First Time Force Carbonating

[GusWatab]

I have just kegged a Moose Drool clone (Caribou Slobber) and I have always bottled my homebrew with good results. I have never kegged before but recently came across a couple vacant corny's to use. My question is getting these carb'd. I have read numerous threads regarding this and am a bit confused as there a quite a few different techniques. I have racked to the sanitized keg and have it sitting at about 20 psi at room temp. I have seen "Crank it up to 30 psi for 24-36 hours and then back down to serving pressure." and I have seen "leave it at about 15psi and shake it everytime you walk by it." among many other techniques...I have never been much for rushing a batch of beer so I would be fine with a week or two in the keg carbing. My question is to how many psi and whether or not I change/drop the pressure. Also there is never much mention as to whether or not it carbs at room temp or in a fridge.

I also saw somewhere that you connect the Co2 to the outlet of the keg?? Is this right? I currently have it hooked up to the "Gas In" on the corny keg.

Any thoughts or insight would be appreciated. Thank you in advance!

 

[Yooper]

Room temperature and fridge temperatures require different pressures!

Here's a nice chart to help you based on the temperature of the keg: http://www.kegerators.com/carbonation-table.php

 

[Lowry0031]

it carbs better/faster at colder temperatures.

I usually leave it my fridge (37 F) and set the psi to 18 and come back in a week to try it.

shaking and all that stuff (in my opinion) is annoying.

I am currently drinking my first naturally carbed (in a keg) brew...results are worth waiting for!

 

[astropunk]

The gas in connector is correct.

If you are fine with the wait, then set it at serving pressure (6-12psi) and give it a week or two. To force carb it, up it to 30psi for 2-3 days, then release pressure and back it down.

 

[Yooper]

I have just kegged a Moose Drool clone (Caribou Slobber) and I have always bottled my homebrew with good results. I have never kegged before but recently came across a couple vacant corny's to use. My question is getting these carb'd. I have read numerous threads regarding this and am a bit confused as there a quite a few different techniques. I have racked to the sanitized keg and have it sitting at about 20 psi at room temp. I have seen "Crank it up to 30 psi for 24-36 hours and then back down to serving pressure." and I have seen "leave it at about 15psi and shake it everytime you walk by it." among many other techniques...I have never been much for rushing a batch of beer so I would be fine with a week or two in the keg carbing. My question is to how many psi and whether or not I change/drop the pressure. Also there is never much mention as to whether or not it carbs at room temp or in a fridge.

I also saw somewhere that you connect the Co2 to the outlet of the keg?? Is this right? I currently have it hooked up to the "Gas In" on the corny keg.

Any thoughts or insight would be appreciated. Thank you in advance!

Oh, yeah, the gas goes into the "gas in". The "out" is for the line for the tap.

 

[GusWatab]

Oh, yeah, the gas goes into the "gas in". The "out" is for the line for the tap.

I figured as much. I figured it was a typo as hooking up gas to the outlet of the keg didn't seem right.

Thanks a alot everyone for the quick responses. I think I will just pull it down a few psi and let it chill...in the fridge.

 

[KevinM]

I think the theory is that putting gas through the outlet tube causes some agitation of the beer and would therefore subliminate into the liquid at a greater rate during a quick force carb.
Honestly... Just attach it to the normal gas in and shake it a few times more if you're quickly force carbing. It's actually less of a hassle. If you attach it to the beer out line, you can sometimes get it off while only releasing the gas that was in the tube at the time, however if you get stuck for a few seconds then you're getting beer onto the floor.

Since you've mentioned you're fine waiting, yes, just leave it on the gas in and don't worry about shaking.

 

[malkore]

If you use one of those airstones, then putting the CO2 in at the bottom of the keg makes sense.

but large co2 bubbles out the Out tube just shoot to the top and honestly will hardly dissolve into solution faster.

I have a lot of experience with CO2 going into water and what it takes to get it to dissolve quickly. super tiny bubbles is the key...so just put it on the gas-in post unless you have the fancy airstone.

 

[krazydave]

Here's what I do to force carb. Chill it first, then hook it up to the gas in. I'll crank up the pressure to about 30-35psi and lay it on its side (for more surface area), then roll it back and forth for a few minutes on the ground. Beats having to man-handle it to shake it!

After a few minutes of rolling it back and forth, I disconnect it, purge the pressure and turn the regulator down, then reconnect the gas to test out the carbonation.
If I get a decent amount of head on the beer, I'll let it sit overnight and usually it's pretty close with smaller bubbles by the next day. If it needs more, I'll just do the same thing again but only for about a minute or so at a time.
Note that I do use pin-lock cornies which don't generally have pull tabs on the safety valve to purge, so it does require that I remove the gas line to do it. One thing you do want to watch out for though is turning down your regulator before disconnecting from the keg and dropping the pressure in the keg. Even with check valves installed, I did manage to get beer in my Co2 line when I wasn't paying attention and turned down the regulator first.

If for some reason I manage to overcarb it, which I did do a couple of times when I first started experimenting with this technique. I'll just disconnect the gas line, purge the pressure, shake it, purge it, shake it, purge it, etc until it gets better (usually doesn't take too long).

It may not be an exact science of getting the exact volume of Co2 in the beer that each style should have. But if you set the serving pressure where it should be for that style, it usually equalizes fairly quick. Or at least a lot faster than waiting for it to carb over time.

But then again, if you have the patience to hook it up and forget it, by all means do so!
I personally wasn't born with much patience