first time force carbing question

[Eddiebosox]

I apologize if this has been asked before, and I promise I have read the faqs, I just need some quick clarification on force carbing as this is my first time kegging.

I have 5 gallons of IPA I want to serve this Sunday for a St. Paddies day party. I am going to add a few ounces of pellet hops in the keg in a SS tea ball, since I heard hop bags can get clogged in the pickup tube. Since my keg is not getting delivered until Thursday, I need to get it carbed to 2.5 volume by sunday, so I need to force carb.

From what I have read it is my understanding that to get to a 2.5 volume in a keg with 40 degree beer inside, according to this chart I need to set the regulator at 12 PSI:

http://www.ebrew.com/primarynews/ct_carbonation_chart.htm#Carbonation_Chart

In order to speed up the process I can shake the keg back and forth and listen as it accepts more C02, let it sit a few hours, then gently shake it again. Repeat this step for about a day or so. When the sound of more c02 entering the keg stops, that means it cannot accept any more, it is now fully carbed at 2.5. If I rock it on and off consistently I can get it to fully carb in a day or so. Then when I want to serve it, I keep the regulator set at 12 PSI, pour a small glass to get rid of sedimentation that may have occurred, and after that, I have beer.

Is that correct? or do I have to set the PSI to 30 during the force carb process? If I do that wont I overcarb?

 

[day_trippr]

Given those two choices, only one will safely carbonate your beer: set the regulator to the proper pressure to achieve the desired carbonation level at the current beer temperature, and shake 'til no more gas flows...

Cheers!

 

[DPBISME]

... Ya you can do it that way bnut like day_trippr pointed out there are others ways.

I used to just set the beer at delivery pressure in my keggerator and in about 3-5 days it was at pressure.

If you are worried about having uncarbonated beer you can also over pressur a bit and disconnect the gas and use a few pitchers at first and once it get to the carbonation level you want hook the gas back up.

I have done all of these ways...

 

[LoloMT7]

^^ what day trippr said

**I swear that it is better if you wait a few weeks though and it will continue to clear up etc also

Lastly make sure your line is long enough ... often times the importance of the line length gets over looked. I would suggest 10 to 12 feet of beverage line on that setup

 

[Eddiebosox]

great, so if I do what day tripper says, it will carb up to the right level in a few days? Why do people set it to 30 PSI and shake it? To speed up the process?

 

[LoloMT7]

great, so if I do what day tripper says, it will carb up to the right level in a few days? Why do people set it to 30 PSI and shake it? To speed up the process?

yup shaking at 30 will get you there a lot faster but you'll end up over carbed if you do. Shaking at the right pressure will work but take longer.

This is a pretty good source... their are lots of others too but this is just one of them.
http://www.iancrockett.com/brewing/info/forcecarb.shtml

 

[Eddiebosox]

yup shaking at 30 will get you there a lot faster but you'll end up over carbed if you do. Shaking at the right pressure will work but take longer.

OK great. So if I shake at the recommended level, i can get it there in a day or so, and with setting it high at say 30, it takes what, a few hours?

 

[JuanMoore]

OK great. So if I shake at the recommended level, i can get it there in a day or so, and with setting it high at say 30, it takes what, a few hours?

If you chill the beer to serving temp first, shaking at serving pressure should get you fully carbonated within an hour. You just need to keep shaking the keg until the CO2 reaches equilibrium. You'll still want to let the keg settle overnight before pouring a beer, but it will be fully carbed if you shook it vigorously enough.

Usually when people are in a hurry and want to "burst carb", they either shake it at the equilibrium pressure until the gas stops flowing, or they turn the pressure up for 24-48 hrs without shaking it. Shaking cold beer at a higher pressure is a recipe for disaster, since it's near impossible to know exactly how long to shake it without overcarbonating. The few times I've seen shaking at 30 psi suggested, they were starting with beer at fermentation temp, in which case 30 psi is probably pretty close to the equilibrium pressure.

FWIW I have a carb stone that I use in the rare cases I need to rush carbonation on a keg. Before I got the carb stone though, I was a fan of triple the equilibrium pressure for 36 hrs, and then reducing to equilibrium pressure, rather than shaking.

 

[LoloMT7]

OK great. So if I shake at the recommended level, i can get it there in a day or so, and with setting it high at say 30, it takes what, a few hours?

At recommended pressure I've done it that way twice and it took about 45 minutes to an hour of shaking i'm guessing... (tired arms I promise )

With setting at 30 psi it would be way less then a few hours though.

My LHBS actually recommended this to me for quickly burst carbonating.

Get beer to serving temp first then:

Set regulator to 25 psi and shake and roll keg like mad for 5 mins
Crank up to 30psi and shake and roll keg like mad for another 10 mins
Disconnect the co2 from the keg but leave the 30 psi in it for one hour at serving temp.
Then one hour later purge the pressure out of the keg and hook up your co2 again and set it just up to serving pressure this time though.. 13psi or whatever yours was on the chart to get you to the 2.6 or so you wanted.

Keep it chilled for 24 hours to settle and then serve.

Although it's not the way I would recommend to you it did work fine when I first got my setup and I was in a hurry to test it out.

 

[day_trippr]

^ LOL!

Advise like that is what inspires half the threads on this particular forum...

Cheers!

 

[LoloMT7]

^ LOL!

Advise like that is what inspires half the threads on this particular forum...

Cheers!

The funny thing is you can have a keg of perfectly carbed up beer at 2.6 vols or whatever your goal is and be using a 4 foot long warm beverage line and you'll end up with glasses of foam anyways !

If you over carb is it really the end of the world.? nope you just purge a few times and fill a pitcher or 2 up until the carb level is right again.

To each there own... there are definitively more then one ways to skin this kitty kat

Let us know how it turns out this weekend will you Eddie?