couple questions

[bobcat1]

1. i am in the middle of brewing my first batch of beer. It will be ready to bottle/keg in about a week. the trouble is i am going to be on vaction for the next week. So i have 2 choices. Leave the beer in a carboy until i get back or go to the keg and set my pressure and leave it carbinate for a week while im on vacation and have a hopfully good surprise waiting when it get back. any thoughts?

2. I can see this beer making and kegging thing may become a habit, so if i were to get a second keg and make more beer, could i add priming sugar and keg it so it was already carbinated by the time my first keg is empy? i'm thinking this would eliminate having to wait for the keg to carb up?

 

[Cyclman]

Let it sit, it can't hurt for a week.

You can prime a keg with sugar, use 1/2 to 2/3 the sugar you would use to bottle (less headspace, I believe, is why this works). Some feel this makes for better beer, I don't know.

 

[bobcat1]

i reread my post and i dont think i explained it right. the beer will be ready to bottle/ keg before i leave for vacation. (2 weeks since brewing). would there be any reason not to keg it, so that it will be carbed by the time i get back? i mean do you have to check it and adjust your pressure or can i set it at like 10 psi and not worry about it while i'm gone a week?

 

[Gameface]

It can sit at pressure pretty much indefinitely. It won't hurt it at all to keg and leave it for a week. In fact I think a lot of people (people more patient than myself) don't touch their kegged beer until it has been on gas for at least a week or two.

You can use priming sugar in a keg. No issues there at all.

If this is your first batch I might recommend leaving it in the fermenter until you get back. Not only to make absolutely sure it is finished fermenting, but because that would also lead me to believe the kegging system is new as well. It sure would suck to come home and find a sticky mess that used to be your wonderful beer because something wasn't tightened down just right. Not quite as bad but you might also find an empty CO2 bottle and completely flat beer because you had a leak on the gas side.

 

[raouliii]

1. i am in the middle of brewing my first batch of beer. It will be ready to bottle/keg in about a week. the trouble is i am going to be on vaction for the next week.....

i reread my post and i dont think i explained it right. the beer will be ready to bottle/ keg before i leave for vacation. (2 weeks since brewing). .....

Your beer will be even MORE ready to bottle/keg three weeks after brewday anyway. Three weeks will be fine and it will be better beer for the delay.