First time kegging, PSI and the basics

[Oakwood]

I just got a deal on a alum. 20lbs. filled and deliverd to my work and I am going home to keg my Mild Ale tonight. My quesitons,

Where to start? - Everything is clean and ready to go but what next?

What PSI to I put it at to get it going asap?

F1 is sunday will it be ready to drink by then? - If so it would rock.


Help again please.....

 

[WortMonger]

I used to just hook up my gas-in tube on the corny, set my psi to 12-14, turn on the gas, and shake! shake! shake! until the regulator stops hissing while your shaking. It's really easy to force carbonate and drinkable less than an hour later, but I would let it set at least a day where it is to be served from. 12-14 psi is my desired carb level, yours may be different. Ohh, and be sure to fill your keg with CO2 before filling and purge with CO2 after installing the lid. You don't want any O2 that you could have taken care of that easily getting into your beer. Hope this helps.

 

[Oakwood]

I was hoping for a link on a step by step, thanks for your input but what are you shaking?

 

[WortMonger]

You shake the keg while adding CO2. You will hear the hiss of the regulator while doing so until the beer is 12-14 psi.

Step by step (assuming corny keg): Clean and sanitize keg. Then put a blast or three of CO2 into the open keg. Next rack the same way as if you were going to a bottling bucket, only you are heading to a keg. The CO2 in the keg will curtain O2 from getting into your beer you are racking into the bottom of the keg due to O2 being lighter and should stay on top of your beer and be pushed out by incoming beer. Once the keg is filled to the desired level, put the lid on your corny and attach the gas-in connection hooked to your CO2 regulator and bottle. Now you need to purge the last remaining possible O2 from your keg while it is still on top. You do this by turning on your CO2 regulator down to 6psi or lower and fill until the reg stops hissing. Then you pull/flip/whatever your pressure relief valve on top of your corny until nothing more gases out. Do this twice to be sure. Also if your corny happens to have one of those non-manulally activated relief valves, you will have to remove your gas-in connection and push the pin/ball lock down to purge the CO2.

Now, to carbonate: CO2 should be hokked up to gas-in, regulator set to 12-14 psi, and turn on gas and shake the keg to create more surface area for the carbonation to happen quicker. It really is that easy. You can carbonate quicker the closer the beer is to 32*F but other than that, I have carbonated 70*F beer before so it can be done.

 

[Brewer3401]

Some things I do (because I'm a fanatic)

- Purge corny keg with CO2 before transferring beer.
- Hose from beer to corny has to reach bottom of corny.
- I "push" my beer from fermenter or brite tank with CO2
(no oxygen touches beer when transferring)
- I cover the top of the corny with aluminum foil so nothing can get in.

Another minor point, is it works better if you start very slowly with the transfer. After the end of the tubing is under beer, you can open the valve all of the way.

Never a good idea when you hear beer splashing.

Good luck.

 

[WortMonger]

That is correct, start slow with the flow. I have started using larger diameter racking tube so as to speed things up for myself, but I don't siphon (I have a spigot). It is never good to get O2 into beer after fermentation.

Since I moved to using a spunding valve I haven't worried at all about O2 in the keg. Since it is still fermenting when I put it in the keg the yeast eats up O2 from the tranfer and it starts to pressurize the keg in a day. I figure the beer is blanketed simply by the CO2 coming out during tranfer and after the spunding valve shows pressure after sealing, the O2 is on top of the CO2 and will get ejected when pressure goes above what I have the spunding valve set on. I love this thing and so easy to use. Not to mention it has all but caused me to only use CO2 for purging kegs and serving them. That is a whole other thread all together though.

 

[Oakwood]

got it in the keg, did the shaky shak and got a few glasses out in an hour or so, the first few where okay but now they are really fommy? I have it set at 14psi what do i need to do?

 

[Fingers]

How long is the line from your keg to your tap?

 

[DeathBrewer]

last time i did it, i turned it down to about 5 PSI for dispensing. worked perfect. also, don't forget to slowly relieve the pressure after you turn it down.

