Force carbonating vs corn sugar

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linusstick

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I'm a little confused on this. Do you do one or the other? I thought you always add corn sugar to the keg. I've seen videos where they are not adding corn sugar because they are force carbing the beer. What would the outcome be for each? Since all serving is done using CO2 aren't you always force carbing (using CO2 to dispense/add carbonation)
 
I'm interested to see the responses that you get because this is something that I am wondering as well. I thought adding corn sugar to the keg was only added to "keg condition" (i.e. carbonate the beer naturally utilizing the principles of the yeast) rather then force carbonating. I always thought it was one or the other, is it common to do both??
 
I'm interested to see the responses that you get because this is something that I am wondering as well. I thought adding corn sugar to the keg was only added to "keg condition" (i.e. carbonate the beer naturally utilizing the principles of the yeast) rather then force carbonating. I always thought it was one or the other, is it common to do both??

I've been told you ALWAYS add corn sugar to the keg and let it sit for a week or two before drinking. Then I see that you can force carbonate instantly. There's gotta be a trade off if that's the case
 
I've been told you ALWAYS add corn sugar to the keg and let it sit for a week or two before drinking. Then I see that you can force carbonate instantly. There's gotta be a trade off if that's the case

I think you are confused about what force carbing is. Force carbing is using a CO2 tank to introduce CO2 into the beer, rather than adding priming sugar to allow the yeast to naturally carbonate the beer. When you hook up a naturally carbed keg to a CO2 tank for dispensing, you are not "instantly force carbing." You are just dispensing beer that has been naturally carbonated.
 
Trade off is that with corn sugar you have to wait for the yeast to carbonate the beer. With forced carbonation you have the option to wait and carbonate under your systems dispensing pressure, or crank up the psi and carbonate in 10 or so minutes. The latter of the 3, you run the risk if over carbonating.
 
I've been told you ALWAYS add corn sugar to the keg and let it sit for a week or two before drinking. Then I see that you can force carbonate instantly. There's gotta be a trade off if that's the case

The only trade off that I can imagine would be the characteristics that the specific strains of yeast lend to the style during the conditioning. Otherwise--assuming time was the only factor, I would imagine that everyone would force carbonate. The only other thing that I could think of would be aging perhaps?
 
The only trade off that I can imagine would be the characteristics that the specific strains of yeast lend to the style during the conditioning. Otherwise--assuming time was the only factor, I would imagine that everyone would force carbonate. The only other thing that I could think of would be aging perhaps?

I seriously doubt you gain any characteristics from the yeast that are used for carbonation. It's why some breweries use a separate yeast for bottle conditioning, because not much characteristic is passed onto the brew.

I like naturally carbing my kegs (adding corn sugar at racking and hitting with 30 psi to seal the lid) because I have a good pipeline and am not in need of the beer when I keg it. So it can sit unmolested in the basement and wait it's turn.
 
How do you hit the same CO2 levels from conditioning to your CO2 system? And how much extra carbonation is needed when the beer temp drops to your fridge temp?
 
When I get ready to hook up the keg that has been naturally carbed, I purge all the CO2 in the keg and then hook it up to the system. Pressurize it to the serving pressure and go from there.

I've never noticed any "extra" carbonation needed when it is cooled down. Think of it like a big bottle. You take your conditioned bottles from room temp to the fridge with no need for extra CO2, same with the keg.
 
Gotcha. For some reason I thought more CO2 was dissolved in solution the colder the beer became, therefore requiring a bit more to achieve a specific level.
 
Gotcha. For some reason I thought more CO2 was dissolved in solution the colder the beer became, therefore requiring a bit more to achieve a specific level.

You are correct. When you force carbonate you are supposed to do it with the beer in the keg cold because it can absorb more CO2 that way.

So, there might be some absorption of the naturally produced CO2 when it is put in the fridge, but I haven't noticed it.
 
Gotcha. For some reason I thought more CO2 was dissolved in solution the colder the beer became, therefore requiring a bit more to achieve a specific level.

When you force carb, you need less pressure of co2 to carb at 35 degrees than you do at 50 degrees. It's the same level of carb, though- it's just put in with different pressures.

