Hey guys I am going to force carb my beer tonight, first timer here. I keep seeing people write about putting the co2 on the beer line and pressurizing so that the co2 has to go through the beer to get to the top. You recommend this? I am going to try to force carb by setting it at 12-14 psi at 42 deg roll around a bit and wait. tell me what you think about the beer line pressure though.
Force carb
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EdWort
Well-Known Member
The best way requires patience, but is the easiest. Connect your chilled keg to gas, set it to 12 psi and wait a week.
If you want the speed method, you need to chill the keg before trying to carb it. Once it is chilled, you can crank it up to 30 psi while you roll the keg for about 10 minutes. Put it back in the fridge and let it sit for while. Disconnect the gas, dial down the PSI to serving pressure, vent the keg, reconnect the gas, and serve beer.
If you want the speed method, you need to chill the keg before trying to carb it. Once it is chilled, you can crank it up to 30 psi while you roll the keg for about 10 minutes. Put it back in the fridge and let it sit for while. Disconnect the gas, dial down the PSI to serving pressure, vent the keg, reconnect the gas, and serve beer.
No...don't do that.Brentk14 said:
If you want to speed the process along, my usual routine is:
Place keg in cooler (duh!!)
Hook up gas and set at 30PSI (do not shake, rattle or roll)
At 36 hours, shut off gas, release excess pressure from keg, set gas to 12 PSI and give it another few hours.
It works for me every time.
Brentk14 said:
Since you don't have an aeration stone at the end of the out tube, the bubbles will be so large, no CO2 (or very little) will be absorbed by the beer. It's also a great way to kill a regulator by getting beer in it if you're not careful.
If I'm in a rush (I'm pretty impatient
), I chill the beer to serving temp, dial up my regulator to about 25 PSI and put the corny across my lap (sitting in a chair). I roll the keg gently back and forth across my thigh, you can actually hear more CO2 come in from the tank as the beer is absorbing the gas. After about 40 rolls, I disconnect the gas, vent the keg and back down to about 10 psi, reconnect the gas and continue rolling until I can't hear the gas coming in anymore. Test the beer and decide if you need more carbonation, in which case you can increase pressure and continue rocking the keg. You should probably test the beer along the way to make sure you don't over do it. De-carbonating a full keg can take awhile, although you can get pretty loaded if you "test" too often. 
Boerderij_Kabouter
Well-Known Member
Temperature has a large effect on force carbonation. Their are several absorption spreadsheets available throughout the net where you can determine what pressure and temp will produce the target volumes of CO2. I would look into this and let the keg sit for a week, the resulting carbonation will of a much higher quality.
Here is the sheet I use:
http://sdcollins.home.mindspring.com/ForceCarbonation.html
Cheers!
Here is the sheet I use:
http://sdcollins.home.mindspring.com/ForceCarbonation.html
Cheers!
Well guys, I figured I would just let you know that all my worrying was worthless. I tried my beer that had I kegged last Thursday and it turned out great. Perfect amount of cabonation. I used the method of setting it at serving temp and serving psi. rolled it alittle to get contact with co2 and then let it do its thing. I also decided to put a 1 oz of hops in a cheese cloth bag and I am suprised to say the aroma from them came through quickly. The beer didnt really have a nose to it before, but not its a nice hoppy touch. Thanks for all the help guys, I would probably still be standing in my kitchen staring at my beer and my keg trying to figure out what do do if it wasnt for this site.
Up next, kegging my Wit tonight. Should be fun.
Up next, kegging my Wit tonight. Should be fun.
GulfCoaster
Member
I read about force carbing via the out fitting. Using my gas line ball quick disconnect on the out post- it got stuck. Took a lot of effort to get the quick disconnect removed.
