How fast can I get it carbed...(Yeah I know, I know but it happens)

[MississippiSlim]

Messed up and have an empty pipeline with a party coming up. I have a Southern Brown that will have been in fermenter for over 4 weeks by the time I get home (I work offshore). I will get home on 8/8. Any way I can have it servable by 8/11? My fortieth birthday I would really prefer to drink my own damn beer! Never tried force carbing though I have read about it.

 

[stratslinger]

Well, if you can get your hands on a carb/aeration stone and a length of tubing, word has it you can carb up a beer in about 24 hours at serving pressure (I'm about to try it with an IPA for the first time). Otherwise, folks will advise 30psi and shake it, but apparently you can overcarb if you're not careful that way...

 

[edmanster]

me personally, I would rock it back n forth 2 minutes at 30psi and drop to 15psi untill tapped, then serving pressure or a little below incase it's not fully absorbed.. get it cold

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

You can do it.

If you happen to have someone at home who can do it, I'd recommend they put the fermenter in the fridge now. This will help so that when you keg it, it absorbs CO2 faster, and also since the kegging->serving turnaround is so short, will help to get the beer to clear.

But then, keg it on 8/8, have it cold @ 40 psi for a 24 hours. Drop it to 20 psi for another 24 hours. Drop it to serving pressure and it should be good to go.

 

[MississippiSlim]

I can get my wife to turn the temp down on fermentation chamber. Was gonna try to get her to keg it but she balked a little sooooo. I have a Stout secondarying over vanilla beans and baourbon barrel chips in the fermet chamber. I guess it will be okay its already been in there a few weeks.

 

[Homercidal]

I'd try the shake method as mentioned. Bump the pressure up and shake it a bit and then drop the pressure back down. It very easy to overshoot the pressure and end up with foamy beer though, so be careful. I would rather have under-carbed beer at the start than have to deal with trying to purge just the right amount of CO2.

 

[jtejedor]

I usually do the shake method at whatever pressure I am going to carbonate and server at (usually 10-12psi) and keep doing that until I don't hear the regulator pumping co2 into the keg. Let it settle for a couple of hours and the beer is pretty much carbed up. Maybe slightly under carbonated but probably like 80 or 90% there. After a day or two its at the perfect carbonation. If I am in a real hurry this is what I do and it seems to work great. I never set the pressure really high since I don't want to over carbonate and its really important to let the beer settle down for a couple of hours after shaking or you will get a a lot of foam. I have done this and served beers the same say and as I said maybe just a hair under carbonated but still very drinkable. And as others mentioned just have the beer be really cold and this should help it absorb the co2.