Going straight to the Keg after secondary fermentation....need a longer secondary?

[psotos]

I've read about bottle conditioning and how you let it sit in the bottle for two weeks or so, and this carbonates it AND helps to condition it further.

So what if I am going straight to the keg? Do I need to let it sit in the secondary more than 2 weeks to make up for the lack of bottle conditioning?

We are brewing Dead Ringer Ale Extract (IPA) from Northern Brewers. So far it has sat in the primary since 4/15/2014.

Thanks!

Peter & Oliver

 

[Roondy888]

Did you use the flux capacitor to come back in time to write this? Im guessing you meant 3/15?

 

[masonsjax]

You can prime a keg with sugar to get your carbonation, in that case you will need it to sit at room temperature or so for a couple of weeks, just like you would with bottles. The more common approach is to hook the keg to CO2 at serving pressure and in 10 days or so the carbonation should about right for consumption.

 

[psotos]

Oof! I should have said 4/8/2014!!

Masonsjax: yes that deals with carbonation, what about the "other" conditioning that happens in bottles. I heard that sitting for a few weeks in bottles does more than just carbonate it. ???

Anyway, we will have a keg and Co2 bottle, so I'm not worried about carbonation.

 

[Yooper]

Oof! I should have said 4/8/2014!!

Masonsjax: yes that deals with carbonation, what about the "other" conditioning that happens in bottles. I heard that sitting for a few weeks in bottles does more than just carbonate it. ???

Anyway, we will have a keg and Co2 bottle, so I'm not worried about carbonation.

"Conditioning" for most beers can often refer to bottle carbonation.

Most beers can be best fresh, especially something like an IPA. I'm drinking an IPA right now that I made on 3/15. It's good!

A well made beer should be finished once it's finished fermenting, has been at a stable SG for at least three days, and is clear. If you're dryhopping that's the time to dryhop. After the beer has been dryhopped for the desired time (generally 3-7 days), it's best to package it. You want to put your beer in the bottle or keg as soon as it's done dryhopping, to preserve that hops aroma and flavor.

Aging an IPA doesn't work all that well, as the hops aroma fades relatively quickly, and those beers are really best when drunk fresh.

 

[masonsjax]

Once carbonated, there's nothing special happening in a bottle that wouldn't happen in a keg. A keg is just a big bottle after all.

 

[cease]

Agreed! I tend to drink my IPA's pretty young (1 week primary, 2 weeks secondary to dry hop and 10 days on co2). I would imagine if any conditioning is happening in the keg it would be slow due to the low temps.


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[psotos]

What pressure should I put the CO2 at? I've heard numbers ranging from 9 to 30.

 

[Yooper]

What pressure should I put the CO2 at? I've heard numbers ranging from 9 to 30.

Carbonation is temperature dependent. My kegerator is at 40 degrees, so 12 psi is what my regulator is set at.

There are charts out there, to tell you what is right for the temperature. You'll probably want a carb level of 2.5 volumes of c02.

 

[psotos]

Here is my Kegorator....

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000HJVYDQ/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

It will arrive in a few days.

 

[gr8shandini]

What pressure should I put the CO2 at? I've heard numbers ranging from 9 to 30.

That's because it depends on what temperature you want to serve at and what level of carbonation you desire. You can use this chart - http://www.kegerators.com/carbonation-table.php - to figure out what pressure you want.

You'll notice that the way carbonation is measured is a little strange. Instead of something logical like grams/liter, they use "volumes" of CO2. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that a volume of CO2 is the amount of CO2 that would fill the same volume as the beer at standard pressure and temperature.

What does than mean? Well, next to nothing to most folks, but the important thing is that most beers are served at somewhere between 1 and 3.5 volumes. The low end would be for a cask style British ale and the higher for something like a Hefeweizen or some Belgian styles. A good old red-blooded 'Murican beer is something like 2.5, so that's a good place to start.

Also, if you want to knock some time off the carbonation period, you can always shake the keg while it's hooked up to the gas. Some folks will crank it to about 20 psi while they do that and you'll have a beer that's ready to drink in a few minutes. But it's also easy to over-carbonate that way. I prefer to leave the pressure set to what you want to serve at and shake for 20-30 minutes. That'll get you 80% of the way there and it'll be fully ready to go in another 3-4 days.

 

[cease]

Here is my Kegorator....

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000HJVYDQ/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

It will arrive in a few days.

I just got that same kegerator off craigslist with a 5g tank. I had to replace the fittings for pin lock kegs so I decided to get 10' lines too. Tweaked the thermostat and it can keep two 5G kegs cold.

Decided to also put a 1/2" copper tube around the lines in the tower and get a Perlick faucet. So far I've been happy. Not too loud although it does run often.

Congrats on the kegerator!






Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[psotos]

So what do you guys recommend given that we are noobs? Pressure? Temp? Help us out here!

 

[monkeeroot]

Here's the link to a calculator to help you figure this out. You will need to know what Volumes of CO2 you want. This will be dependent on the style that you have brewed. CO2 pressure required changes depending on what temperature your beer is at when you are trying to carbonate it.

Link to Calcuator

Force Carbonation Chart

 

[psotos]

Our first brew!!

 

[patthebrewer]

So what do you guys recommend given that we are noobs? Pressure? Temp? Help us out here!

Personally for that style I would set my kego at 12 psi at 38 degrees.

Also a tip.
The best thing you can do to your kego is check the beer line length. The usual length included is somewhere around 5-6ft. Really I would start at 10ft, my personal rule of thumb is 1ft per PSI(but there are charts out there to help you tailor yours to your preferences). This is called balancing , and helps to slow down the velocity by which your beer flows through your line. Thus reducing the amount of dramatic off gassing, helping you preserve your carbonation level. Beer that flows too fast ,strips the co2 out of solution, and expresses it as excessively foamy flat beer.

Good luck!