First keg attempt

[slackerlack]

I just ordered all the equipment I think I need to move from bottles to kegs. But I do not know the process for kegging. I know that when bottling, I would prime and let it carbonate over anything from two weeks to two months. And during this time, it would condition/age, and continue after as well.

Now the questions I have, when I move from my last fermentation step to the keg, do I prime and let it carbonate naturally like I did with bottles? Do I force carbonate immediately? If I do force carbonate, will that halt conditioning/aging all together? What temperature do I do this at?

Any help would be appreciated as I have no idea what I am doing with this keg system. I have seen videos where people forced carbonation and shook the keg for a while, let it sit for two days, then it was ready to drink. Not sure if there are tons of methods or what. Sorry if this has been answered a million times, I searched the forums.

 

[H-ost]

at the top of the page in this section there are some good sticky pages. check out the force carbing thread and and the kegging FAQ page those are good ones.

 

[Copperpots_Brewing]

It is possible to prime the beer in the keg and let it naturally carbonate, it would take about the same amount of time as it did in the bottles, and would follow the same process in terms of temps and whatnot.
The most common method is to force carbonate it, which you would do whenever you decide your fermentation is complete. Force carbing will not affect your conditioning, and can be done at any temperature, however beer tends to take CO2 better at colder temps. So you could do it in the kegerator if you want.
Do not use the shaking method to carb a keg. I beg you. People look for a quick fix, and there is none! You are taught that all through the brewing process, you MUST be patient. Carbonating is no exception. The most effective method of force carbonating is the set and forget method. I'll explain that in a second.... The shaking method will often over carbonate your beer and you will end up with nothing but foamy pours and you'll get frustrated beyond belief.

SIMPLE STEPS FOR KEGGING/FORCE CARBING A BEER:
1. Be sure the keg is sanitized well. StarSan tends to work the best for me. Fill the keg half way and seal it up and shake it until you feel like you've gotten a decent workout. It is okay to have a little residual StarSan left in the keg. You wont taste it and it wont harm the beer.
2. Using a sanitized siphon, drain the beer from the fermenter into the keg, avoiding excessive splashing so you dont oxidize the beer.
3. Be sure to run some food-grade lubricant over the o-rings on the the posts of the kegs, as well as the large o-ring at the keg lid.
4. Seal up the keg and hook it up to the CO2.
5. Turn the pressure on the keg up to about 14-17psi, allow pressure to build up and pull the pressure relief valve on the top of the keg to purge any excess oxygen from the top of the beer. (Do this a couple times for best results)
6. Leave the pressure at 14-17psi for a week and try the beer. Test for carbonation. If need-be, wait a little longer. Don't rush it!
7. Once the beer is at a comfortable carbonation level, lower the pressure and release the pressure from the keg. Then slowly adjust the pressure back up until you find a good serving level. The beer should come out with some force, but not too much where you get excess foam. (usually 10-13psi is good, depending on your system and the style of beer).

You should be good to go at that point! Enjoy, and let me know if you have any questions.

 

[Air_Force_FE]

Or you could crank up the pressure to 30 PSI and carbonate in 3 days. Just sayin.

 

[bmbigda]

i've found that patience and attention to detail returns the best kegging results (just like everything else in brewing).

first off, in my personal opinion and experiences, the conditioning you get with a beer cold and hooked up to CO2 is somewhat different than a carboy sitting in your basment. It's sort of like maturation vs. clarification. But the answer to question for the most part is yes, beer still conditions while being force carbed

My kegging method is to siphon the beer into a keg that has been purged with CO2, set the regulator based on the temperature and desired carbonation level, and leave it until it's fully carbed. This usually takes 2.5 weeks. "set it and forget it"

http://www.kegerators.com/carbonation-table.php

Of course there are ways of expediting the 2.5 week wait time, but I choose not to shake my kegs or expose them to high pressure levels, mainly because once/if you overcarbonate the beer, it is a royal pain in the @$$ to get it back down. I also prefer letting the beer sit for a little while.

 

[prodigal]

I've force carbed and done the set it and forget it method and I actually prefer to force carb. I put my fermentor in my keezer a couple days prior to kegging so it gets down to serving temp, somewhere between 43-48F.

When kegging time comes around, I siphon to the keg and purge the headspace with CO2. I crank up the pressure to 30 PSI, sit down a chair in front on the keezer, put a towel on my lap and lay the keg across my legs.

I rock the keg back and forth for about 80-100 seconds, depending on how hard I'm rocking it. During this time, you should hear the 'hiss' of the gas entering the keg. When I'm done rocking the keg, I turn the gas back down to serving pressure but leave it connected to the keg.

I let it settle down for a day and I'll give it a test pour. Usually, it ends up still a little undercarbed but close to what I want; nothing another day or two on gas can't fix. I've yet to overcarb my beer using this method. As usual, YMMV. Even if it ends up overcarbed, it's not the end of the world.

 

[beerman0001]

I've force carbed and done the set it and forget it method and I actually prefer to force carb. I put my fermentor in my keezer a couple days prior to kegging so it gets down to serving temp, somewhere between 43-48F.

When kegging time comes around, I siphon to the keg and purge the headspace with CO2. I crank up the pressure to 30 PSI, sit down a chair in front on the keezer, put a towel on my lap and lay the keg across my legs.

I rock the keg back and forth for about 80-100 seconds, depending on how hard I'm rocking it. During this time, you should hear the 'hiss' of the gas entering the keg. When I'm done rocking the keg, I turn the gas back down to serving pressure but leave it connected to the keg.

I let it settle down for a day and I'll give it a test pour. Usually, it ends up still a little undercarbed but close to what I want; nothing another day or two on gas can't fix. I've yet to overcarb my beer using this method. As usual, YMMV. Even if it ends up overcarbed, it's not the end of the world.

Anytime you are using co2 to from the tank to carb your beer you are force carbing.

 

[Tom2365]

I'm new as well. One thing that helped me was hooking up the CO2 to the empty keg and testing it for leaks. Doing this revealed a leaky relief valve, which I was then able to fix without the beer being needlessly exposed to oxygen while I fiddled with it.

 

[Brewnoob1]

If you set your pressure for your serving pressure, say 12-15 or what have you, and rock the keg back and forth, you won't be able to over-carb your beer.

 

[slackerlack]

So I got my first beer kegged and ran into a problem less than 24 hours later. I pressurized the keg to 39psi. About 12 hours later I noticed a little bit of beer in the liquid line. When I moved the line, beer started to flow into the line and out of the plastic tap. I tried to get the tap to stop releasing beer, but nothing was working. Finally I had to remove the liquid line from the ball lock. Was it just to much pressure for the plastic tap to handle? I have since dropped it back to 13psi after 24 hours.

 

[day_trippr]

If you're speaking of a "picnic tap" aka "cobra faucet", then yes, the beer pressure was over the point that those things tend to self-pour. I wouldn't trust one above 20psi...

Cheers!