Question on kegging after using a carb stone in conical.

[Tagobolts]

I am sure I missed the post with this information but can't seem to locate it. Got a Spike CF15 and purchased the carbing stone. First time using the carbing stone and first time kegging as well. So I have watched some videos and also read up but still feel like I am missing something. SO..

Yesterday around noon I put the carb stone on the conical. Started at 5 psi, moved up slowly and slowly until i reached around 14 PSI. Today pressure transferred to the kegs. All seemed fine.

Question I have is (well is any of the above wrong first?) what pressure do I put into the keg now that it is cooling in the fridge?

Most of the videos say 30 PSI for 2-3 days, but they did not carb it in the fermenter but force carbing it in the keg itself. Right now I just put in 10 PSI and put them in the fridge. Curious on if i need to adjust it higher or lower. Any insight is helpful.

 

[McKnuckle]

Nothing special needs to be done to compensate for your pre-pressurized batch. Just “set and forget” to serving pressure, and allow the beer to condition while it carbonates at serving temps. Full carbonation will be reached quickly since the beer is already on its way.

Quick carbing at 20+psi is for the impatient among us (no offense). Freshly kegged beer is rarely at its best, so I don’t see a reason to rush.

 

[bailey mountain brewer]

one thing to note is that you need to cool your beer down to atleast 38* then put c02 to it via the carb stone. without the temp being dropped the beer will not accept the c02. i typically cold crash for 24 hours then drop out yeast, then put the carb stone on and leave it at approx 12psi (depending on beer style) for a 24 to 28 hours. after that i set up my closed transfer and move it into kegs. after that it moves to keezer and set it at serving pressure. should be fairly carbed. dont forget to account for the wetting of the stone, spike says its 4psi for their stone so if you set your regulator to 12 psi you will only be at 8 psi in the fermenter. i use the gauge on the fermenter to keep an eye on pressure as i increase it.

24 to 48 hours, sorry

 

[Tagobolts]

one thing to note is that you need to cool your beer down to atleast 38* then put c02 to it via the carb stone. without the temp being dropped the beer will not accept the c02. i typically cold crash for 24 hours then drop out yeast, then put the carb stone on and leave it at approx 12psi (depending on beer style) for a 24 to 28 hours. after that i set up my closed transfer and move it into kegs. after that it moves to keezer and set it at serving pressure. should be fairly carbed. dont forget to account for the wetting of the stone, spike says its 4psi for their stone so if you set your regulator to 12 psi you will only be at 8 psi in the fermenter. i use the gauge on the fermenter to keep an eye on pressure as i increase it.

24 to 48 hours, sorry

Ok perfect. Did not do this. I did remove the warming pad but it was only around 50*. It is cooled now, should I now do the 20PSI in the keg to get it carbed more? I will have to figure out how to cold crash this next time before using the carb stone. Don't have a fridge big enough for the fermenter yet.

 

[bailey mountain brewer]

i have a glycol chiller for my cf15 and the spike chilling coil and temp control setup. that is really the best way or you could build a fermentation chamber if you have the room. to answer your question though yes if its in the fridge and good and cold you can set your regulator to 20psi for a day or so, or you can set it to 12 or 14 psi and give it a solid week or 2 which will allow it to condition some. if you want to serve it sooner then at 20 psi i just recommend pouring a glass every 12 hours to make sure you dont over carb, and of course then you have a reason to enjoy a glass. when i do this i usually cut the c02 back to 12 psi and purge the keg down then pour it. this way you dont have 20 psi filling your glass at a million miles an hour. if it still needs more just turn the pressure back up. just another note there are carbonation charts out there that you can look at to see where you need to set your pressure. but the colder the beer the faster it will absorb the c02.
cheers!

 

[Vale71]

just another note there are carbonation charts out there that you can look at to see where you need to set your pressure. but the colder the beer the faster it will absorb the c02.
cheers!

Actually it's the warmer the beer the faster it will absorb the CO2 and not the other way around.

Here is one of the many carbonation charts you can find on the net. One issue with Spike's conicals is the limited pressure it can withstand, meaning that full carbonation can only be achieved below a certain temperature. If you can't cool your fermenter yet then you'll have to carbonate to whatever level is achieved at your room temperature at 15 PSI and then finish carbonating to the desired level in the keg(s). Since a keg can withstand a much higher pressure you don't need to cool it to serving temp to continue carbonating, just set the pressure indicated in the chart for your desired CO2 content and your ambient temp.

 

[bailey mountain brewer]

ok, i guess what im saying is that it takes less c02 pressure to carb at lower temperature because c02 is more soluble at lower temps. so if you are force carbing at 70 degrees you need to use more c02 to achieve the same level of carbonation then you do at 36 degees. the rate of speed that it will carbonate actually is not any faster it just takes less effort for the c02 to be absorbed. so in this case where the fermenter being used can only handle 15psi the beer will need to be cooled for the carb stone to be effective. the main benefit here is using less c02 and also lowering the chance for oxidation. if you crash cool the fermenter and carb in it then do a closed pressure transfer you left with a beer that will take much longer to oxidize, which in the homebrew world when you are kegging 15gal at one time is a nice feature. as Vale71 stated if you cannot cool it down then kegging and using the chart is your next best option.

 

[Tagobolts]

Actually it's the warmer the beer the faster it will absorb the CO2 and not the other way around.

Here is one of the many carbonation charts you can find on the net. One issue with Spike's conicals is the limited pressure it can withstand, meaning that full carbonation can only be achieved below a certain temperature. If you can't cool your fermenter yet then you'll have to carbonate to whatever level is achieved at your room temperature at 15 PSI and then finish carbonating to the desired level in the keg(s). Since a keg can withstand a much higher pressure you don't need to cool it to serving temp to continue carbonating, just set the pressure indicated in the chart for your desired CO2 content and your ambient temp.

Thanks for the chart and knowledge on CO2 and different temperatures! I havn't tried it out yet been sick and didn't want to contaminate it! Going to see how it is tonight.