Sorry if this has been covered but after reading some 300+ posts in this thread, I decided I just see if I have this right. I got a kegging system for Christmas and I am ready to keg a SMaSH I made for it. I'd like it to be ready to drink in 11 days for the monthly brew club meeting. I believe the steps I'm going to be taking are as such:
1) After the beer is transferred into the keg, set the CO2 to 30 PSI and purge out the oxygen. From what it seems like works the best is to not really shake it but just leave it be?
2) Leave the CO2 attached to the keg at 30 PSI for 24-48 hours. At that point approximately 75% of the carbing should be done.
3) Purge out the extra pressure of the CO2 and set the pressure to the serving pressure. I believe this is going to be about 16-17PSI if my mini-fridge is going to be set around 50F (which is the temp it was when i checked it this morning before work.)
According to this chart:
http://www.kegerators.com/carbonation-table.php this is going to put the beer around the 2.4 level I am shooting for.
4) Then somewhere around 3-5 days later the beer should be ok to drink, however for full equilibrium it may be 14-21 days.
I believe this to be what I have read others have had success in doing. Any tips or corrections please lmk.
I have questions when it is going to come to serving:
I have read that some people lower the PSI when serving, but I am unclear as to why they do so. It seems like it may have something to do with the length and size of the serving line?
My kit came with 5′ of 3/16″ beer line tubing and 4′ of 5/16″ gas line tubing and a picnic tap. Is there going to be a need to lower the PSI with this setup? I have a feeling the answer is going to be see if it works at this PSI and if not purge and try a lower PSI to get less foam...
Thanks for any help to come. A HUGE Thanks to Bobby M for starting this and getting other homebrewers on the road to having less error in their trials of kegging