Force Carb OR Set & Forget?

[PistolaPete]

I'm new to kegging so any input on both methods as far as pros and cons are welcomed!

The sticky on "Keg Force Carbing Illustrated" recomends to wait 3 weeks before drinking whether you force carb or use the "set & forget" method. The poster ultimatly asks "Why bother to force carb at all if you have to wait 3 weeks anyways?"

So I am trying to figure out why everyone on here seems to force carb if you have to wait 3 weeks no matter what...

 

[Warthaug]

Because you don't have to wait 3 weeks. I'm nervous about over-carbing, so I do about half a force-carb, and then set & forget the remainder; I get carb'd beer in ~4 days that way. If you force-carb correctly, you can have carb'd beer in a day.

The three weeks may be an aging thing - beer in a keg will age just like beer in bottles or a carboy. I usually go straight from the primary into the keg (after a 10-14 day ferment, on average), and despite being drinkable, it gets much better over 2-3 weeks.

Bryan

 

[brettwasbtd]

3 Weeks is the easiest way to reach a desired volume of CO2 based on temperature and psi. If you have other beers on tap and in the pipeline waiting three weeks is not a problem. I know I know, you started kegging cause you didnt want to wait 3 weeks like you did with bottling right? Well you still are getting the beer cold for those three weeks, dropping yeast further out of the beer (clear beer). After 3 weeks you will have cold carbed and clear beer. In bottling you'd have to wait 3 weeks, then stick some in the fridge and then wait close to a week for cold and clear beer.

If you are impatient, or need the beer soon, or just want to try it you can do some "abbreviated force carbing" methods and have pretty solid carbonated beer in a week. I do this by setting a room temp keg into my kegerator and setting the psi about 3 times the normal amount and holding it there for 36-48. If the beer is already cold do this for 24-36 hours. Degas and set the psi to serving temp and wait 4-5 days. should be right on the money.

 

[Yooper]

Keep in mind that "force carbing" is simply using co2 to carb your beer. It doesn't mean shaking/turning the pressure way up/quick carbing/etc. Force carbing means not using priming sugar to carb it up, as the co2 is being "forced" into solution even in the "set it and forget it" method.

With set it and forget it, it normally takes about 10 days to get a nice level of carbonation. If you absolutely positively can't wait that long, a nice compromise is to set the psi at 30 for 36 hours, and then purge and reset to 12 psi. (This is assuming fridge temps, in a kegerator, and not room temperature). That will get you a drinkable beer in about 3 days, although the carb level will continue to improve over the next week or so.