Naturally carbing in a keg.

[jldc]

I have a carboy with dunkelweizen that I'm kegging today. I probably won't have room for it in my kegerator for 2-3 weeks or more. I don't have anyplace to store it cold, so should I add priming sugar or just displace the air with CO2?

BTW if I do prime, the calculator recommends 8.6 oz of corn sugar for just over 4 volumes of CO2, so about 4 oz should do it in a keg, right?

 

[beerthirty]

Force carbing is fine. I do it all the time. Extra beer that won't fit in the kegerator is stored at room temp in the spare room For as long as I need to.

 

[Dr_Deathweed]

I natural carb a few of my kegs that I don't have room for in the 'rator at the moment, and know that they will be sitting idly by for the next couple weeks or so. From what i have learned:

-Use half the priming sugar you would use to bottle
-Give the keg a blast of CO2 at 30psi to ensure the lid seats and there are no leaks. It sucks to come back to a keg a month later and realize the lid was loose so nothing cabed.
- when you put it in the 'rator, give it a day or two to chill and finish settling, the first few pints you pour will be pretty cloudy.
-if you used a low flocculating yeast, and moved it to your 'rator 2-3 weeks after kegging, it might be another week or more before your beer starts clearing up
-bottom line: if you are going to naturally carb in a keg, be sure you have enough time to let the keg sit for a few weeks before you want to put it on tap for the best results.

 

[944play]

I don't have anyplace to store it cold, so should I add priming sugar or just displace the air with CO2?

Regardless of temp or carbonation method, you should purge the keg with CO2.

 

[jldc]

Regardless of temp or carbonation method, you should purge the keg with CO2.

Cool. I knew that. I just didn't phrase the question very well.

 

[david_42]

I'd prime it. That way it can go straight to an open tap.