Leaving kegs at room temp

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bendog15

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Pretty random ques- my keezer is getting pretty full. And I have 10 gallons of beer that need to be kegged soon. I've got plenty of kegs just no room in the fridge. What if I kegged the beer, hooked it up to co2 for a few hours, and then let it sit out at room temp til I have room for them in the keezer?
Theoretically it seems like this would work, as the keg is just one big bottle, and I used to leave cases of bottled Homebrew at room temp for weeks on end before refrigerating.
 
The beer needs to be hooked up to the CO2 periodically as whats in the keg headspace gets absorbed into the beer until the beer is fully carbed.
Also if its at room temp you'll need to have a much higher CO2 pressure to get the beer carbonated.
http://www.kegerators.com/carbonation-table.php

What I do after filling the spare keg is to purge the headspace 6-8 times, then connect the gas to the out post and shake the keg until no more gas bubbles into it. Repeat for the next few days and then its OK when it gets a space in the kegerator, especially if its getting stored in the fermenting chamber at serving temperature.

If its going to be a few weeks and you're storing at room temperature you can prime the keg with sugar to naturally carb it instead of using CO2.
 
I had a somewhat similar question. My kegs are already carbonated and in the keezer, but I need to shut off my power for a few weeks. Is it all right to have the kegs go from 40 degrees to around 65 degrees for a few weeks?
 
I had a somewhat similar question. My kegs are already carbonated and in the keezer, but I need to shut off my power for a few weeks. Is it all right to have the kegs go from 40 degrees to around 65 degrees for a few weeks?

Based on experience, I would not store kegged beer at room temp for a period of time. Back some years ago, I had a beer store owner order a keg of Sweetwater 420. When I picked it up he had it sitting in his back store room at room temp for several days. That kegged beer had an old taste to it....hard to put my finger on specifically, but did not have a freshly kegged taste. In my opinion for what that's worth, I think your beer will suffer. I think the beer's alcohol level will prevent spoilage so it should be safe if you are forced to store warm.

You've likely heard breweries say something like brewed, stored and shipped cold to ensure maximum freshness. Some may argue this is marketing hype but I believe it has merit.
 
Purge the headspace with CO2 and it will be fine for a long time. As with any beer, time spent aging won't be ideal for all styles, but it shouldn't hurt anything as long as you didn't splash too much oxygen into it during transfer.

I often prime kegs with sugar and leave them at room temp to carbonate until I'm ready to tap them. Just seal the lid and purge the headspace. Works great.

Also, I don't think it's a good idea to hook gas to the out post on ball lock kegs. The couplers and posts are different and not meant to be interchangeable. You can easily damage the oring seals and create a leak.
 
I think that if you really need to, it's not that big of a deal. I would use it as lessons to what's it would actually do. Because unless any of us have ever done it, we are all just guessing haha. Which isn't bad, but you won't know until you do it. And if it means you get to brew more, then I'd do it
 
I have limited cooling space so i leave full kegs at room temp all the time.
The beer will be fine.
 
I have limited cooling space so i leave full kegs at room temp all the time.
The beer will be fine.

This.

I have a 2 tap kegerator and 7 kegs. Due to the space constraint I always naturally carb my kegs and let them sit at room temperature for at least 2-3 weeks before they go on tap. I typically brew 10 gallons at a time and usually find that the second keg is better than the first. Only difference would be that second keg spends more time conditioning at room temperature. So, in some cases it actually helps my beer. I've found it never hurts them though either.
 
Agreed, you will have absolutely no problem with this, and I do it all the time. I have a 6 tap keezer, but brew all the time, so anything that is keeged when there is no space in the keezer goes to my carbing station in the garage. There I've got a CO2 tank hooked up to a two-stage regulator, each of which runs to a 3-bank splitter. That means I can be carbing up to 6 kegs at different PSIs or use an open line to purge, etc.

Just follow the carbonation chart linked above, hook up your gas, and about 2 weeks later you should have properly carbed beer. For example, liquids in my garage right now sit at about 65F, so I'm using 27 PSI to carb them to 2.4 volumes. My technique is as follows:

1 - Fill keg as normal
2 - Purge headspace with CO2 @ 30PSI 15 times to eliminate virtually all oxygen
3 - Carbonate as I just mentioned
4 - When time to put in the keezer, do so, but let it cool down for ~24 hours before hooking up the gas
5 - Pull the PRV to discharge the gas
6 - Hook up to gas line at serving pressure (so in my 40F keezer I would drop that to about 11 PSI
 
This.