 

[Denny's Evil Concoctions]

You need to balance your system. Some 10 foot 3/16 beer lines ( the real non foam ones not hardware store pvc) will work great.

Longer lines reduce serving pressure at the faucet, thus reducing or elimintating foaminess.

 

[WortMonger]

DeathBrewer is right, when you take something containing a gas at 14psi and change pressure to 5psi to serve, the CO2 wants to come out of the beer in the form of foam. I would tap it, let it sit awhile, then slowly relieve the pressure little bit by little bit over several attempts until it is pressureless, then set your regulator to 5psi and turn on. The first couple right after you do this should be foamy and after that great.

This is where Denny's comments come in- You really do need to match your system up (tubing size/length) and I forget where I read how to figure that. I just use about 3-4 ft of 3/16 vinyl tubing. I bought a lot of it at USPLASTICS.COM along with quick disconnects to make everything easier to hook up and break-down.

Hope all this helps. I usually always have a beer right after throwing into the kegerator, I just use a 22 oz glass and get to drink about 10 oz. But, it is worth it knowing that tomorrow I will be drinking a lot more.

 

[Denny's Evil Concoctions]

http://hbd.org/clubs/franklin/public_html/docs/balance.html

 

[Fingers]

I use the 3/16 hose and run about 8 feet to my tap. You have to drop the pressure so that it discharges at about 1 psi. Just enough to fill your glass in a reasonable time with a bit of aromatic head on it.

 

[Denny's Evil Concoctions]

I'd go 7 to 10 feet with that 3/16 beer line. That should cover a range of styles. Mine are 10 foot.

 

[Oakwood]

Tried the shake shake and got a few good glass's and a few foam filled ones. Cranked it up to 35PSI let it sit over night. Burped it down to 14PSI - set the tank to 6PSI. It pours slow but true. Nice carmel color head, and great head retension. Thank you all so much for your help.

Downside. the beer doesn't hold carbination to long. In the glass maybe 20 minutes, seems the head falls away after that and the beer taste flat? But who can let a great beer like this set for that long.

 

[TheJadedDog]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the set it and forget it method. Set your regulator to your desired serving pressure based on your keg temp (typically 10-14psi) and let it sit for a week. After a week it will have the right amount of carbonation and you can start serving, no need to adjust the regulator at all.

 

[Bobby_M]

I agree with Jaded. You're getting a lot of the "tricks" with mention of shaking the keg and running an unbalanced system requiring constant pressure changes just to pour. I don't mind being the EAC that says it's a whole lot of BS. OK, so you guys do what you like but there's nothing like the set and forget method with a properly balanced beer line length. Set the pressure to 9-12 PSI and leave it. The beer will start carbing nicely once the whole temp of the beer is in the 30's, and then it will take about 3-4 days to become really carbed. It's not really carbed if it's only holding a head for a minute or so.

If you're in a real hurry to carb, you can do the higher pressure with shaking the keg, but don't try it until the beer is COLD because it doesn't want your stinkin CO2 at higher temps.

 

[grrtt78]

how would you have say a stout and a hefe that need to card differently? do u need seperate regulators or is there some way to do this?

 

[Bobby_M]

you'd need either a two-reg primary or a two reg secondary in order to make your life easier. You could micromanage the pressures using a single reg but it's a pain. You'd have to carb each of them separately to the pressures you want. From there, you'd have to turn off the gas, dispense on residual pressure, then top off the pressure to the keg you dispensed from at the end of the day.

 

[Denny's Evil Concoctions]

When you do the shaking method you still need the beer to be at carb pressure for several days to get a decent head to stick. 10 is best. Your beer will taste better by then too.

 

[Bobby_M]

It is true that pressure and time is the only thing that will get the CO2 into saturation but the shaking exposes more of the overall column of beer to the gas in the same amount of time. It drastically increases the beer to gas surface area. In the set and forget method, you have a fixed 50 square inch surface. Notice the keg will carb from the top down. Where's the beer coming from? The bottom.