As was mentioned, think of a bottled beer. The carb level is the carb level, whether your fridge is 40 and mine is 34. The co2 dissolved in solution won't change.
 
I am also planning to keg for the first time. I am going to try both ways. Using the corn sugar with one of the 5 gallon kegs and force carbonating the other 5 gallon keg. I have a few questions though.
(1) For the keg I plan to use the corn sugar in, once I seal that lid I should blast it with C02 to expunge any oxygen in the tank? How exactly do I do this and at what pressure? Do I leave the keg in my basement where it is 54 degrees and will it still carbonate at this temperature?
(2) For the keg I plan to force carbonate, can someone please explain in detail. What PSI do I use? Do I shake the keg? I've read many different things and I am a little confused?

Thanks for any help!
 
A 54 degree basement is fine. It will just take a bit longer for the yeast to do the work. And yes, it's a good idea to purge the O2 from the keg.

For force carbonation, and this is only how I do it. There are many other ways that are also correct. I just hook the keg up in my fridge and let it carbonate @ the pressure my system is set to which is around 9. It takes longer, but I am usually in no rush to tap it, so a weeks wait isn't too bad.

You can speed up the force carbonation by rolling the keg on it's side (more surface area) while it's connected @ the system pressure, or cranked up between 20-35 psi.
 
I am also planning to keg for the first time. I am going to try both ways. Using the corn sugar with one of the 5 gallon kegs and force carbonating the other 5 gallon keg. I have a few questions though.
(1) For the keg I plan to use the corn sugar in, once I seal that lid I should blast it with C02 to expunge any oxygen in the tank? How exactly do I do this and at what pressure? Do I leave the keg in my basement where it is 54 degrees and will it still carbonate at this temperature?
(2) For the keg I plan to force carbonate, can someone please explain in detail. What PSI do I use? Do I shake the keg? I've read many different things and I am a little confused?

Thanks for any help!

1) For the corn sugar leave the keg at room temp for three weeks just like you would for a bottle of beer.

2) There are a variety of different ways to force keg the beer with CO2. I find it easy to just set the psi around 10 and leave the keg in your fridge for 3 weeks to absorb the gas. This is often called the set it and forget it method. You can try skaing the keg and using a higher pressure to get more gas into the beer to carb in less than 3 weeks but it may still taste a bit green.
 
You can try skaing the keg and using a higher pressure to get more gas into the beer to carb in less than 3 weeks but it may still taste a bit green.

This is the biggest problem I have with people who speed up carbonation by either higher PSI or shaking. You're going to be drinking green beer. the set and forget or natural carb process allow you to let the beer age properly. SOME hard ciders and Lemonades are good to go when their done fermenting. But beer is a different animal. Especially the Higher OG beers.

Kegging is easier. But the temptation to tap it is also greater. I bottled a few batches and I am alright with waiting a month or so for it to be ready to drink.
 
I agree. I tried to imply that the keg shaking and higher pressure method of trying to carb your beer will not make the beer mature any faster and thus may still taste fairly underdeveloped. I hope that this did not come across as a proper method for trying to speed up the maturation process. I merely mentioned that some people try this (there are plenty of you tube videos showing this process) but they don't really focus on how the beer may still be under conditioned.
 
When you add corn sugar and natural carb, don't you end up with more sediment in the keg?

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Wolfhausen83 said:
When you add corn sugar and natural carb, don't you end up with more sediment in the keg?

Sent from my DROIDX using Home Brew Talk

You end up with some, but really only the first pint comes out cloudy, after that there is no more sediment. At least in my experience, YMMV.
 
One more question:
What if my 10 gallon batch only comes out to say 9 gallons after fermentation and dumping the trub over the weeks etc? Do I just fill each of the two kegs with closer to 4 gallons of beer than the full 5 gallons? Is that okay? Will that affect carbonation or anything?
-Thanks again
 
The lower the volume of beer in the keg (4 vs 5 gallons) the faster the beer will absorb the CO2 but it won't shave off an entire week if you are doing the 3 week set it and forget it method. If you have less than 5 gallons I recommend purging the keg a few times with CO2 to get the extra O@ out due to the larger headspace.
 
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