Natural carb or forced carb in the keg?

[CButterworth]

OK, I have never kegged a beer before, but am about to put two brews into 5 gallon corny kegs: a heavy Scottish and a chocolate porter.

I plan on kegging them next Friday (14th Dec). The Scottish will have been in the secondary for two weeks at that time, and the porter will have been in the primary for two weeks.

Yes, I know that I ought to let them condition for at least a month, but would like to have them carbonated and available by Christmas Eve. This leaves around 10 days in the keg to get carbonation (which I'll leave pretty low - appro 13psi at 65F).

Is ten days enough for natural carbonation at RT, or should I simply do a forced carbonation.

If I force carbonate, I can leave the kegs in the garage overnight (Denver, CO gets pretty cold at night) which should help my carbonation?

Can the beer in the kegs get too cold when force carbonating?

Any opinions are welcome.

Charlie

 

[AleFred]

10 days might be enough at a little above room temp but to be sure I'd force carb at the coldest temps possible to dissolve as much co2 you can. Put the kegs on ice while on gas if you have no fridge

 

[CButterworth]

AleFred,

I have no room in the fridge, and I suppose I could put them on ice. The reason for my garage is that (if we ever get seasonable temps in the Denver area) the temps should reach maybe 45 by day and drop to maybe freezing (or lower) by night, although I haven't verified this.

My basement room, where I'll store the beer and tap it, should sit around 60F, which is perfectly fine (IMO - being a northern British lad) for serving.

Thanks,
Charlie

 

[BadNewsBrewery]

I don't think you need to worry about freezing - 5 gallons of beer is a lot of thermal mass to freeze in one night. Sustained sub-freezing temperatures, maybe, but one night - doubtful. If you're trying to carb in a short period of time, I suggest cranking the CO2 slightly above what your serving presure would be for the volumes / temperature you calculate. Put the keg on its side, and rock it for a few minutes as you apply pressure. Once you've done that, turn the pressure back down to whatever your serving pressure is and let it sit until you're ready to drink.

Good luck.
-Kevin

 

[Bobby_M]

I prefer to crash cool the fermenters before transferring to keg to aid in settling out the particulates but that's not what you asked. It doesn't matter what temp the beer is when you force carb as long as you account for the fact that increased temps require increased pressure. Find a carbonation chart, line up the column that says 2.2 volumes and the row that says the temperature of the keg. Whatever that PSI is, crank it to psi about 50% higher than specified on the chart and connect the gas. Rock the keg on your lap for about 10 minutes. You should hear CO2 bubbling in the whole time you're moving it. Disconnect gas and let the keg rest overnight. Check the beer temp again and now set the PSI to the exact chart pressure and leave the gas connected until you're ready to serve. The biggest problem with temp fluctuations is that it affects the carbonation level when the PSI is fixed, but you don't really have a choice.