First Time Kegging - Couple Questions

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morbster

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Good morning everyone. After about 10 batches, I’ve made the switch to kegging and have a couple questions.

After cold crashing for three days, I transferred 5 gallons into my keg and sealed it up. I put 30psi of CO2 on the beer for about an hour, and lightly shook up the keg every time I walked by. Before I went to bed, I turned it down to 12psi and set my temp controller to 40F, where it has remained for about 12 hours now. Once my beer is carbonated, I plan to shut off my CO2 until I am ready to serve, at which point I will connect my liquid line and set my regulator to 2-3psi.

1. Have I screwed anything up so far? From what I understand, my beer should be carbonated in 1-2 weeks.

2. I would love to take a growler of properly carbonated beer tomorrow. What would be the best way to achieve this over the next 24 hours?

3. My beer had a fair amount of haze when I racked it from my primary fermenter, nothing out of the ordinary. Can I expect the beer to clarify similarly to bottle conditioned beer over time?
 
1. Nope. It might even be done sooner than 2 weeks.
2. Read up on the "burst carb" method, I believe there's a sticky on this.
3. As it chills in your kegerator/keezer, the "haze" will drop out to the bottom. Your first few pours may be a bit cloudy. As long as you don't jostle the keg, it should be pretty clear after that.
 
Thanks for the response, seatazzz. I had overlooked the paragraph about burst carbing in the sticky, which helps with my question. The sticky recommends setting it at 3X the equilibrium pressure for 24 hours, so I'll probably set it at 2X the equilibrium pressure since I have already started carbonating the keg.
 
You need to look at a carbonation chart. At 40F and 12 PSI your equilibrium carbonation level is 2.42 volumes. You can leave it hooked up to 12 PSI forever and it will not get more carbonated than 2.42 volumes. If you get to 2.42 volumes and then switch to serving pressure at 2 PSI you will get 1 beer out of the keg and then have large head space. That headspace will fill with CO2 at 2PSI from the bottle but the CO2 in solution in the beer will try to come back out of solution to get the headspace back to equilibrium 12 PSI. Every pint you pull will increase the volume of the head space and pull more and more CO2 out of solution to compensate. Pretty soon you will have pretty flat beer,

What you want to do is burst carb to reach 80% or so of your desired carbonation then hook up to 12 PSI and leave it at this pressure until the keg kicks. I like to start at 30 PSI for 24 hours then turn to 10 PSI. I will drink a beer or two right away but the beer really reaches proper carb and settles out after about a week.
 
Thanks for the input Eric, I completely agree with you. I read the carbonation chart but made a silly mistake along the way, probably from misreading a forum post in the past few days. My thermodynamics professors would be ashamed of me for thinking the 2-3psi would work for dispensing the beer over several pints.
 
I have a beer in fermenter I want to take with me on a trip. I'm hoping to cold crash it Sunday, then keg it Monday.

To force carb it in time I will do one of two things: either leave it on 36 psi for about 24 hours or lay that filled keg on my lap, connected to the gas, and rock it back and forth for 15 minutes.

I tried to force carb a different keg about 10 days ago. Did the rocking thing for 10 minutes and was pretty good already. I determined I needed to do it for 15 minutes, which is what I will aim for with this next batch.

When you rock it on your lap you'll hear bubbles entering the keg from the gas post, and you'll hear the regulator groaning as it has to keep up with the gas that's dissolved into the beer.
 
I have a beer in fermenter I want to take with me on a trip. I'm hoping to cold crash it Sunday, then keg it Monday.

To force carb it in time I will do one of two things: either leave it on 36 psi for about 24 hours or lay that filled keg on my lap, connected to the gas, and rock it back and forth for 15 minutes.

I tried to force carb a different keg about 10 days ago. Did the rocking thing for 10 minutes and was pretty good already. I determined I needed to do it for 15 minutes, which is what I will aim for with this next batch.

When you rock it on your lap you'll hear bubbles entering the keg from the gas post, and you'll hear the regulator groaning as it has to keep up with the gas that's dissolved into the beer.

Agitating the beer at elevated pressure (pressure above what a carb chart says) is the fastest way to carbonate a beer. It is also the fastest, and easiest, way to over carb a beer. :smack: Then you waste all the time you saved on carbonating trying to cure the over carb condition. :smack: :smack:

Safest way to burst carb, with little risk of over carbing, is to use over pressure for 1 - 2 days with no agitation. Beer should be cold when you start for best results. I like to use 30 psi for 36 hours, then drop pressure to equilibrium value for temp and carb level (i.e. chart value.)

Brew on :mug:
 
Agitating the beer at elevated pressure (pressure above what a carb chart says) is the fastest way to carbonate a beer. It is also the fastest, and easiest, way to over carb a beer. :smack: Then you waste all the time you saved on carbonating trying to cure the over carb condition. :smack: :smack:

Safest way to burst carb, with little risk of over carbing, is to use over pressure for 1 - 2 days with no agitation. Beer should be cold when you start for best results. I like to use 30 psi for 36 hours, then drop pressure to equilibrium value for temp and carb level (i.e. chart value.)

Brew on :mug:

I usually do the burst carb by setting to 36 psi for 24 hours and that works great.

But what if I want that beer NOW? For instance, I have a beer I want to bottle and take with me on a trip. If I'm leaving tomorrow, say, and the beer is in the process of crashing to 32, then the only alternative is to shake and bake.

I'm trying to determine a shake and bake routine where I can get close, and let the beer finish on set-and-forget. Last time, 10 minutes at 36 psi let me sample the beer right away, but I think I need maybe 15 minutes. So I'll try probably 12 1/2 minutes to ensure I don't overcarb.

I'm not overly concerned about overcarbing; if that happens I'll just open the PRV for a couple hours and see what I get.

I agree a 24-hour routine is better and safer, and set-and-forget safer yet, but sometimes you just gotta carb..... ;)

[In a compilation of my strengths, "patience" is not very high on the list.....]
 
...

I'm trying to determine a shake and bake routine where I can get close, and let the beer finish on set-and-forget. Last time, 10 minutes at 36 psi let me sample the beer right away, but I think I need maybe 15 minutes. So I'll try probably 12 1/2 minutes to ensure I don't overcarb.

...

Set regulator to serving psi and you can shake and bake the cr@p out of it and never over carb.
 
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