Conditioning?

[miafunk2003]

OK i just purchased a 3 cornelius keg kit...how should i carbonate the beer...naturally with corn sugar or with the co2 tank....if i should just force carbonate it how is this done? at what temp? and what pressure?....also when i bottle i leave the beer in the bottle for 3 weeks @ room temp b4 i put in the fridge so i can drink...do i leave the beer in the keg for 3 weeks b4 i can drink?

 

[david_42]

You can keg carbonate either way and it's another of those things people love to argue about. If you do natural carbonation, do it at room temperature. If you force carbonate, do it at serving temperature after conditioning. Lots of ways, but the easiest is about 12 psi for a week in the kegger.

3 weeks, bottle or keg. Then chill & serve.

 

[miafunk2003]

so what your saying is if i force carbonate i would leave it at room temp w/o co2 for lets say 2 weeks for conditioning then i put it in my fridge and force carbonate it?

 

[Chairman Cheyco]

so what your saying is if i force carbonate i would leave it at room temp w/o co2 for lets say 2 weeks for conditioning then i put it in my fridge and force carbonate it?

D 42 is saying the opposite, actually.

Natural carbonation with corn sugar = Room temperature for two to three weeks
Forced carbonation = serving temperature under 12psi for about a week

 

[miafunk2003]

so that means if i force carbonate i dont need to wait the usaul 3 weeks of conditioning?

 

[Chairman Cheyco]

You don't have to, but the quality of the beer will increase with age as always.

 

[miafunk2003]

do i have to shake it up every once in a while

 

[Chairman Cheyco]

If you shake it it will speed up the process by helping the gas dissolve into the liquid more quickly, but it will carb up in a week without.

 

[miafunk2003]

thanx alot for the quick responses.

 

[Chairman Cheyco]

No problem, one more thing, if you decide to shake the cornie, you can increase the pressure up to about 30psi to REALLY speed things up and make sure you disco the gas line before you shake.

Keg on!

 

[Ol' Grog]

You can also condition it in the keg with CO2 at room temperature. Pressure up the ket to about 40 psi and let sit for about a day. After you tap into it, refrigerate then. I'm fixing to start kegging but don't have a keg cooler just yet. I've read a lot into this and you can condition with CO2 that way. Then drop the pressure, serve the beer at room temperature if you like. What I'm planning to do in the interim is room condition the keg under pressure, drop the pressure when I want some, pour it into a container that I can seal, put it in a ice bath for about 20 minutes then bottoms up. I'll then repressure the keg so the beer doesn't go flat. If the brew stays at a constant temperature, the better, but you can drink keg brew without a cooler.

 

[psymn]

No problem, one more thing, if you decide to shake the cornie, you can increase the pressure up to about 30psi to REALLY speed things up and make sure you disco the gas line before you shake.

Why disconnect the gas when force carbonating?

Matt

 

[miafunk2003]

what is balancing your system?

 

[Ol' Grog]

Read the balancing part, pretty good details:

http://www.northernbrewer.com/docum...m.pdf#search="forced carbonation temperature"

 

[Chairman Cheyco]

Why disconnect the gas when force carbonating?

Matt

That's only if you're shaking it since you don't want to risk getting beer in your gas system.

 

[Ol' Grog]

A-HA I need to know that. Didn't even cross my mind. Thanks for that reply.