Keg conditioning while I'm on a ship

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CaptBrew8386

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I know there are a ton of threads on keg conditioning but I wanted to get specific so here goes...

I work on a ship and leave for a month at a time. I'm about to keg (1st timer here!) a hefeweizen in a couple of days. My plan was to put CO2 to the keg at serving pressure (10-12PSI) and go to work. I wanted to leave the keg at room temperature (60-65F) and let it carb and condition while I'm gone.

This should work, right?

Or should I drop in some priming sugar and let the yeast do the work?

When I get home, I'd like to pop this baby in the kegerator and start drinking.
 
I know there are a ton of threads on keg conditioning but I wanted to get specific so here goes...

I work on a ship and leave for a month at a time. I'm about to keg (1st timer here!) a hefeweizen in a couple of days. My plan was to put CO2 to the keg at serving pressure (10-12PSI) and go to work. I wanted to leave the keg at room temperature (60-65F) and let it carb and condition while I'm gone.

This should work, right?

Or should I drop in some priming sugar and let the yeast do the work?

When I get home, I'd like to pop this baby in the kegerator and start drinking.

You can either set it at 30 psi (at room temperature) or you can add some priming sugar. Either way will work, but if you have a tiny leak and you're not home to check on the keg, you may be out of gas when you get home!
 
I would carb/age it in the kegerator if I were you. At 10-12 PSI it should be just about right and bonus.... it will be cold and waiting for you. Nothing like waiting for 5 gallons of beer to cool down when you want to drink one. If you are going to carb at room temp you would need to set the PSI higher than 10-12 (probably like 20). You can use the carbing calculator here to help figure it out: http://www.brewersfriend.com/keg-carbonation-calculator.
 
Is there any benefit to conditioning at room temp. v in my kegerator?

When I bottle I usually leave at room temp for two weeks to a month.

Also, are there benefits to conditioning in the keg with no carbonation at all?
 
Is there any benefit to conditioning at room temp. v in my kegerator?

When I bottle I usually leave at room temp for two weeks to a month.

Also, are there benefits to conditioning in the keg with no carbonation at all?

Not that I am aware of. Beer ages more slowly at fridge temperatures but carbed vs non-carbed doesn't matter.
 
Update...

Kegged last week and put it on 21 PSI CO2 at room temperature.

I've been gone a week. If it sits for another 3 weeks at 21 PSI, will it over carb?

Should I have my wife shut the gas off in another week?
 
You leave it at room temp when you bottle because the yeasties are doing the carbonation and they don't like it cold.
You don't have to worry about that with forced CO2 carbonation.
 
Okay, I got it. Unfortunately, I'm thousands of miles from that keg right now.

I can't ask my pregnant wife to lift the keg into the kegerator so I'll just have to wait and see what happens when I get home.

It'll carb at 21 PSI for a month. When I get home I'll pop it in the kegerator and see what we have!

I'll keep my fingers crossed and update again when I return home!
 
I'd probably have her at least crank the gas up to 30 psi or so, which will likely still be low for style at house temp, but at least it would be closer to the pressure you want.
 
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