kegging for impatient people... but also lazy?

[badmajon]

I read that whole sticky and I just want to verify something, since this is my first beer I've ever kegged and perhaps you can tell me if I'm doing it right.

I don't want to wait three weeks to keg using the slow method. IMO, I could do that in bottles which are a hell of a lot cheaper to use and perhaps only take an extra hour of time to fill.

The quick method is what I am trying to use, but I've seen several different explanations of it and different estimates of how long it takes. I'm not doing the shaking thing though, it just seems to be too much work.

Right now I've had the gas at 30 psi for 7 hours, and I plan to keep it at 30 psi until tomorrow afternoon (24 hours) then I'm going to decrease to 10 psi and keep it there for equilibrium. Must I really put it down to 3 psi to dispense each time then raise ot back up btw?

Is that correct?

Also, I have the Co2 on the "in" side of the corny, not the dip tube side. I got tired of having it spray me with beer when I put the thing back on. Is that going to make a big difference?

 

[jaobrien6]

You don't drop the PSI down when you serve. You should balance your system (by changing up your line length) so that the storage pressure and the serving pressure are the same. Most people (including myself) find that 10' beer lines work well for just keeping the beer at 10psi all the time.

Also, the CO2 has to be on the "IN" side. If you do it the other way around (CO2 on the OUT and beer line on the IN) no beer will come out (unless you laid the corny on its side or something). And I don't know why you're getting sprayed with beer. Are you hooking up a connector to a pressurized keg w/o having a line attached to it? If so, stop doing that.

 

[badmajon]

Oh, I meant putting the gas into the out peg when carbing, not when serving. Some people think that having the gas travel up the liquid makes it carb better. I'm not doing that, I just have it as normal (gas in, beer out).

 

[jaobrien6]

Ahh, ok, that makes much more sense. I've also heard that its' a little faster hooking it up to the OUT post, but my chemistry is too rusty to figure out if that actually makes any sense or if it's just another one of those myths. It will definitely work on the IN post, that's what I usually do.

 

[badmajon]

Any thoughts on my carbing method?

 

[jaobrien6]

I can't really help with that, I've only used the set it and forget it method. What you've described aligns pretty well with what I'd read here though.

 

[d_ozz68]

I also just recently tried kegging for the first time and after filling my keg I set the PSI at about 5-10 pounds, I then pulled the pressure relief a few times to ensure the o2 was purged and then set the PSI to 30 pounds and left it for 24 hours. I then turned it down to 20 PSI for about 12 hours. I then released all the pressure, set the regulator at 8-10 PSI and kept it there for serving until the keg was empty. The beer turned out great!

Also, I had cold crashed my beer for 4 days prior to kegging so the beer was already cold when I started the whole process. I will be following this same process again next week when my Pale Ale is ready to keg.....Just my $.02

 

[badmajon]

Cool, that's just what I plan to do.