Force Carbonation

[Ryan11]

I usually do the set/forget and let it carb up slowly over 2-3 weeks but I need my beer carbonated in 7-10 days. I don't want to crank it up to 20-30 PSI for a few days. Can I maybe put it at 15 PSI for 7-10 days and have it ready?

 

[Bensiff]

You might want to try to do a quick force carb though. Cool the beer to serving temp, purge, then run the psi up to 30 and shake, once it is carbed up, set to serving psi. The nice thing with doing this is that if you didn't get a full carb it will be there at the end of the week as you got it most of the way there already. If you over carb it doing this, you can bleed off psi a few times a day as it comes out of solution to equalize pressure. This gives you a week to make adjustments instead of hoping that at the end of the week you will be where you want.

 

[JoeSpartaNJ]

Are you dead set on not setting psi to 30? I carb all my beers this way. I am usually fully carbed in 48 hours without rocking and shaking. I also do not chill before racking and carbing.

 

[geckholm]

You might want to try to do a quick force carb though. Cool the beer to serving temp, purge, then run the psi up to 30 and shake, once it is carbed up, set to serving psi. The nice thing with doing this is that if you didn't get a full carb it will be there at the end of the week as you got it most of the way there already. If you over carb it doing this, you can bleed off psi a few times a day as it comes out of solution to equalize pressure. This gives you a week to make adjustments instead of hoping that at the end of the week you will be where you want.

Exactly. Works well.

 

[Ryan11]

I'm not dead set on not doing it I just don't like the carbonic acid taste it can leave.

 

[JoeSpartaNJ]

I'm not dead set on not doing it I just don't like the carbonic acid taste it can leave.

Never had an issue with the "bite" after 48 hours. Just make sure not to go past that time and to remember to turn down to serving pressure.

 

[kombat]

I "burst carb." If you set the pressure to the desired amount (I usually carb everything to 15 psi) and shake the keg (I roll it back and forth under my foot while I watch TV), it will eventually equalize to the desired pressure. It's impossible to overcarb it this way. If the regulator is set to 15 psi, then it's physically impossible for the beer to carb to any higher than 15 psi, no matter how much shaking/rocking you do.

After about 20 minutes or so, no more CO2 will be going into solution and you'll be fully carbed. Chill the beer before doing this.

 

[Bensiff]

Carbing stones can also help speed up the process