Kegging but not ready to serve just yet.

[Ralphadopolis]

So my keezer is doing double duty as a kegorator/ferm chamber and I have a 5 gal batch of brew that is ready to be kegged, but im not ready to serve just yet, because I have want to brew and ferment another batch.

If I fill the keg up how long can I leave it with out carbonating or do I have to carbonate as soon as I fill it, also can this be done at room temp?

Will this help with conditioning as well if it just sits in the keg for a week or two?

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Why not just prime the keg with sugar and let it carb itself?

 

[hunter_le five]

You don't have to carb it right away. But I would purge it with CO2 and then hit it with ~30psi just to make sure it is sealed properly and won't be oxidized. Store it somewhere cool.

Force carbing at room temp isn't generally practical, but you can naturally carb it per Gila's suggestion.

 

[day_trippr]

You can certainly force carbonate a keg of warm-ish beer, it's just a matter of using the appropriate pressure versus the beer temperature to hit the desired level of carbonation (expressed as "volumes of CO2" and is literally multiples of the beer volume) using our favorite carbonation table. And it takes no more or less time than carbonating chilled beer using the same method (with dramatically lower CO2 pressure, of course).

It's certainly not a necessity to carb your keg now, but it's certainly convenient to do so. About halfway through aging a big stout I'll rack it from carboy to keg and put it on gas at what approximates "cellar temperature" around here (60s to 70s this time of year) to get a jump on having it ready for the keezer (fwiw, big ass stouts take a lot longer to carb up than your average 40 point brew)...

Cheers!

 

[Ralphadopolis]

If I prime with sugar can this be done at room temp? I live in So Cal and its getting warmer, my apt can be anywhere between 73F to 78F

 

[hunter_le five]

If I prime with sugar can this be done at room temp? I live in So Cal and its getting warmer, my apt can be anywhere between 73F to 78F

Yes