New to Kegging - a few questions

[robbeh]

I have finally acquired a kegerator with two Corny Kegs that I would like to use for a party on the 15th of August. I have done a lot of research and I need some help with what to do.


Situation:

I have a Lager that’s been lagering for 2 months in a secondary.

I have a NEIPA that I brewed 9 days ago, fermentation finished 6 days in and my 2 day hop addition went in last night so it will be ready tomorrow night.


So I can have both beers in Kegs by tomorrow night, the 31st of July. I leave on the Friday for 8 days and won’t be back until Sunday the 11th. Should I:


a) Force carb them Thursday night at 30 PSI while shaking the keg for 20 minutes? Then back the pressure off to 12 PSI?

b) Get them in Kegs, put them in the kegorator while I am away and cool them down, then pressurize them on Sunday at 20 PSI for 3 days? Do I have to worry at all about clogging the dip tube with the NEIPA if I let it cold crash for 8 days?

c) Is there an option to have it carb while I am away for the 8 days, I would like to test it a day or two before so I would have about 12 days total?


Also, just to confirm, my basic steps are:


-Hook empty keg up to CO2, pressurize and purge 2-3 times
-Unhook and transfer beer
-Close seal and hook up gas line
-Force Carb with one of the methods above
-Unhook gas
-Purge Headspace
-Back off PSI to 12 and hook back up
-Hook up tap line and server.


Anything I missed?


Thanks a lot!!

 

[Carolina_Matt]

With a few weeks before you need it to be ready, I wouldn't worry about shaking it or messing with any of the high-PSI methods. I'd recommend setting it for a slightly lower PSI than you plan on serving it, and leaving it like that for the next 10+ days. It should be pretty much carbonated at that point. If it's a little flat, then you can bump up the gauge to maybe 15 PSI and sample it every night until it's perfect.

The risk with setting it at serving PSI is that if your calculations are off and it's overcarbonated, you might not be able to fix it as fast and easy as if it's undercarbonated.

 

[bleme]

Your purging method is pretty inefficient. Depending on your PSI, you are using 10-60 times as much CO2 as you would if you filled with StarSan then pushed that out with low PSI CO2. You are also leaving at least 10,000 ppm O2.

Since you aren't doing a closed transfer, you also need to purge the headspace several times after it is filled and sealed.

I'd also take a really good look at closed transfers, especially with NEIPA's.

 

[cmac62]

I agree with both above. With that much time you don't need to worry about force carbing, set the gas to somewhere in the 10 to 15 psi range and let it do its thing. Also, if you want to purge, bleme's plan seems way more efficient pushing starsan through the keg will purge the keg better with less gas. IMHO, but no expert by any means. Good luck

 

[pvpeacock]

Alternatively, you could naturally carbonate by adding priming sugar/water to the kegs before filling them. That way the kegs will naturally carbonate while you are gone. The downsides to doing this are: 1. You can't put them in your kegerator until they are naturally carbed because they need to be at room temp. and 2. you might encounter dip tube clogging when you finally do put them into the kegerator, particularly the NEIPA.

 

[robbeh]

This is all amazing stuff!! I am very well versed with naturally carbing as I have about 25 brews under my belt all bottle conditioned. I might at some point try it in a keg but I would rather take some of the guess work out of it.

I am going to let it sit on 10 PSI until a get back. I then have 4 days to ramp it up if needed to get it to the point I want. That will also help cold crash it a bit which will be nice. I think I finally get it thanks to you guys.

I will purge as recommended. Does it use a lot of CO2 to push through a full keg of Starsan? Or should I just be putting in 1 gallon or so? Do I essentially push it through until the line is empty, release the hooks ups and lid and transfer into the keg?

I will definitely be investing in a few items to close transfer in the future, I just won't have the time this round.

 

[pvpeacock]

There’s not much guess work if you get a spunding valve. In addition, unlike bottles, you can easily adjust the carbonation level in the kegerator after the natural carbonation is done

 

[Carolina_Matt]

If you won't be doing a closed transfer and you'll just be taking off the lid and siphoning into the keg, then I wouldn't worry about putting any CO2 into the keg ahead of time (whether it's multiple purges, or pushing out Star San). I'd just spray Star San to sanitize the keg, then siphon it in there. Make sure the siphon tube is at the very bottom of the keg so that it doesn't splash.

The main point of filling the keg with CO2 and doing a closed transfer is to reduce O2 exposure to the beer and prevent oxidation. Since you'll be serving this at a party in 2 weeks, I'd have to think the keg won't last very long and you won't have any noticeable oxidation. Unless it's a party of one, with you as the only attendee.

 

[bleme]

I tried Googling and couldn't find the answer. Anyone know how much CO2 is in 1 PSI compared to 2 PSI vs. 30 PSI? Subconsciously, I'd always figured it was linear but now that I think about it, I think it probably isn't. I know when I am pumping up a bike tire, PSI starts rising faster the higher it gets...

 

[Rackrunner]

I tried Googling and couldn't find the answer. Anyone know how much CO2 is in 1 PSI compared to 2 PSI vs. 30 PSI? Subconsciously, I'd always figured it was linear but now that I think about it, I think it probably isn't. I know when I am pumping up a bike tire, PSI starts rising faster the higher it gets...

It kind of depends what you mean by "how much" At a constant temperature, gas pressure and volume (of the container) are linear (P1 x V1 = P2 x V2, called Boyle's law). I think the bike tire scenario is a little different than a rigid container like a keg, because the volume of the tire tube changes as you inflate it, until you hit the tire wall, etc.

You can also check out the Ideal Gas law (PV=nRT). "R" is a constant (universal gas constant) and "T" is temperature. If the temp stays the same. the amount of gas ("n", or number of moles) is proportional to PxV. The volume of the keg also stays the same, so the "amount" of gas is linear to pressure.

All that said, have to keep in mind your CO2 tank is holding liquid CO2 at high pressure - different story there.

Hope that helps!

 

[robbeh]

Update: I forced carbed the lager to see if I could do it, got a decent carbonation on it but not perfect. Then set it at 10 PSI, hooked up the IPA burped it a little and left for 10 days.

Came back, pulled the IPA tap all excited. Nothing came out. Tried the lager...nothing. Looked in the fridge, 0 PSI. It seems the gas side of the lines had a leak when you bend the tube a little bit. My CO2 tank was empty and my kegs when released, had no air .

The lager is about 80% there, the IPA is maybe 20% there.

Should I crank it up to 20 for the next 24 hours? Test, repeat? Or should I set it on something like 14 for the next 4 days?

The problem is the lager is 80% there. I thought maybe I will close off it's valve and see if I can get the IPA closer.