Question about keg conditioning

[chiefbrewer]

It seems to me, if you condition in the keg, your beer will carbonate itself because the CO2 will not be able to get out of the keg. There is no airlock, so unless you have a leaky keg, you would get carbonation naturally. If that is the case, how do you control your carbonation?

 

[Scut_Monkey]

If you add priming sugar yes you can naturally caronate in the keg. This is essentially like adding priming sugar to a bottling bucket and then sealing it up. Most people state that you should use ~2/3 of the priming sugar that you would typically add if you were bottling for that style and volume of beer. This is because you will eventually have to put it on CO2 or beer gas for serving. I have only force carbonated using CO2 tanks and the majority of people do this simply because it is easier and somewhat faster and much easier to control. Also, adding priming sugar to the keg creates sediment from the fermentation that has to take place to ferment the sugar.

As I already mentioned force caring is easier to control as you can set the regulator at the pressure you want to get the volume of dissolved CO2 you need. If you add too much priming sugar to a batch you would have to vent some of this CO2. If you add too little priming sugar you would need to allow some force carbonation to make up this difference. This is assuming you will be serving with a CO2 tank and not something like a cask ale.

 

[mattmcl]

What he said. It's a simple matter of opening a valve with a screwdriver while watching a pressure gauge. Once you get the desired pressure, stop opening the valve. Check it in a few hours, again in a day, and once every couple days after that for 2 weeks. Then serve. I usually aim for 10 PSI throughout the two weeks, then dial back to 9 for serving stouts, otherwise I serve at that pressure as well. The numbers vary by taste, equipment, etc but it's an easy process.

 

[kingjam]

I see some people will seat the seal with 30psi. I want to do the set and forget method. My question is do you hit the keg with 30 psi then immediately release some pressure down to 10 to 12 psi (I will use the chart to figure out temp/psi) and leave it for 2 weeks?

 

[Yooper]

I see some people will seat the seal with 30psi. I want to do the set and forget method. My question is do you hit the keg with 30 psi then immediately release some pressure down to 10 to 12 psi (I will use the chart to figure out temp/psi) and leave it for 2 weeks?

Not necessarily, as the co2 will get absorbed in the beer. But I do it, as I'm afraid of getting some back flow of beer into my regulator! When you have a keg of beer at a higher pressure than the regulator, that's a risk. I have check valves to protect my regulator, but I still don't want to chance it.

Not only does hitting it with 30 psi help to seat the lid, but doing it a couple of times with purging it helps to displace any oxygen that might be in the keg, too. So it's a good idea.

 

[chiefbrewer]

I didn't phrase my question well. What I meant was if I am planning to force carbonate, even if I don't add any priming sugar won't some carbonation still take place? Even at the conditioning stage, there is still some fermentation going on isn't there? Won't that fermentation in a sealed enviroment create carbonation? And if so, would that not throw off your calculations for volumes of CO2 when you are force carbonatin?

 

[Yooper]

I didn't phrase my question well. What I meant was if I am planning to force carbonate, even if I don't add any priming sugar won't some carbonation still take place? Even at the conditioning stage, there is still some fermentation going on isn't there? Won't that fermentation in a sealed enviroment create carbonation? And if so, would that not throw off your calculations for volumes of CO2 when you are force carbonatin?

No. It won't carb up in the keg by itself.

 

[AnOldUR]

No. It won't carb up in the keg by itself.

If you have stable gravity readings (which you should before transferring to keg) no more CO2 is being produced.

 

[chiefbrewer]

Ahh gotchya...
So ferment in primary until gravity stops dropping
Transfer to keg to condition, then when ready, force carbonate.

 

[Yooper]

Ahh gotchya...
So ferment in primary until gravity stops dropping
Transfer to keg to condition, then when ready, force carbonate.

Either that or prime the keg with corn sugar (1/3 cup would be fine), and keep at room temperature for three weeks. That should carb it up.