Is it ok to keg?

[CaveBrewing]

I have nothing on tap and want to start drinking something soon. I have an amber type beer that has been in my primary for 16 days and dry hoping for 5. My hydrometer readings have not changed since the first week so I know it is done fermenting. I haven't tried a sample since before the dry hoping and it was pretty good but a little bitter. Can I rack to my keg and start carbonating or should I wait longer?

 

[Suthrncomfrt1884]

Go for it. Just don't rush the carbonation or you'll be drinking foamy beer. Set it and forget it. You'll have a beer drinkable in a week.

 

[CaveBrewing]

Thanks for the quick response. I have the dry hops in a bag at the bottom of the primary should I transfer it all to the keg or just the beer?

 

[superjunior]

I'd dry hop for another 5 days or so then just keg the beer

 

[kpr121]

Or you can bring the hop bag with the rest of the beer into the keg.

 

[Dome555]

With nothing else on tap I'd definitely keg and include the hops. They can continue their dryhopping business while it carbs up and you'll have great beer in a week.

 

[CaveBrewing]

Thanks all for the advise. I transfered everthing into the keg and have it at about 12 psi. I will wait about a week and try it.

 

[Mikey_Dawg]

A lot of guys on here force carb and have drinkable beer much faster than the set and wait method. Here is a good video on it.... somethink to think about:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/kegging-force-carbonation-video-233233/

I force carbed a keg yesterday and will probably hook up the beer line and give it a taste tonight. Depending on how carbonated it is, it might be better tomorrow or even the day after but I personally like tasting beer through the carbonating process as well as the brewing process to help me get a better guage on excatly how my beer tastes after day 1,2,3,etc. Technically, after force carbing, the beer should be good and carbonated the next day, but i find that once I turn the PSI back down to the serving level, it still takes a few more days before the beer is optimal.

This is just how I do it... not necessarily the right or best way to do it. I also would have already had that beer kegged after 14-16 days but I wont get into that

 

[ThePearsonFam]

I've done both, force carb and set-it-and-forget-it. Both result in great beer. SIAFI makes it easier to hit your target volumes of CO2 though.

 

[ThePearsonFam]

oh, and for the record, I don't sweat the volumes of CO2 that much, so I typically force carb at the higher pressures.

 

[Suthrncomfrt1884]

A lot of guys on here force carb and have drinkable beer much faster than the set and wait method. Here is a good video on it.... somethink to think about:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/kegging-force-carbonation-video-233233/

I force carbed a keg yesterday and will probably hook up the beer line and give it a taste tonight. Depending on how carbonated it is, it might be better tomorrow or even the day after but I personally like tasting beer through the carbonating process as well as the brewing process to help me get a better guage on excatly how my beer tastes after day 1,2,3,etc. Technically, after force carbing, the beer should be good and carbonated the next day, but i find that once I turn the PSI back down to the serving level, it still takes a few more days before the beer is optimal.

This is just how I do it... not necessarily the right or best way to do it. I also would have already had that beer kegged after 14-16 days but I wont get into that

While I know there are lots of people on these forums that force carb in a few days, it's not the best method. Set it and forget it is the only fool proof method to carbonating your beer without problems.

With the quick method, 90% of the time you'll end up with an overcarbonated beer that tastes extremely bad because of carbonic acid. Then you have to warm the keg up, purge it, and start over. It will end up taking you a week to get it drinkable if this happens, so why risk it?

Another reason it's not good...carbonated beer doesn't equal drinkable beer. I'm sure you've tried green beer...it's not the best. Even if you carb your beer in two days....it's still most likely green if you're not doing an extended aging in secondary. My opinion is...with normal beers, it takes 2-3 weeks on gas in order for the beer to start tasting great. Anything prior and it's just "drinkable".

 

[Wiezer]

+1