I have a 2 tap kegerator and 7 kegs. Due to the space constraint I always naturally carb my kegs and let them sit at room temperature for at least 2-3 weeks before they go on tap. I typically brew 10 gallons at a time and usually find that the second keg is better than the first. Only difference would be that second keg spends more time conditioning at room temperature. So, in some cases it actually helps my beer. I've found it never hurts them though either.


Naturally carb kegs? Does this mean u dump priming sugar in the keg and then rack the beer on top of it? I assume this is the case. I have never done this with a keg before. Do you pull the relief valve at all during the 2 weeks it takes to carb? Or just let it sit, then when there is room in the keezer, hook it up and place it on serving co2 pressure.
 
What I do after filling the spare keg is to purge the headspace 6-8 times, then connect the gas to the out post

Don't do this with ball-lock kegs!!!

The connectors are NOT interchangeable. If you want to push gas in the "LIQUID OUT" post, you need to rig up a black "Beverage" quick-disconnect to your CO2 tank. Do not connect a white or grey "Gas" quick-disconnect to a liquid-out post. You could very well end up breaking it to get it back off again.
 
Don't do this with ball-lock kegs!!!

The connectors are NOT interchangeable. If you want to push gas in the "LIQUID OUT" post, you need to rig up a black "Beverage" quick-disconnect to your CO2 tank. Do not connect a white or grey "Gas" quick-disconnect to a liquid-out post. You could very well end up breaking it to get it back off again.

I thought you could put a gas (grey/white) connect on a liquid post no problem, but if you try (and are able) to put a liquid (black) connect on gas post you're going to have a bad time?

I've never had a problem putting a gas connector on any of my liquid posts; in fact this is how I carbonate my soda.
 
I thought you could put a gas (grey/white) connect on a liquid post no problem, but if you try (and are able) to put a liquid (black) connect on gas post you're going to have a bad time?

I've never had a problem putting a gas connector on any of my liquid posts; in fact this is how I carbonate my soda.

When I got my first keg I tore it down and cleaned all the parts, and because I wasn't paying attention managed to install the posts on opposite sides from what they should be.

I can't recall which it was, but of course they didn't seal right and I had an absolute devil of a time trying to get one of the QD's off the wrong post.


All this brings to mind a very specific, important question: Why--WHY?--would anyone want to put the gas QD on the OUT post? It works just fine force carbonating on the IN post.

The last couple of times I just connected the CO2 QD to the IN post as normal, and rocked that keg in my lap for about 7 minutes. It's the increased surface area of the beer that is promoted by sloshing that allows the gas to be absorbed quickly. Bubbling it up through the beer via the IN post won't do much to help that.
 
Don't do this with ball-lock kegs!!!

The connectors are NOT interchangeable. If you want to push gas in the "LIQUID OUT" post, you need to rig up a black "Beverage" quick-disconnect to your CO2 tank. Do not connect a white or grey "Gas" quick-disconnect to a liquid-out post. You could very well end up breaking it to get it back off again.

MFL is a keggers best friend...
 
When I got my first keg I tore it down and cleaned all the parts, and because I wasn't paying attention managed to install the posts on opposite sides from what they should be.

I can't recall which it was, but of course they didn't seal right and I had an absolute devil of a time trying to get one of the QD's off the wrong post.


All this brings to mind a very specific, important question: Why--WHY?--would anyone want to put the gas QD on the OUT post? It works just fine force carbonating on the IN post.

The last couple of times I just connected the CO2 QD to the IN post as normal, and rocked that keg in my lap for about 7 minutes. It's the increased surface area of the beer that is promoted by sloshing that allows the gas to be absorbed quickly. Bubbling it up through the beer via the IN post won't do much to help that.

This is the reason that all my QD fittings are MFL threaded vs. barbed. That way I can connect any line to any QD depending on what I'm trying to do, so the the QD is always on the corresponding post. It also helps since I have a mix of ball lock and pin lock kegs, so I don't need dedicated lines for each type.

Back on topic, another vote for keg-priming if its going to be sitting at room temp anyway. Yes, it is as simple as calculating and measuring out your priming sugar, dissolving, putting in the keg and racking into the keg. As mentioned, I would put some pressure on the keg to make sure the lid seals, then just let it go. Don't purge the keg periodically - that will release all the CO2 the yeast is creating to carbonate your beer. You'll get some sediment from the yeast activity so you'll have to dump the first pint or so, but after that you should be golden.
 
