Force Carbing with a picnic tap

[IrregularPulse]

OK, so heres a Q for all you geniuses.
I have Sanke taps on my kegs. All I have is a picnic tap for now. I will be buying a 5lb Co2 tank tomorrow to force carb my first AG batch (also my first personal batch going to a keg). How can I do this? I'll have to check but I believe the posts on my kegs were dew-commishioned when it was converted to a sanke tap. PLease tell me there is hope. It's hard enough getting 100 bones for the co2 tank let alone more for another tap. PLus I need a picnic tap for I will be serving this out of a jockey box I've made at a music fest and don't wanna lug around the co2 tank.

 

[Professor Frink]

So, let me get this down, you're using a cornelius keg or a 1/6 gallon keg with a Sanke tap?

 

[BierMuncher]

...I will be serving this out of a jockey box I've made at a music fest and don't wanna lug around the co2 tank.

You're going to need a source of CO2 to dispense the beer.

 

[Bobby_M]

If I remember correctly, you have corny kegs that had sankey valve assemblies welded over where the lid hole normally goes. Did they weld the old corny posts shut completly or are the posts/poppets still in place? If those are still workable (probably not) you can charge them with CO2 and dispense. If not, you're going to need a sanke tap that has both CO2 gas port and Beer out (not the typical air pump deals).

Force carbing a keg via this tap/coupler is exactly the same as doing it on a regular corny. Apply enough pressure to get the volumes you want based on the temp of the beer (use the charts) and wait a week or two. You can also go high pressure for a day or two and move things along more quickly. In any case, like BM said.. you need a tank to push the beer out unless you're going to hand pump it at the party (in which case you better finish the whole keg that weekend.)

 

[IrregularPulse]

I plan on hand pumping it at the music fest. (there will be plenty of people drinking for 12+ hours. Not worried about having anything left of the measley 5 gallons). I just hoping there was a way to froce carb using my picnik tap

 

[Bobby_M]

I guess what you need to do is figure out if there's a check valve on that picnic tap. In other words, can you blow air backwards from the faucet through the tap when the handle is down in the tapped position? If so, you can apply CO2 through the picnic tap.

It was just a matter of getting the terminology straight, when we hear picnic tap we tend to assume you're just talking about the black plastic faucet part. I see how you'd also talk about a sanke coupling hand pump with the line and faucet on it as a picnic tap as well. You might have to cut the faucet off the hose and run the hose into your CO2 reg during carbing unless you can get a hose to clamp on the the spout.

 

[the_bird]

When's the festival? Unless it's coming up in a week, why not just add priming sugar, if you're using the hand pump anyway?

 

[IrregularPulse]

It's the 14th, so I don't think sugar priming in the keg would be enough time. If you all think it would I'll just do that this evening!! I know it'd make swmbo happy with me not HAVING to buy a 100 CO2 bottle and possible a tap.
What is it about women! "Oh my gosh the baby is coming in 10 weeks, we are all of a sudden poor'! Doesn't she understand beer suplpies are like mortgage payment. IT's just something you have to pay each month!


BobbyM- Yes I have the cornies converted. I never thought of taking the spigot out and shooting Co2 through there. I'll try it with water to see if the pathway is clear. That a good idea??

Just hooked up water to my beer out line on the hand pump tap and it went straight out of where the tap would be in the keg. I see no reason from this why I could force carb this way. Any objections?

But when I finally disconnect the co2 to hook up the spigot I'll probably get mega shot eh!!

 

[Rhys79]

Did you hook the CO2 hose to the tap or the faucet head? If you hooked it to the tap, you might want to consider getting a ball valve with hose barb fittings on each side and putting it inline, that way when you are ready to switch from carbing to serving, you can shut off the valve, disconnect the CO2 hose and hook up the serving hose, then open up the valve. Otherwise, you are going to need to clamp the hose to prevent beer spray when you disconnect the CO2.

If your keg has a pressure release, you could also use that before you unhook the CO2. Just make sure you keep the pressure release valve OPEN while you are unhooking the CO2 and hooking up the serving line or you'll end up with beer everywhere.

Whatever you do, don't hook up CO2 to the keg without some way of containing or relieving the pressure while you are switching hoses.

 

[IrregularPulse]

byersj - Thanks for the tip. I'll take a ball valve out of my HLT I'm not using yet. Or maybe my mash tun.

 

[Bobby_M]

No. When you're ready to disconnect the tank and put the dispensing faucet back on, you just need to shut the tank off and disconnect the sanke coupler from the keg. That's your valve.

Now, if you want to do this sort of thing more regularly, you can put a tubing TEE inline with the serving line. On the side port, put a check valve in so CO2 can go in, but beer can't come out. In fact, you could even use this method to charge the keg with CO2 every 10 pours or so so that you don't have to keep pumping the thing. Just make sure you turn off the CO2 before trying to dispense again or you'll just get foam.

 

[Rhys79]

Duh.... Talk about missing the completely obvious . That's what I get for responding to a post when I'm exhausted. Yeah, unhook the tap and your fine. The tee idea is a good one too.

 

[IrregularPulse]

Thanx for all the replies guys. I won't be doing this often. Just this one time. I plan on getting a kegerator setup in the next few months. I'll be using a 20oz CO2 tank from paintball to carb with so I'll just stick to the handle pump during the festival. PLus after several draws of the tap I'm sure I'd forget to turn the CO2 off