Forcing Carbonation in Keg and Bottle Carbonation

[Remberto]

Hello everyone,

I just receive my first keg. For the past 2 years I have been doing bottle carbonation. Now, I need to set aside around one gallon of my 5 gallon batch for bottle carbonation. I am planning to carbonate the other 4 gallons of beer using my new keg through forced carbonation with CO2.

Now, I only have one regulated fridge with temperature sensor. Would I have a problem if I add priming sugar to carbonate beer in the bottles, and set the temperature at 40F to force carbonating the beer in my keg?

I would have both the bottles and the keg for 2 days at 40F to carbonate the beer in the keg then I will remove the keg from the fridge (and drink it), and elevate temperature of the fridge back to 65F for the next 15 days in order to carbonate the beers in the bottle.

Would my yeast in the bottles react even after being stored for 2-3 days at 40F with priming sugar and then conditioned for 15 days at 65F. I am afraid the yeast in the bottles won´t react back since I stored the bottles for 2-3 days at such low temperature as I attempted to carbonate the beer in the keg.

thanks for the help. This would not be a problem if I would have another fridge.

 

[parrothead64]

Carbonate bottles at room temp. To carbonate a keg at 40 F. Is going to take about a week at 10-12 PSI. Some people burst carbonate at 30 psi and are done in a couple of days, but that might not be a good idea for your first kegged batch. I usually just do 10-12psi and wait a week. The beer will improve from the cold conditioning anyway. Your going to love kegging. Eventually, look into a Blickman beer gun to fill bottles from a carbonated keg. Those things are awesome.

 

[AJinJacksonville]

I thought maybe I misread your post...but then I read parrothead's. I'm with parrothead on this one. Carbing in a keg and bottle conditioning are two different processes. I've done force carbonation in a keg, as well as letting it hover at 10-12 PSI for a week or so. I can't tell the difference...plus I'm impatient. So I usually tend to force carbonate...haha.

Another +1 on the beer gun.

 

[Remberto]

Thanks both. I look forward to kegging my beer. What would be the PSI regulator setting, if I want to forced carbonate my session IPA in 48 hours? I will set temperature at 40F. I thought one could force carbonation in 2-3 days.

In regards, to my first post my main doubt was the following: After adding priming sugar to start bottle conditioning, what would happen to the yeast if temperature stays at 40F for 48 hours, and then increased to 65F to start carbonation? Would it still react to the amount of primed sugar (DME) originally added 2 days before?

Due to lack of space, I need to store the bottles at 40F in the only regulated fridge that I have since I need to start keg carbonation at 40F, and I do not anywhere else to put the bottles. I am based in South America; therefore, room temperature is 82F.


Thanks again

 

[Jtk78]

What the responses above are trying to say, is when you are done bottling the 1 gallon (~12 pack) box them up and leave them out of any fridge. Put them in a corner that doesn't see a lot of sunlight and at least 65 degrees, 70 is better. Leave them alone for AT LEAST 2 weeks. Then chill one for two days and try it.

The kegged beer can be force carbed in a few days or set to 10-12 psi for a week or so to get properly carbed. I have not done a force carb, so I will let others help you there, which some have above.

 

[MyCarHasAbs]

The only time I still bottle is if I'm prepping for a big in office happy hour and want to have a large variety of selections to share and sample off. Other than that, I bottle from the keg to bring over to the in-laws for family dinners.

Moral of the story is, bottling sucks. Kegging is so much easier and more convenient.

 

[auburntsts]

Another benefit to bottling off the keg is no sediment in the bottles which will make it more enjoyable for the uninitiated who aren't used to bottle carbed homebrew.

 

[parrothead64]

After a month near freezing you might have to add new yeast if you’re going to bottle condition. Two days at 40° and then raising to 65 or 70 should be fine . Many of us refrigerate starters for a couple days To make the yeast fall to the bottom and go dormant and they come right back when you warm them up and feed them.