Also, I don't think it's a good idea to hook gas to the out post on ball lock kegs. The couplers and posts are different and not meant to be interchangeable. You can easily damage the oring seals and create a leak.

I've learned this the hard way. You can do it but you need to have threaded connectors on your QD's and swivel nuts on your lines. Then switch them out, threading the gas line onto the beer out QD. Other wise you're going to end up with leaks from busted QD's or damaged posts.
 
All this brings to mind a very specific, important question: Why--WHY?--would anyone want to put the gas QD on the OUT post? It works just fine force carbonating on the IN post.

The reason is that the CO2 bubbles through the beer from the bottom, more contact time/surface area to carbonate quicker. Same premise as rocking/shaking the keg w/ the CO2 line hooked up but w/o the physical exertion. I've heard of folks doing it to quick carb in place or when they don't have long enough lines to rock the keg. IDK how big of a difference it makes though.
 
All this brings to mind a very specific, important question: Why--WHY?--would anyone want to put the gas QD on the OUT post? It works just fine force carbonating on the IN post.

The last couple of times I just connected the CO2 QD to the IN post as normal, and rocked that keg in my lap for about 7 minutes. It's the increased surface area of the beer that is promoted by sloshing that allows the gas to be absorbed quickly. Bubbling it up through the beer via the IN post won't do much to help that.

Why? Because this:

The reason is that the CO2 bubbles through the beer from the bottom, more contact time/surface area to carbonate quicker. Same premise as rocking/shaking the keg w/ the CO2 line hooked up but w/o the physical exertion. I've heard of folks doing it to quick carb in place or when they don't have long enough lines to rock the keg. IDK how big of a difference it makes though.

To me (who is not a scientist) this is sort of like a poor man's carbonation stone. When the beer absorbs some of the CO2 in the headspace more CO2 is introduced at the bottom of the keg, so it is forced to bubble up through the liquid, thus providing more interaction with the liquid. I really only do this when I make soda, as I've found it nearly impossible to carb up in a decent amount of time otherwise.

If I connect it to the gas in side at 30PSI for 3 days and then try a pour it's barely carbonated. If I instead switch it to the liquid out side for 3 days it's nicely carbed every time. I picked that trick up on HBT actually.

As far as switching the connectors, I have several different makes of ball lock kegs. On every one I've tried I have never had any issue getting the gas connector on/off the liquid post. The one time I accidentally got a liquid post on the gas side, it was a helluva time getting that thing off.
 
Easier solution: Just put the keg in the fridge and set it to 30 psi for 48 hours. Then dial back to 10 psi, purge, and enjoy.

Kombat...this worked out for me: Racked Hefe to keg on Sunday morn, set CO2 to 15psi in keezer at 33F. Was drinking a fully carbed pint on Wednesday eve. That was well faster than I thought.
 
Easier solution: Just put the keg in the fridge and set it to 30 psi for 48 hours. Then dial back to 10 psi, purge, and enjoy.

you're missing the part where he's looking at other options because the beer fridge has no room for another keg at this time.
 
Naturally carbing a keg works great. I've found that 3 oz of sugar gets me close to where I wanna be without over carbing. It might need another day or two after chilling to be perfect, but it's certainly drinkable once it's cold.
 
Cool guys sounds good I'll just use beersmith to calculate my priming sugar. Sounds like i can rack the beer into the keg, purge w co2, and leave it at room temp for about 2 weeks til there's room in the keezer. Appreciate all the helpful advice!
 
Cool guys sounds good I'll just use beersmith to calculate my priming sugar. Sounds like i can rack the beer into the keg, purge w co2, and leave it at room temp for about 2 weeks til there's room in the keezer. Appreciate all the helpful advice!

The rule of thumb seems to be half the sugar in the keg that you would use for bottling.

I generally only use 2.5 oz of sugar in my kegs when I naturally carbonate. If I chill the keg down and it's not carbed enough, it usually only takes a day to get where I want it when hooked to co2.

Better to be a bit under than to fight with an over carbed beer....
 
It will continue to absorb co2 and the 30 will stabilize to 10 on it's own in short order. If you purge you're just wasting a tiny bit of co2 to the atmosphere.
 
Purge because otherwise it will overcarb. I suppose instead, you could simply dial it back to 10 psi earlier, and let the remaining excess CO2 infuse into the beer.
 
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