First time force carbing

[drathbone]

I've read several ways to "force" carb with the kegerator and C02 tank. I may have misinterpreted, but do I always have to roll my keg around if I carb by setting at about 12psi and waiting a week or will the C02 still mix in the beer with time? Also, what effect will be on the beer if it's not chilled prior to hooking the gas line up to it? I understand there a difference in how quickly/how much C02 is needed to carb, but if I just hook up a freshly racked keg and carb while it chills will it have any consequences?
Also, do I leave @ 12psi the whole time or after a week I can shut it off and turn it back on to serving pressure when I want a drink?

 

[jotakah]

okay i'll take this one at a time...

do I always have to roll my keg around if I carb by setting at about 12psi and waiting a week or will the C02 still mix in the beer with time?

The "set and forget" method (which isn't really "force carbing") would have you setting it at ~12psi for 3weeks. You could definitely speed this up by occasionally rolling the keg on its side so that the gas percolates through your beer, increasing surface area of the gas to the liquid and thus increasing absorption. But also keep in mind that carbonating and conditioning are two different things... if your beer is carbonated after one week but it still isn't conditioned, you'll have bubbly beer that still tastes "green."

Also, what effect will be on the beer if it's not chilled prior to hooking the gas line up to it? I understand there a difference in how quickly/how much C02 is needed to carb, but if I just hook up a freshly racked keg and carb while it chills will it have any consequences

The colder a liquid is, the more the liquid is able to absorb CO2. So if you want your beer carbonated at ~2.5 volumes of CO2 (typical carbonation level for lagers and ales), you can achieve this carbonation with 12psi of pressure at 40F, or 18psi at 50F (see chart I attached). So chilling your beer prior to carbonation means you will be able to dissolve CO2 more easily into your beer than you could at room temperature.

Also, do I leave @ 12psi the whole time or after a week I can shut it off and turn it back on to serving pressure when I want a drink?

After the beer is carbonated, it doesn't take any more gas to leave the line open. If you have your keg system set up so that your carbing pressure equals your serving pressure (40F at 12psi with 6+ feet of liquid-dispensing hose is fairly common) then you can leave it open, it would only use more gas when you press the tap and it uses gas to push your beer out.

 

[bucfanmike]

while i agree mostly with the previous answer, i just have to say the "12lb set and forget" method is indeed force carbing. There are 2 ways, force (using applied pressure from co2) and natural (yeast eating priming sugar). Force carbing doesnt just mean blasting 30 lbs of pressure while rocking the keg. That is simply a faster form of force carbonation.

On the question about leaving the gas on. 12bs is a pretty common setting and if you were to turn the gas down to a lower serving pressure after reaching the carbonation level you wanted, then your beer would lose carbonation over time as the pressure adjusts to the new lower level you have set.

 

[Brewnoob1]

^^^ Agreed. You want to balance your system so you keep the serving pressure the same as you would for reaching the ideal co2 volumes. If you have your keg at 50 for example, then as one of the previous posters mentioned you'd need to be at 18psi. You'll want to serve at 18psi. You'll then need to deal with the fast pour from 18psi, so you have 2 choices. Get the beer colder so you can achieve the same volumes with less pressure, or add resistance to your serving line. The way to add resistance the easiest....get longer lines. 10' of 3/16 line should provide enough resistance for a good solid pour at 18psi without too much foaming. If you go much higher than that, or shorter lines, you'll have to deal with foaming issues.

 

[SirBrewsAlot]

I use this method & works just lovely. Instead of laying it down & rocking it, I just kept it vertical like in the video. I don't think its necessary to rock/shake for a long time either. I give mine a half dozen or so shakes with a few minutes between each time & the beer turns out perfect every time. After its carbed I set it to 5-10 psi for serving.

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?deskto...youtu.be&feature=youtu.be&v=Y0GQOg5PyLY&gl=US

 

[RoadKing]

Check out this Carbonation chart http://www.kegerators.com/carbonation-table.php . It tells you the pressure you will need depending on temp. of the beer.

 

[user 4295]

There are a lot of methods that will allow you to force carbonate your beer quickly Every one of them has some level of guess work involved with it, and because of that, inconstant results at best.

The set it and forget it method is fool proof and infinitely repeatable. You need to know the temperature that you'll be storing/serving your beer at, and the volumes of CO2 that you want your beer to have, based on the beer style and/or your own personal taste. Then you plug in those figures into a carbonation calculator like this one, and then set it and forget it for a week or more and it will perfectly carbonated.

You'll get the same results every time doing this way. Is it the quickest? Absolutely not, but patience is required in all aspects of brewing beer well.

 

[jotakah]

The set it and forget it method is fool proof and infinitely repeatable.

Truth.

I remembered that I said I would attach charts/tables. Somebody provided a link so one of these may be redundant but there's no such thing as too much info

View attachment CO2chart.pdf