Force Carbing warm or Naturally Carbing

[hopbrad]

I have a 5 gallon corny keg, regulator and picnic tap ready for a beach party in 3 weeks. I dont have a kegerator built yet so i cant force carb it cold. Room temp is 72-78F depending on the time of day.

After reading a bunch of threads it seems like my 2 options are:
1. let it prime naturally, add priming sugar, hit it with some co2 to seal, let it sit for 3 weeks.
The day of the party, bring the keg out to the beach in an ice bucket, let it chill for a few hours, hook it up, set regulator to 10 psi to serve.

OR

2. Hook up the CO2 and let sit at 30 psi for 2 weeks, unhook, day of the party chill it in the ice bucket and hook it up to 10 psi to serve.


my concern for option 1 is all the sediment produced from natural carbing will result in a super cloudy beer bc i have to i transport the keg and it wont have a lot of time to settle out.
my concern for option 2 is not knowing the right c02 levels and getting a bunch of foam.

this is an hopped up pale ale if that makes any difference.

edit: did i miss anything? ive never kegged before so any steps i missed, let me know. (i.e bleeding the valve at any point)

 

[FloppyKnockers]

Because time is on your side, I'd go with option 1. To alleviate your concern for this option, before you transport the keg, just pull off a half a pint to get rid of all the sediment.

 

[hopbrad]

Because time is on your side, I'd go with option 1. To alleviate your concern for this option, before you transport the keg, just pull off a half a pint to get rid of all the sediment.

good idea, so can i hook up the picnic tap and pull a few or do i need to hook up the co2...it will still be warm at this point

 

[billym99]

You could always pull a few pints from the keg before transporting, a lot of the sediment will come out in the first few pours.

If it were me I would set & forget force carb primarily because that is how I carb 100% of my beer and I find it easy/exact/etc. Is your corny brand new? Have you verified it holds pressure? Just something to think about, a small leak could cause you a real headache since you're on a somewhat short time window.

 

[hopbrad]

billym99 - they are used but the LHBS tested them infront of me and they held pressure. so do you force carb warm?
if i forced carbed, i would plan to set/forget for 2 weeks then i guess i could potentially cool the keg down with an ice bath to test it out and see if it pours ok. adjust if necessary.

 

[billym99]

hopbrad,

I have force carbed warm with no issue, although now I generally carb my kegs in my lagering fridge so it's been awhile. Back in the day when I would carb warm I always had better results if I chilled the keg a few days before serving, probably not much different then natural carbing, the couple times I've bottled I always had better results chilling the bottles a few days before serving.

Good luck.

 

[PGEduardo]

How cold is it in York? Why not carb it at 12psi in a swamp cooler outside for the few weeks? I'm assuming it gets below freezing, but probably not long enough to freeze 10+ gallons of liquid.

Just a crazy thought...

oops - mixed up OP's location. NEVERMIND!

I would still rely on force carbing and maybe just try to find space in a fridge. Depending on the leak rate you could prime it to 30 psi initially and chill it, then check pressure every so often to maintain 12 psi...

 

[hopbrad]

i force carbed 2 kegs at 30psi and 1 is naturally carbing. I found out one of the kegs has a leak by the out line/dip tube when i jacked the psi up past 15. rut roh. im going to siphon it out and take it apart to see if i can find the issue.

 

[Stealthcruiser]

i force carbed 2 kegs at 30psi and 1 is naturally carbing. I found out one of the kegs has a leak by the out line/dip tube when i jacked the psi up past 15. rut roh. im going to siphon it out and take it apart to see if i can find the issue.

No need to siphon it out.

De-pressurize, sanitize the area thoroughly, and your tools, and disassemble the area.

Do your O-ring (s), poppet valve swap or whatever, and leak check again, unless you see an obvious, no easy fix problem, ( re: a cracked keg or something).