First time kegging, need help

[YOpassDAmike]

I have a 1.6 gallon torpedo keg and I will be kegging 1.5 gallons of my stout. I plan on force carbonating the keg and have a few questions:

1) I cannot force carbonate my keg in my mini fridge due to lack of space; therefore, can I force carbonate at room temperature? If so, are there any pros or cons force carbonating at room temperature? Are there any special considerations I need to know when force carbonating a room temperature?

2) While force carbonating, what should I have the psi set at? How long will it take to force carbonate 1.5 gallons of a stout at room temperature?

3) Like priming calculators and charts for bottling specific styles, is there anything similar for the recommended psi for a specific style?

4) What should I set my psi at while serving my stout?

Thank you

 

[DaWhip]

1. You can do it, but it will take a lot more pressure. Google "carbonation chart" and find the pressure for your temp. No pros really, other than saving fridge space. The biggest con, aside from the higher pressure, is that you can't really serve from room temp. The CO2 will come out of solution really fast and you will have a ton of foam.

2. see carb chart mentioned in #1

3. Yes, most of the carb charts have this reference on them

4. Carb chart again. A lot of folks use beer gas instead of CO2 and stout tap for stouts, but I think you can do it with CO2 at the right levels. No kegged stout experience here.

 

[TWAL]

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[jerbrew]

Here's a carb chart it should answer a lot of those questions.

 

[DaWhip]

Check the stickies in the bottling / kegging forum. Also very helpful.

 

[seabrew8]

Put the keg in a ice bath or something maybe? I never forced carb warm before.

 

[YOpassDAmike]

Its a cold winter where I live, I can force carb in my car trunk in my unheated garage; however, I have very little temperature control, could be some temperature swings. Would trying to force carbonate in the garage be a better method force carbonating at room temperature?

 

[seabrew8]

Thats what i would do. I bet the temp. will be reasonably stable. Your cold conditioning/lagering it at the sametime so its a win win, IMO.

Work with what ya got.

 

[YOpassDAmike]

I do have a cool brewing fermentation cooler, with frequent rotation of ice packs, do you think I can get a relatively constant cold temperature for force carbonating.

 

[RevKev]

Is there a real fridge? Or can you make room in the mini fridge? Doesn't make much sense to me to keg a beer that will be stored at room temp..

What I normally do is crank the pressure up to 30-40PSI purge the headspace multiple times by pulling the PRV (I use sankes) and then count to 100 and roll the keg back and forth on my lap. I like to have the keg chilled prior to this, put keg in kegerator and then set at ~15 PSI and after waking up the next day set to serving. Depends a lot on the style but stouts should be set to lesser pressure than an IPA