MyMistake
Member
I've used all three methods here and they all work. If my kegerator is empty, 30PSI and shake it. If the beer needs more time to mature, I leave it on 12PSI untouched for a week to 10 days. I like the 30PSI and leave it for a day and a half. It seems like a good compromise.
if you are going to attempt this you need to take the gas connector off and put a liquid qd on the end of your gas line, they are not the same size.
lbaker
Well-Known Member
EdWort said:
I'm also transferring first batch tonight to my corny, does the keg need to be chilled before being hooked up if I'm letting it sit at 12 psi for 1 to 2 weeks? I know it needs to be chilled first if I'm going to jump to 30 to speed the process, but if I'm giving it time to carb does it matter?
jessebymail
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I like to get the beer to serving temp set the gas to serving pressure and shake every day for a few days then i let it sit a week on tap.
lbaker
Well-Known Member
jessebymail said:
Should I get just enough pressure in the corny to seal the top or sit in there for a couple hours covered?
What I do is give the (warm) keg a good shot of co2 to seat the lid, purge and give it another shot. That purges out the 02 and makes sure the lid is sealed. (Check for leaks by spraying star-san on the top). I use about 30 psi for this, then move the keg to my kegerator where I purge and set it at 12 psi. In about 5-10 days, the beer is carbed up. I don't shake or anything like that- I want the sediment to settle to the bottom so I have clear beer.
lbaker
Well-Known Member
Yooper said:
Perfect response! My Gumballhead clone is still a bit cloudy and I was wanting to clear it out more during carbonation...thought rolling around for a week would be detrimental. Thanks or the help!
mrk305
Beer Dude in the Sunset
ask one question & get 15 diferent asnwers.....
I only have room for three kegs in my keezer. I force carb at 40 psi by sitting in a chair and rolling it on my legs for about 5 minutes. Then it sits outside of the kegorator for a week or two. After I put it in and it cools down, I give it another 40 psi bump once or twice and it sits untapped for another week or two. It is ready to drink as soon as keg kicks.
I only have room for three kegs in my keezer. I force carb at 40 psi by sitting in a chair and rolling it on my legs for about 5 minutes. Then it sits outside of the kegorator for a week or two. After I put it in and it cools down, I give it another 40 psi bump once or twice and it sits untapped for another week or two. It is ready to drink as soon as keg kicks.
I had a keg that sat at 12psi for close to three weeks, refused to carb up at all (meanwhile several others on the same manifold had no issues). I tried shaking it a few times, mostly just kept waiting. Guy at the LHBS suggested swapping the quick-connects (yes they are different sizes, but all you need is a crescent wrench), and carbing through the beer-out line. I occasionally would take a little co2 off through the blow-off valve, forcing more to bubble up through the liquid. I tested it after sitting on the beer-out for two days, and the batch was fully carbed.
Wouldn't do it for no reason, but when absolutely stuck, it's a good tool to have in your box...
Wouldn't do it for no reason, but when absolutely stuck, it's a good tool to have in your box...
Most likely the root cause of the problem behind that story is the gas post poppet wasn't being opened by the QD...
Cheers!
Cheers!
apintortwo
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The way I learned to force carb, and the way I have been happy with is to:
a. Transfer your beer to a sanitized keg
b. Seal, hook up gas to the OUT, purge at about 20PSI then rock the keg somewhat aggressively for about 10 minutes or until the bubbling sounds stop.
c. Place the keg into the kegerator and let sit for 24 hours or more.
d. Release pressure then hook up gas to the IN at about 7PSI (depending on a variety of factors the PSI may be different).
Should serve great.
It should be noted that you need to swap your quick connects to hook up the gas to the OUT then again to set up as usual.
a. Transfer your beer to a sanitized keg
b. Seal, hook up gas to the OUT, purge at about 20PSI then rock the keg somewhat aggressively for about 10 minutes or until the bubbling sounds stop.
c. Place the keg into the kegerator and let sit for 24 hours or more.
d. Release pressure then hook up gas to the IN at about 7PSI (depending on a variety of factors the PSI may be different).
Should serve great.
It should be noted that you need to swap your quick connects to hook up the gas to the OUT then again to set up as usual.
