Priming kegs?

[Kent88]

This year for black friday I got some kegging equipment. I just put it all together with a gallon of water in the keg and tested it out. I've got sparkling water, and so far no leaks.

So I'm thinking about what beer I'll keg first and how that'll go. I was wondering, does anyone use a priming solution when they keg? Would there be any benefit to that, besides saving a little bit of carbon dioxide? Would there be any big drawbacks from that, like extra sediment?

 

[day_trippr]

There will be "extra sediment", the byproduct of the conditioning, but if you allow it time to collect on the bottom you'll draw it off in a couple of pours.

Lots of folks keg-condition. Advantages are in-keg O2 scavenging which can help make up for sloppy racking (but please to look into how to liquid-purge your keg and closed-transfers), savings on CO2, and purportedly a "finer" carbonation vs forced carbonation...

Cheers!

 

[ba-brewer]

It does take a similar amount of time to carbonating like bottles, and then a few more days to a week to get the yeast to drop and compact once it goes in the cooler.

Moving the keg could stir up the additional sediment. If you use a yeast that compacts well you get less cloudy pours in the beginning of the keg and less concern with moving kegs.

The few times I have primed a keg I still purged the head space with CO2 and used a higher pressure to seat the lid.

I like to allow my beers to chill for a few weeks or more before tapping, using the set and forget approach that over laps with the carbonation phase. When priming the keg it is additional time.

If you over do the priming sugar you don't have to worry about bottle bombs but getting extra carbonation out of keg can be work. A spunding valve can help prevent that.

 

[BruceH]

You can put a slight bend in the out tube to get it a little farther off the sediment if you decide to prime in the keg. You can also transfer from the priming keg to another keg to reduce sedimentation in the first few pours.

Spunding has already been mentioned. Look into it. Even if you decide not to spund the spunding valve comes in handy for priming in the keg like ba-brewer mentioned.

 

[lablover]

I prime in the keg with 1/2 cup table sugar whenever I have a little time. I like the carbonation a little better this way, but it is only my opinion of course. Once you get used to kegging, look into floating dip tube for your keg. That allows you to drink clearer beer quicker even if you prime in the keg.

 

[Kent88]

Sounds like the extra sediment isn't a huge issue, it just comes out in the first pour or two. I did look into a floating dip tube, but the store I bought from didn't have any on hand when I as buying gear.

I'll have to look into a spunding valve.