Kegging: to force carbinate or to let sit at 10-12 for 5 days?

[madbird1977]

Okay, I kegged my first batch 1.5 months ago, a nice amber ale...set it at 10-12 for a few days and it turned out good.

However, I want to check out force carbing in the keg. So a couple of questions:

1. What's the best way to do it?

2. What's the difference really?

3. Do some beers not take force carbination as well as others?

4. Is there anything else needed to keep the beer carbed, either way?

Thanks much again a novice looking to broaden my understanding of this great hobby.

Thanks in advance for your assistance. Brew it up!

Here are the next 3 that I have fermenting wait to be kegged:

1. Bumblee Bee Honey Ale
2. Bascom Brown Ale
3. Oktoberfest - 1st Lager

 

[Fastmetal]

I have done both. My usually approach is to set it at around 12psi and leave it for at least 10 days. The last 2 batches, I had people coming over and needed the beer to be ready faster so I set it at 30psi for 48 hours and the purged the gas and set it back to serving pressure. If you can let it sit for 10 days at 12ish but the other way works too. I have not tried the shaking the keg method so I can't comment on that. Good luck.

 

[HawksBrewer]

I don't recommend shaking the keg... if you have time just set it and forget it, otherwise I always do what Fastmetal recommended which is 30 psi for 48 hrs, purge, and set to serving psi. Never had any issues thus far...

 

[kpr121]

By letting it set at 10-12 for 10-15 days you are still "force carbonating". The term comes from using CO2 at a higher pressure than you beer to force carbonation into solution. The other option is naturally carbonating by adding priming sugar and letting it sit at room temp for 2-3 weeks.

In my opinion it is easier to just let it set at 10-12 for a week or two, if you have the time. Any time you raise that pressure and shake, roll, whatever you want to do, you run the risk of over carbonation. The added advantage of letting it set an extra week or two is the additional conditioning that you will get (my beer almost always tasted better after a week or two in the kegerator).

With that being said, I think we have all been at the juncture that you need a certain batch ready in two or three days, and we crank the pressure up. I like to set the pressure at 25 psi and shake until I cant hear gas expelling from the tank. I do this twice a day until I get a good carb level from test pulls (usually takes 2 or 3 days).

 

[ryandlf]

The only time I ever over-carbonated a beer was when I set the PSI to 30, waited a day and then shook the keg for 20 minutes the next day. Now when I want to force carbonate I take a much easier approach. I always cold crash my fermenter a few days before I keg so the beer will already be cold, then I just rack to the keg, set to serving pressure and gently rock the keg back and forth until the regulator on my CO2 stops making noise. It usually takes 10 - 15 minutes and doing it this way leaves no risk of over-carbonating.

The nice thing about set and forget is it forces you to age the beer while its chilled and you will be much happier with the results after having to wait a couple weeks. I have to admit though, I am rarely that patient.

 

[madbird1977]

Thanks for the feedback. I've heard some brewers actually roll it on the ground for 5-10 minutes while its carbing at 30 psi, then its almost immediately ready to drink of course after purging the keg and tapping with the the pour line.

 

[madbird1977]

Patience is also one of my "issues" but I'd rather have good brew, than quick brew.

 

[ttk420]

I just kegged my three hearted ale late sat night and I can't wait. set it to 30 for 2 days and then backed it down to 10-11 for the next 5. sunday will be a glorious day.

 

[Yooper]

First, I want to talk about "force carbonation". If you're using co2 to carbonate, you're force carbing. If you're adding priming sugar, that's "natural carbonation".

So you're already force carbing! That's one of my little pet peeves, saying "force carbing" is quick carbing or burst carbing and many of us do that.

Ok, now that I have that off of my chest........

Some people have found that shaking a keg encourages co2 to dissolved faster into the beer. I don't think it's a good idea, because many follow up posts on here are "Why is my beer so foamy?". It's ok if you're in a huge, huge hurry, but then you may have to deal with overcarbed beer and/or foamy beer. The other thing is that carbonic acid has a "bite" to it so the beer can be sort of harsh with a bitter note until the co2 has a chance to fade a bit. So "burst carbing" does work, but it has some disadvantages.

I usually take my keg and put it in the kegerator with the other kegs at 12 psi and start drinking it in about 10 days. If I'm in a huge hurry, I set it at 30 psi for 36 hours, then purge and reset at 12 psi. It's ready in 3 days that way.

Remember that green beer is green beer, whether carbed or not. Sometimes the beer is better in a couple of weeks anyway, no matter how it's carbed.

 

[bernerbrau]

The other thing is that carbonic acid has a "bite" to it so the beer can be sort of harsh with a bitter note until the co2 has a chance to fade a bit.

I hate to thread-jack but I've noticed a sort of acrid bitterness in my lighter beers when I switched to kegging. In my amber lager, it did kind of fade away after a week or so. In the light lager, it was extremely noticeable to the point of near undrinkability and never really went away. I carbed them both for 2 weeks at 12-15 PSI. Is this flavor a byproduct of force carbing then?

 

[Yooper]

I hate to thread-jack but I've noticed a sort of acrid bitterness in my lighter beers when I switched to kegging. In my amber lager, it did kind of fade away after a week or so. In the light lager, it was extremely noticeable to the point of near undrinkability and never really went away. I carbed them both for 2 weeks at 12-15 PSI. Is this flavor a byproduct of force carbing then?

Maybe. 15 psi may take a while to "subside" a bit. It should have been better after a few weeks.

 

[SD-SLIM]

Hello,
I recommend shooting your keg with 30 psi for the first day, this will properly seat the seals and rings inside the keg...purge and set at the psi recommended for your beer style for 7 days, drink and enjoy. Should you need to force carbonate, I use two different methods...method one will take a day: Set to 30 PSI, lay on its side and roll a few times, purge and leave at 30 PSI for the remainder of the day, on the next day purge and drop down to proper dispensing psi (which is usually around 10-12 psi)..I use this method when my beer wont get any better in the keg and I dont want to take the chance of over carbonating it....the second method, which runs the chance of over carbonating the beer, is this: make sure the beer is cold, connect co2 and set to 30 psi, while it filling up with co2, lay it on its side and roll it back and forth for 5 minutes (this helps co2 absorb faster) put back in fridge for 10 minutes purge and repeat 2 to 3 more times (usually 2) and your beer should be perfectly carbonated.