New to kegging - priming a pipeline

[TurnipGreen]

i’m new to kegging. I have three kegs and room for two in my fridge. This weekend i’m planning to fill the third so it’s ready when one of the other two kicks.

I understand stand I can prime it with sugar like bottling, maybe with less sugar. But could I also hit it with 25-30 pounds of pressure for a few hours then just leave it? Would that leave it pretty close to fully carbed?

For those of you that prime with sugar, can I get away with just dumping sugar in as opposed to mixing it with boiled water? Is it pretty standard to have 1-2 pours of yeast? Does that ever cause lines or dip tubes to get gunked up?

I’m still learning and messing with the right pressures, but I have this problem that as soon as beer is in the fridge I want to drink it. I have much more patience if it is stored far away from the fridge.

Thanks

 

[mongoose33]

What you're describing is force carbing. It'll take longer than just a few hours to force carb a keg. I typically will do 30 psi for 20 or 24 hours, and that'll get me close. If you're doing it at warm temps, the pressure needs to be higher--mine are typically done in the mid-30s. I'll try to undershoot a bit as an overcarbed beer in a keg is no fun.

As you know, you can also use priming sugar to carbonate a keg, treating it as if it's a large bottle. The problem with just pouring sugar in is whether it will fully dissolve or just lie on the bottom of the keg in a lump. Dissolving the sugar in boiling water not only helps it dissolve, it sanitizes it.

One downside to carbonating this way: you'll end up with a lot of yeast on the bottom of the keg, which will be pulled out in the first few draws from the keg. That's one reason why I got away from bottling--I didn't like the dregs in the bottom of bottles.

 

[TurnipGreen]

Copy that so about a day at 25-30 will get me close that I can leave it out of the fridge and the hook up when there’s room in the fridge. I can do a day at those pressures. Even if that gets me close to where I want it, I’m happy drinking flatter beer for a couple days that all foam for a day.

I’m learning the hard way over carbing is a pain.

How’s about sugar priming do folks end up with dip tube gunk?

 

[McKnuckle]

I personally have no issue with the small amount of trub, if any, that is dispensed with the first couple of pours of a new keg. The material leaves the keg permanently at the beginning, and the beer remains clear for the duration.

One of the luxuries of kegging is NOT worrying so much about small amounts of undesirables in the package, since their proportion to the beer volume is so relatively small compared to a bottle.

The only caveat to this is hop particles, which will clog the liquid poppet and are a huge hassle. Avoid that at all costs. But yeast? Meh, no big deal, and not worth taking extreme measures or altering otherwise appropriate processes to avoid it... In my opinion of course.

 

[Dland]

Shortening the dip tubes on kegs 3/4 of an inch helps clear up early pours too.

Once you get into it a little, maybe try spunding. This is simply racking from primary when beer has about .006 gravity left to work out. If you undershoot, force carb the rest of the way up, if you overshoot, let off some CO2.

 

[eric19312]

Force carbing at room temperature takes pretty high pressure. At 65 degrees 29 PSI will get you 2.5 volumes of CO2 in set and forget it mode. Set and forget it gets me to poorly carbed beer in one week and properly carbed beer in two weeks. To move that along faster you need to pressurize much higher. I will do 50-60 PSI for a day if the beer is room temp then reduce to 30. If cold I will do 30-40 PSI for about 24 hours then drop to serving pressure- 12 PSI at 39F.

 

[eric19312]

I personally have no issue with the small amount of trub, if any, that is dispensed with the first couple of pours of a new keg. The material leaves the keg permanently at the beginning, and the beer remains clear for the duration.

Keg priming really works well. If you do a decent cold crash before transfering to the keg and transfer nearly bright beer you will not grow that much new yeast in the keg. I suspect minimizing oxygen exposure through a closed transfer will also help since yeast uses oxygen to multiply. This is same as bottle conditioning--most of that yeast in homebrew bottles is due to poor bottling process. Professional bottle conditioned beer is (can be) much less yeasty. Just make sure to give it a couple days of sitting still and cold before you start serving it and you will clear the yeast near the dip tube pretty well in half a pint. Toss that and the next couple pints will be a little cloudy but still drinkable and after those the beer should be bright. If you do move the keg after clearing you will likely get a couple more cloudy pints.

 

[TurnipGreen]

Shortening the dip tubes on kegs 3/4 of an inch helps clear up early pours too.

Once you get into it a little, maybe try spunding. This is simply racking from primary when beer has about .006 gravity left to work out. If you undershoot, force carb the rest of the way up, if you overshoot, let off some CO2.

I’d love to be organized enough to do this or even use fresh sort to prime.

Thanks folks. I’m gonna cold crash it for a couple days and prime the keg with sugar Sunday. It’s a saison so there’s not much hops floating around even before cold crashing.

 

[Dland]

I’m gonna cold crash it for a couple days and prime the keg with sugar Sunday. It’s a saison so there’s not much hops floating around even before cold crashing.

Hold on friend, if you cold crash it, how will the yeast work though the priming sugar to carbonate? The yeast are more or less dormant after cold crash.

...or maybe saisons are different....

 

[day_trippr]

When I was doing bottles there was always enough yeast remaining after a 2-3 day cold crash to eat up the primer...

Cheers!

 

[Dland]

That's interesting, and not surprised if it works. But I have also had yeast stall near the end of a long cold lager primary without even a crash. A warm up & a shake gets them going again.

I guess the OP has nothing to loose by crashing first, if it does not start enough to prime, they can always warm it up and shake the kegs around a bit, unless they have racked it off.