Need advice on...

[joepez]

I am going to try kegging my first batch ever, I usually carbonate naturally, is there any way to carbonate the beer without putting it in a fridge or a colder environment, I live in an apartment and don't have the room for such conveniences.

I guess I could put it in an ice bath.

 

[Runyanka]

It will still carb, just slower. CO2 dissolves faster in cold liquids.

 

[JJL]

You can naturally carb in the keg if you want at room temp. IIRC you add half the amount of priming sugar to a keg that you would add if you were bottling it. I don't remember why, but I think that's the correct rate.

 

[arnoldk2]

Carbonation doesn't form because a beer is cold or warm. When bottle conditioning it is important to know how much sugar is left so you can add the right amount of sugar to get the correct co2 volumes. This is based on how warm you fermented your beer and your FG reading. When kegging you don't have that issue. There is a carbonation chart (google it) that tells you how much psi of co2 is required to obtain a certain co2 volume at a certain temperature. The chart is really easy to follow.

 

[JJL]

Carbonation doesn't form because a beer is cold or warm. When bottle conditioning it is important to know how much sugar is left so you can add the right amount of sugar to get the correct co2 volumes. This is based on how warm you fermented your beer and your FG reading. When kegging you don't have that issue. There is a carbonation chart (google it) that tells you how much psi of co2 is required to obtain a certain co2 volume at a certain temperature. The chart is really easy to follow.

When bottle conditioning, you don't need to know how much sugar is left in the beer to calculate priming sugar additions. The reason you take gravity readings is to make sure the yeast have chewed through all of the fementable sugars before you add more sugar to prime. Also, the reason you care about the fermentation temp isn't related to residual sugars in the beer. You care because colder fermentation temps result in greater levels of CO2 being dissolved in the beer. You add less priming sugars to lagers because of dissolved CO2, not because they have more residual sugars.

But, you are correct. A good place to start trying to find priming rates using CO2 is to use a volumes chart.

 

[phenry]

So what are you really asking OP? You can carbonate a keg at room temp with CO2, and if you want to carbonate a keg naturally (via priming sugar) you need to do it at room temp. I've done both ways, and 2.5-3 oz of corn sugar for a 5 gallon batch is usually what I add to carbonate naturally (or 1.5-2.0 oz in the case of a cask ale).

 

[arnoldk2]

When bottle conditioning, you don't need to know how much sugar is left in the beer to calculate priming sugar additions. The reason you take gravity readings is to make sure the yeast have chewed through all of the fementable sugars before you add more sugar to prime. Also, the reason you care about the fermentation temp isn't related to residual sugars in the beer. You care because colder fermentation temps result in greater levels of CO2 being dissolved in the beer. You add less priming sugars to lagers because of dissolved CO2, not because they have more residual sugars.

But, you are correct. A good place to start trying to find priming rates using CO2 is to use a volumes chart.

You're correct... I miss spoke. Take readings on back to back days. If the FG does not move chances are the yeast has eaten everything it can. At that point you add sugar back in and bottle. When kegging it is easier to get co2 in solution in colder temps. This means the colder the beer the less psi required to get the same co2 volume than if it was warmer.