how long?

bobcat1 · Jul 15, 2015

i have kegged a few batches of beer and always just set my regulator a little high for a few days then backed it down to pour pressure and been pretty lucky.
i am doing 4 kegs for my brothers wedding and can only fit 2 in my fridge at a time. so i looked up a chart and it tells temp , volume and pressure but not time...........

what i did was keg the beer, purge the air, and sealed. then i split my co2 line and ran the co2 into the out ports on the ball lock kegs as per the directions i found for force carbing. my fridge runs about 35 degrees and my regulator is set at 15 psi. i'm looking for around 3 volumes. but how long do i leave them on before i can unhook them and do the other 2 kegs? i know it will only take so much at so much pressure but the chart does not say how long it takes to reach this peak.
these are 5 gallon kegs but after 2 rackings there ended up being about 4 inch of headspace in each keg.

next question. do these kegs need to remain cold after they are carbbed? or can they be stored in my basement (65) until the day before the wedding then rechilled?

hunter_le five · Jul 15, 2015

If you are doing "set and forget", it can take 2-3 weeks.

If you want to speed things along, shake the hell out of the keg.

Once carbed, they can be stored warm and re-chilled later.

m00ps · Jul 15, 2015

Yeah, you cna store them warm. What will happen is more CO2 will come out of the beer when warm so the presure will be much higher at room temps. When you chill it back the CO2 will go back into the beer.

If you want to speed thigns up a bit, try hooking it up to the gas and rattling the keg back and forth. You should hear more gas going into the keg because this immediately causes more gas to be dissolved

I usually store my kegs at ~32psi at room temp once filled. They usually dont go into the kegerator till at least a week later. By that point, they are what I call "pre-carbed." They are probably around 2.2-2.4 vol CO2 and then only take 2-3 days in the kegerator to get up to full carbonation. I have multiple CO2 tanks though

bobcat1 · Jul 15, 2015

i guess i will keep shaking these everyday for a few days and then "test" them. if they seem good i will store at room temp and start carbing the other 2 . i will just have to figure how to get them all cold at once before the wedding.
i wonder how long it takes to cool a keg with ice?

bobcat1 · Jul 15, 2015

when it reaches its "peak" at that pressure will it then not take anymore c02 when i shake it? in other words if i shake them for a minute or 2 each day and one day it doesnt make noise then it is done?

hunter_le five · Jul 15, 2015

bobcat1 said:
when it reaches its "peak" at that pressure will it then not take anymore c02 when i shake it? in other words if i shake them for a minute or 2 each day and one day it doesnt make noise then it is done?

The beer will not absorb any more CO2 once it has reached its saturation point for a given pressure/temperature level. If you're willing to sit there and shake it long enough, you can fully carb a keg in one session. As you say, once you stop hearing the gas go in, you're about there. Maybe let it continue to sit on the gas overnight just to be safe.