Forcing vs. Priming

[ol' rummie]

What is the best way to carb., forcing or priming?
Obviously it's faster to force, but are there any advantages to priming a keg other than saving a little co2?

 

[Nurmey]

It's a personal opinion but I think priming a keg gives the beer better carbonation but I haven't had fantastic luck force carbing. It seems a little fussy trying to get the beer to carb correctly when forcing. By adding the sugar and letting the keg carb naturally, I get a nice pour without having to do all the cooling, shaking, and farting around with the co2.

 

[ol' rummie]

How much sugar do you prime with? same as bottling?

 

[Lil' Sparky]

It's a personal opinion but I think priming a keg gives the beer better carbonation but I haven't had fantastic luck force carbing. It seems a little fussy trying to get the beer to carb correctly when forcing. By adding the sugar and letting the keg carb naturally, I get a nice pour without having to do all the cooling, shaking, and farting around with the co2.

Doesn't sound like your system is balanced. With a balanced system I just hook up the keg to my serving pressure, wait a week, and it's carbed and ready to serve. No shaking, dorking around with the reg, etc. This is part of what makes kegging so appealing IMO.

 

[Nurmey]

Use half the amount for bottling (2.5 ounces).

 

[david_42]

Forcing is no faster than priming. You still have to wait for it to condition.

If you force after the beer is conditioned, wait 2-3 days for the carbonation to settle in. But, after that, I've never been able to tell the difference.

Most of the time, I just put the CO2 on a week before I want to serve.

 

[malkore]

By adding the sugar and letting the keg carb naturally, I get a nice pour without having to do all the cooling, shaking, and farting around with the co2.

You know, you don't HAVE to shake/fart around with the CO2...

Set it at serving psi, and just ignore it for a week, maybe 10 days. Assuming you have your system balanced for pouring, its a snap.

Me, I hit about 11-12psi, and use 8 feet of picnic tap line. Good pour, good carbonation, no fuss.

 

[Nurmey]

It's not the first time I've been called unbalanced!

 

[ol' rummie]

You know, you don't HAVE to shake/fart around with the CO2...

Set it at serving psi, and just ignore it for a week, maybe 10 days. Assuming you have your system balanced for pouring, its a snap.

Me, I hit about 11-12psi, and use 8 feet of picnic tap line. Good pour, good carbonation, no fuss.

I just got the system, don't know if it is balanced or not, only looks like 4feet of line to the keg. Although i had no problem forcing it(chilled keg,hit it at 35psi, shook for 3 min, let sit overnight) I was wondering about priming it, if a difference is noticable(taste, cabonation quality, overall quality, etc.)

 

[Lil' Sparky]

I've bottled 1/2 a batch and kegged the other 1/2. I can't really tell any difference in the taste/quality.

 

[malkore]

I've brewed the same kolsch twice, bottled one, keg'd the other.

no difference in taste. I would say that pouring beer from a bottle results in a little different head formation than pouring from a picnic tap...but that's it.