First keg help needed

[Chefflahertycec]

I'm not trying to ask questions that have answers on here somewhere but I've been looking for a bit with no results......... I am bout to rack my first beer to keg, My question is, I'm looking to rack to keg, force carbonate ( at room temp 70 - 75 F) What is the proper procedure for this? If I am setting the PSI to a certain level, do I leave the Co2 attached for that period of time? I do not plan on refrigerating the beer for a few days as well. (although, if necessary I can throw it in the beer cooler at work) My situation is that I have all I need for kegging but the refrigerator which I will have in a few days. I have a finished beer in my carboy and need to get another one going for a party I have planned in 3 weeks. My hopes were to just Gas the keg, Be able to disconnect , refrigerate, and start drinking this beer as soon as possible while brewing more for the party. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have good Idea on the process. Just probably over thinking it due to it being new to me....

 

[Homercidal]

First, relax, grab a homebrew and... well, relax!

You CAN force carb at room temp, although due to physics, it will not work as fast. At room temperature, you will need to push a bit more pressure into the beer to get it to hold onto it as well. There are charts that give the proper PSI for different temps and line lengths, etc.

If you put about 15 PSI on a keg at room temperature, I doubt it will be overcarbed in a few days. You will probably want 10-12 PSI (Depending on beer style and line length adn diameter...) when it's cooled and in the fridge, so that is a safe pressure as well. I often start a beer on gas outside the kegerator by just pumping 20 PSI into it and disconnecting the gas (No gas lines outside the fridge, so I load it up and set it aside to absorb from the headspace.)

Bottom line is, for a few days, a normal pressure will be fine, and you could even go somewhat higher since it takes a week or two to fully carb at cold temps.

 

[ericbw]

I'm not trying to ask questions that have answers on here somewhere but I've been looking for a bit with no results......... I am bout to rack my first beer to keg, My question is, I'm looking to rack to keg, force carbonate ( at room temp 70 - 75 F) What is the proper procedure for this? If I am setting the PSI to a certain level, do I leave the Co2 attached for that period of time? I do not plan on refrigerating the beer for a few days as well. (although, if necessary I can throw it in the beer cooler at work) My situation is that I have all I need for kegging but the refrigerator which I will have in a few days. I have a finished beer in my carboy and need to get another one going for a party I have planned in 3 weeks. My hopes were to just Gas the keg, Be able to disconnect , refrigerate, and start drinking this beer as soon as possible while brewing more for the party. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have good Idea on the process. Just probably over thinking it due to it being new to me....

This might sound dumb, but... if you gas it and then disconnect it, it will absorb the amount of CO2 that's in the headspace. But that's not enough to carbonate really. You say you want to disconnect it and then refrigerate, but you need to keep the gas on it to serve, too.

The proper procedure for kegging it at room temp is to look up a carbonation chart (Google it). Then hook up the gas and set the regulator to whatever PSI the chart says for the temp and carb level you want. Keep the gas hooked up. Then chill the beer when you get the refrigerator. Keep the gas hooked up. You're probably better off carbonating it when it is cold.

What's your setup? One regulator? Do you have an air distributor (manifold)? How many kegs do you have?

 

[AnOldUR]

It is my understanding that there is no other difference between carbing at room temperature or chilled other than the pressure required to reach the volumes of CO2. If anything your beer will carb faster at room temperature. Likes been said, use one of the many carbonation charts to find the pressure to set your regulator at and leave it hooked up. In your case that will be somewhere around 30psi.

edit:
Once fully carbed you can disconnect the CO2 and put it in your refrigerator and let it reach equilibrium at the new temperature. You could leave it hooked up at the pressure from the chart for the temperature you will chill to, but be sure you have working check valves or the higher initial pressure in the head space could pass into other kegs. It's safer to just disconnect it for the day it takes to reach serving temperature. As long as your keg doesn't leak the volumes of CO2 will remain constant.

 

[Chefflahertycec]

Thanks for all your help. So I have a Dunkel Weizen which is recommended 3.6 - 4.5 volumes Co2. I now have it chilled to 38f after 24 hrs @ 30 psi at rm temp. This chart says that the desired psi at 38f for a volume of 4 is 27 psi. that seems really high. Is this chart based on serving psi or is it only for force carbing. Most of my reading has said that most beers are kegged and pressurized to 10 - 12 psi serving pressure.

 

[dnomyaR]

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

 

[AnOldUR]

Is this chart based on serving psi or is it only for force carbing.

Carbing pressure and serving pressure should always be the same. Your pour can be adjusted by balancing the system using line length and size. Longer and smaller = less foam. A lot of homebrewers use a longer line length on all their beers. Somewhere in the 10' to 12' range. It will result in a slower pour on beer with a lower volume of CO2, but is worth it to not have to worry about excessive foaming. Traditionally, German Wheat beers are carbed to a high volume of CO2, but you probably won't notice too much difference if you use somewhere around 3.0 volumes and 12' of 3/16" inside diameter line.