Keg carbing question: does carbing from the bottom cause aroma to fade faster?

[hezagenius]

So I've been toying with new ways to get my hoppy IPAs into glasses faster. One thing I've seen is putting a carbonation stone on the end of the gas dip tube in a keg. The idea was that it carbs faster than pushing CO2 down from the top. So I've got a couple of questions:

1) Is it true that it carbs faster? Seems like it probably should, but I don't know for sure.

2) If you carb from inside the beer, will that force the aroma and flavor out of the beer faster than if you carb it the traditional way of pushing CO2 down into the beer through the surface? Seems like with that added agitation in the beer from the CO2 coming out of the stone, it could drive away the aroma faster.

Just looking to see if anyone has any experience with this method and if it there was a perceived difference.

 

[beskone]

I don't think it should make a difference. Using a carb stone will carb the beer up much faster as there will be more contact area for the co2 to absorb (million of tiny bubbles vs static headspace)

So you'll be drinking the beer sooner, so less time for the aroma to fade perhaps? I still don't think it'll make that much of a difference.

 

[LBussy]

You generally put about 2 lbs of positive pressure on these stones (2 lbs over what the keg sits at presently) and then ramp it up by 2 lbs every half hour or so. This is done to generate enough bubbles to carbonate/dissolve but not so much that you are bubbling through the beer. That being the case I can't see how you could strip aroma to any appreciable degree.

 

[Dunkderby]

There's a good article here on forced carbonation that might answer your questions.
http://www.homebrew.com/articles/article12018101.shtml

 

[hezagenius]

You generally put about 2 lbs of positive pressure on these stones (2 lbs over what the keg sits at presently) and then ramp it up by 2 lbs every half hour or so. This is done to generate enough bubbles to carbonate/dissolve but not so much that you are bubbling through the beer. That being the case I can't see how you could strip aroma to any appreciable degree.

I can see how that would work. Ramp it up a little, let it equilibrate, repeat. That shouldn't create too much agitation. I may give that a try on my next beer.

 

[day_trippr]

There's a good article here on forced carbonation that might answer your questions.
http://www.homebrew.com/articles/article12018101.shtml

"Good" would be a stretch. "Cute", sure.

But that "60 psi or whatever" setting combined with shaking until the gas flows no more is a formula for disaster no matter how you cut it...

Cheers!

 

[Natdavis777]

Ive carbed from the bottom and the top. Both equal same times. KISS... 30 PSI for 24-36 hrs. Dont do the rocking thing. Its hard to make one keg similar to the next. Set it, go to bed, go to work, and check it when you get home. Needs more? Set it again and go to bed. Should be good by the AM.

Ive used this process on scores of kegs with repeatable results.

 

[LBussy]

I've carbed a great deal of kegs from the top and just started with a carb stone. With the stone it's hard not to see the difference. It's pretty easy to overshoot your carbonation levels with top carbing. With the stone you can't so long as you never go past your target pressure.

True enough you have to babysit it a bit. I start mine at 10-12 PSI because that's where my keg seals well. Let that sit for an hour and then 2 psi per hour to my target. Once at target I let it sit for at least an hour or two and I am done. It's even better the next day.

If you start at 10 and "burp" the keg a few times to clear the headspace of O2, you are doing double duty. The keg does not come to pressure nearly as fast with the stone as it does the regular line, but you are carbonating at the same time. With low-carbonation level ales and such this is a good way to go.

One caveat to using these is keeping the keg sealed when using very low pressures. The CO2 line comes into the lid so it does put a small amount of strain on the lid. Keg lube helps a lot here keeping things sealed up. You quickly learn the difference between the sound of the constant CO2 bubbling, and a leak.

All in all I really like my carb stone. I make club soda for my wife and this gets it carbonated basically overnight where the "set it and forget it" method took a good week at those high volumes.