Question about force carbonating

[Gritsak]

Million threads on this, i know. I've kegged two beers now, both with limited success on achieving my desired carbonation level. I've never done the quick method (put at 30psi and shake), only the 24hr shot @ 30psi, then sit at 12psi for a week. So far both batches have been undercarbonated, and unfortunately I'm impatient.

Would another option to speed up the process, without risking overcarbonation, be to set it at serving pressure (8-12psi), then shake it a few times a day over the course of a few days?

Anyone tried this?

 

[chode720]

What I do is the quick method (30psi and then shake) and then leave it on 30 psi for about 24 hours. Then I vent the keg and set it to the serving pressure. I can usually get the pressure pretty close with that. If not, ill bump it up several PSI over the serving pressure for a couple days.

 

[Bombo80]

I keg alot of my brews. I just did a hard cider and it worked out perfectly. The biggest thing to remember about quick force carbing is temperature. I had crash chilled my carboy for a few days, then racked it into the sanitized keg. The keg was connected to the C02 tank at 25PSI, and shook for as long as I could. I then placed it in a tall kitchen garbage can with a few gallons of water. Just enough to bring the water level over half way up the keg. Then I drop in four 20 oz. pop bottles, (filled and frozen, then twist the tops closed) in each corner of the garbage can. I have a second set of four bottles to rotate in each day. This helps keep the temperature around that 35* mark. I shut the C02 off, bled it and then turned the gas back on, and shook it twice a day for two days, and it was perfect for bottling.
For bottling or dispensing, just shut the gas off, bleed off the excess pressure, adjust the regulator way down, turn the gas on, and adjust to your pouring, or bottling, pressure. My hard cider was ready to go in 48 hours.

 

[Gritsak]

Thanks for the replies, but i think you're kind of missing the point of my question. I don't want to shake it at a elevated psi, i want to shake it at the serving psi. While this would take a little longer than doing it at 25-30psi, in theory it would remove the possibility of over-carbonating...no?

Good point about the temp. I would also do it at serving temp (~40 degrees)

 

[Yooper]

Thanks for the replies, but i think you're kind of missing the point of my question. I don't want to shake it at a elevated psi, i want to shake it at the serving psi. While this would take a little longer than doing it at 25-30psi, in theory it would remove the possibility of over-carbonating...no?

Good point about the temp. I would also do it at serving temp (~40 degrees)

Well, shaking is shaking whether it's at 30 psi or 12 psi. There'll be a risk of overcarbonation either way. It's easily fixed, though.

I don't shake my kegs. I like them to settle so I can tap clear beer off of it. I usually set it at 30 psi for 36-48 hours, then purge and set at 11-12 psi (my serving pressure). It's usually pretty good in 2-3 days, and perfect in a week. For the "set it and forget it" method, I set it at 12 psi for about 10 days, and it's pretty good by then.

 

[Bobby_M]

I don't think shaking at "set and forget" pressure or chart pressure will overcarb because the bubbles you create within the column of beer is at head pressure. It's more like bubbling the CO2 through a 2 micron stone. The only thing is, it's going to take a LOT of shaking to make it work. Hypothetically you could carb in a day at serving pressure if you could put the keg in one of those paint shakers.

 

[Yooper]

Interesting- I thought it would be overcarbed even at serving pressure. But I must be confusing being overcarbed with being foamy. Thanks for setting me straight, Bobby!

 

[Bobby_M]

Not to beat a dead horse, but I thought of another way to describe this. At serving pressure, the cylinder shaped headspace "wants" to dissolve into the beer but the only way in is via the gas to beer surface (the diameter of the keg). Once the volumes of co2 on the chart is reached, it won't take anymore CO2 until the pressure goes up or the temp goes down.

Take that headspace and make it into a billion tiny bubbles and drag them down into the beer. The CO2 pressure in the bubbles is the same, but the surface area is probably 10x more than the circle in a still keg. Right though.. you need to let it sit overnight after doing that or it's foam city.

 

[chode720]

Thanks for the replies, but i think you're kind of missing the point of my question. I don't want to shake it at a elevated psi, i want to shake it at the serving psi. While this would take a little longer than doing it at 25-30psi, in theory it would remove the possibility of over-carbonating...no?

Good point about the temp. I would also do it at serving temp (~40 degrees)

Even if you do overcarbonate, its not something you cant fix. Just take it off the gas, vent the keg, and leave it be for awhile. The CO2 in the beer will come out of solution and start to fill up the headspace in the keg. Someone correct me if I am wrong (which I could totally be), but Ive had a couple beers that were overcarbed and I did this and was able to bring the carbonation levels back down

 

[Yooper]

Even if you do overcarbonate, its not something you cant fix. Just take it off the gas, vent the keg, and leave it be for awhile. The CO2 in the beer will come out of solution and start to fill up the headspace in the keg. Someone correct me if I am wrong (which I could totally be), but Ive had a couple beers that were overcarbed and I did this and was able to bring the carbonation levels back down

Correct- it's very easily fixed. Still, the easiest way to carb the beer is the gradual "set it and forget it". Never overcarbed or foamy, never undercarbed. Some of us (including me about 1/2 the time) are just too impatient to wait the 10-14 days.

One thing that I prefer about bottle conditioning is that it forces you to wait. You can't really drink green beer- it'll be pretty flat- as easily when you bottle. Force carbing is awesome, but it allows us to drink the beer very early and sometimes the beer is gone right when it is hitting its prime!

 

[chode720]

Correct- it's very easily fixed. Still, the easiest way to carb the beer is the gradual "set it and forget it". Never overcarbed or foamy, never undercarbed. Some of us (including me about 1/2 the time) are just too impatient to wait the 10-14 days.

One thing that I prefer about bottle conditioning is that it forces you to wait. You can't really drink green beer- it'll be pretty flat- as easily when you bottle. Force carbing is awesome, but it allows us to drink the beer very early and sometimes the beer is gone right when it is hitting its prime!

Thats why i like the set it at 30PSI and wait a couple days method. I cant wait 14 days, but I dont want foamy beer either! I just started kegging and am trying to build up a pipeline so i can have all 3 of my taps going and be carbonating a 4th keg at the same time. That way when I kick a keg, i can just replace it with something that has been carbonating and aging for a few weeks