New corny keg, in and out were swapped. Is the beer dead now?

[dtisher]

Hi folks, this is my first ever brew and I intend to keg it. I went out and bought a 'new' corny keg which needed its plugs swapped out. I went ahead and did that, sanitized the keg and then racked the IPA into it. When I hooked everything up to the kegerator and turned the CO2 on, I heard little bubbling in the keg and when I pulled the tap just air came out. CRAP! The posts were reversed and I just put CO2 in the 'out'!

I turned the CO2 off and depressurized the keg. Then I swapped the lines without having to open the keg (I really did not want to expose the beer to open air) and hooked everything back up. Once CO2 was on, the regulator jumped to 20gpsi even while turned all the way down. The beer inside is likely still only about 60F as I had just racked so do you folks think I am ok? Did I totally mess up my beer?

My guess is that things are ok and I will just have to check the regulator when the temp gets down to the 40s where the pressure should drop. Hopefully it will drop to my goal of 12-15gpsi and things will be golden.

Thoughts/suggestions?

 

[Revvy]

You can't "kill" your beer. Relax.

 

[carlisle_bob]

Hi

Provided you didn't introduce something weird (bugs) when you swapped out the stuff, no problem.

Bob

 

[Golddiggie]

Leave it at serving temp and serving pressure (to reach your desired CO2 volumes level) for 2 weeks before pulling a pint.

I would have been more concerned about buggering the QD's and having beer go into the CO2 regulator. Since you didn't get that (it appears), you should be fine. Just remember, the posts with notches are for gas. The QD's won't easily go onto the wrong post. That's to prevent people from connecting them up wrong.

 

[dtisher]

Hey everybody, thanks for the advice. This morning the keg is cooled to serving temp and the regulator is showing serving pressure so things look good.

Golddiggie: I should leave it here for two weeks before pouring? I was under the impression that force carbonating was faster than bottling. Is this not the case?

 

[Misplaced_Canuck]

Golddiggie: I should leave it here for two weeks before pouring? I was under the impression that force carbonating was faster than bottling. Is this not the case?

If it's the old "set it and forget it", it takes 10 to 14 days to carbonate using force carbonation (this may differ with some folks but that's generally what I get).

MC

 

[gavball6]

Seems like you are using more of the set and forget method (which is what I have been doing) as opposed to force carbing... Here is the link to the sticky that is a good discussion on how to force carb...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/keg-force-carbing-methods-illustrated-73328/

 

[Golddiggie]

The slow force carbonating method is more reliable than the rapid force carbonation method. With rapid you still need to give it several days to stabilize and equalize once you set the pressure to serving psi. IME simply setting it at serving pressure and temp gives you the desired results without any headache. Even though I could do the rapid method since I have enough regulators I chose not to.

 

[dtisher]

Excellent explanation. I just read the first few pages of the force carbing sticky and now I have a good idea of what I am looking at. I will push my tasting party to the end of next week and things should be all good by then. Thanks!

Now I have to go buy an extra keg and regulator so I can be carbonating one while another is on tap. I know, slippery slope and soon I will have 5 going at once...

 

[carlisle_bob]

Hi

If you buy corny's eight at a time, often they will give you a price break ...

Bob