottles. There are two negatives to this method... 1) you can never be sure that the o-rings are seated and won't leak, you might wait two weeks only to find out there was a small leak and your beer did not carb 2) you don't have a proper method to serving the beer and also being sure that proper carbonation will be kept. At the very least you should buy on of the CO2 shooters that uses the small CO2 cartrige, that method is better than injecting actual air into the keg with a party pump as the air will oxygenate the beer and make it taste like crap a few days later.
There are some other small variations that other people use but those are the most common. A couple other absolute necessities to mention are this
1) naturally carbonated beer often tastes better than force carbed beer... if I am doing a beer that is all about attention to detail I will use method #1 and only use the CO2 to seal and serve the keg.
2) when using natural carbonation you are going to be "reviving" some yeast and will always get some yeast sludge on the bottom of the keg. If you have picky friends make sure you pull about half a beer or so out of the keg and discard because the bottom is where it rests and the bottom is where the beer is drawn up from.
Good lord that was a long post but I think I covered as many details as I could without having to worry about getting a publisher.
