Robust Porter Conditioning/Carbing

[jcs401]

I recently brewed a 5 gallon batch of the porter recipe from John palmers "how to brew" book. It's been in the primary at 66-67 degrees for 3 weeks now. My question is once I put it into the keg (probably this weekend) should I condition it at room temp or keep in the ferm chamber temp of 67?? That's the first question.
Second, when the time comes to carb, I am thinking of trying to use priming sugar to carb in the keg rather than force carb since I have the time. Is this a good or bad choice? Also, if I go that route using priming sugar, what's a good amount and do I leave it to carb at room temp or at 67??

 

[LLBeanJ]

Conditioning at room temp is fine, assuming it's not 90° or something ridiculous like that.

You can start naturally carbonating in the keg as soon as you keg it and let it carbonate and condition at the same time. I believe the rule of thumb for priming a keg is to use 1/2 the amount of sugar that you would for bottling. I've only done this a couple of times, but I followed that rule and it worked fine. The nice thing with kegging is that if you under carb, you're still ahead of the game, as it will finish carbing one you put it on the gas and if you over carb, it's pretty easy to reduce the carb from the keg, so even if you mess it up, it's not a permanent problem.

Edit to add: carbonate at room temp.

 

[jcs401]

How long can I let it sit at room temp say 75 degrees before it will go bad? Or will it?

 

[LLBeanJ]

Well, it won't really go bad, but the character will change over time. I suppose if you let it sit for 3 years it might not be all that great (then again, it might be awesome), but several months to a year or more would probably be just fine for that style. If it were an IPA, on the other hand, or another style such as a wheat beer that is best consumed fresh, you would want to minimize the conditioning to a few weeks or so, not because it will "go bad," but rather because those styles are usually just better when fresh.

 

[jcs401]

Thanks man! You have been a huge help on multiple occasions!

 

[m00ps]

a porter will be fine to conditions for a long time without decline IME. Just be sure its all purged of O2. I left an IPA for 4 months at room temps and it was still very fresh and potent at tapping. Though that may have been from the keg hops

 

[sfish]

a porter will be fine to conditions for a long time without decline IME. Just be sure its all purged of O2. I left an IPA for 4 months at room temps and it was still very fresh and potent at tapping. Though that may have been from the keg hops

Just saying ~ purge the air out of the keg using the co2 then release the pressure

 

[jcs401]

So my plan is, to put it in my keg. Use the co2 to seal the lid and get all the oxygen out. Then purge say 90% of the CO2 and let condition for a couple weeks at room temp. This sound decent?

 

[m00ps]

what do you mean by 90% of the CO2? The CO2 is doing the purging. I fill a keg, pressurize at 30psi to seat the lid and test for leaks. Then I pull the release valve and let it fill back up. Do this 2-5 more times depending on hwo paranoid I am that my precious hop aroma will be lost. Then leave, hooked up, at 30psi to start carbing at room temp. Reduce the psi to 10-12 when you fridge it

 

[LLBeanJ]

That'll work. Might be a good idea to give it a blast of CO2 @ 30 PSI to set the lid so you have a good seal. It won't carbonate if the lid isn't sealed. In the couple of times I naturally carbed a keg, I didn't purge the CO2 after setting the lid. If the keg is full, the amount of CO2 in the headspace is going to be minimal.