First time kegging in 2 hours, last minute questions.

[ButchTN]

As the title says we will put our first beer (American Cream Ale) in to a corny in about 2 hours. We just got a C02 tank, but no lines to hook it up yet. Do we (can we) just put the sugar in just like we were bottling?

Also, do I have this correct, we don't use the bottling sugar if we are going to force carbonate?

Something else, I do have a new set of O rings for the fittings and the lid, but I have no lube. Is there something else I have in the house that can be a substitute? Like olive oil?

 

[Blender]

If you are going to force carb there is no need for priming sugar. If you prime I have read that one should use roughly half the amount of corn sugar as you would use for bottling but I have no experience with that process. You would have to wait the 3 weeks for priming the kegs though and force carbing can be done faster.

I would use mineral oil instead of olive oil.

 

[StunnedMonkey]

As the title says we will put our first beer (American Cream Ale) in to a corny in about 2 hours. We just got a C02 tank, but no lines to hook it up yet. Do we (can we) just put the sugar in just like we were bottling?

Just curious as to why you'd move that beer to a keg if you don't have a co2 hookup yet? Ideally, you'll want to prime the keg with co2 before moving the beer in, in order to purge the oxygen out. Without that, you risk oxidizing the beer. And without hooking that keg to co2, you can't effectively check for leaks.

No need for priming sugar in a keg. You could certainly do it, but I'm not sure why you'd want to if you're force carbonating with co2 eventually.

Unless I'm misunderstanding what you're going to do, I'd say to leave the beer in the fermenter until you've got the co2 lines ready to hook up. After you get the co2 lines, check the keg for leaks, then move the beer in and force carbonate...no sugar.

 

[beerthirty]

You want to use a different amount of sugar I think when kegging, I am not sure if its more or less.
Correct on no bottling sugar when force carbing.
Don't use oil. Got any starsan? It is slick enough to help seat the seals. You may want to hold off on the kegging until you have your gas lines. Using pressure is the best way to seat the seals and then you don't need to worry about the sugar, or the time it takes for the beer to bottle condition. If you can get your hose within a week or two you will still be ahead of bottle conditioning.

 

[damrass]

You'll need to hook up the CO2 to seat and seal the lid, even if you want to prime with sugar. And +1 to StunnedMonkey about purging the keg.

I would hold off racking until I got my CO2 line. Is there a good reason you need to keg it today?

 

[ButchTN]

Exactly the information I was looking for! Thanks so much guys. We will hold off then until we get the tank hooked up. We were just bored and looking for something to do today.

 

[mrfocus]

The good reason for waiting for the tank is that you want to be sure that the lid is well sealed.

Use the same amount of priming sugar. Transfer the beer. Seal the lid and inject CO2. Release the pressure relief valve to be sure the seal is good, and to purge all the oxygen in the keg to be sure you have minimal amounts of oxygen left in the keg (you may want to repeat this a few times, just with quick shots).