Tapping my first keg...

[Bulls Beers]

I kegged my first beer 9 days ago. This saturday will be two weeks. I also primed the keg. I'm having people over on Saturday and wanted to have it ready. Should I tap it on Friday? I haven't hooked it up to the gas yet, It's just been sitting in room temp conditioning. Any suggestions?


Oops. I put this in the wrong area. Sorry.

 

[BierMuncher]

Depends on the temperature it's been conditioning.

I'd hook it up to serving pressure and draw a glass. If it's perfect (I think it's too early), then leave it alone to chill.

More than likely, it won't be quite ready.

I'd go ahead and hook it to gas in your chiller. Set the PSI to about 15 and then test it every 12 hours.

You are probably about 50-60% of the way to being carbonated.

If by Friday it's still not carb'd enough...crank the gas to 25 and check it every 2-3 hours. Once you can pull a decent glass (good head, effervescing bubbles, lacing on the glass), set the pressure back to serving and release the excess pressure in the keg.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Before these taste tests, shutt off the gas (or manifold valve), bleed the excess pressure from the keg...set PSI to serving and then draw a sample.

Too high a pressure and you'll get foam and may be led to beleive that foam = carbonation.

 

[Bulls Beers]

BM, It's been conditioning at a room temp of about 66-68F. What is serving pressure? Is it 12psi?


Also, I have a Sanyo 4912. What is the proper cooling setting?

 

[malkore]

whatever setting gets you to the right temp. most little fridges like that have cheap thermostats. I'd let it run 24 hours on the warmer side and see where that gets you.
I like 42-44F for serving beer. only BMC should be ice cold.

8-12psi is a typical serving pressure range. but really its whatever your draft lines are balanced for. assuming you have 5-6 feet of 3/16" beer line, around 10psi should be good.

 

[Bulls Beers]

Ok, So I tapped my keg last night. I poured a beer and it came out pretty nice with a small but decent head. I woke up this morning to find that the tank was empty. I have a leak. I found the leak, it was bewtween the gas line and the Quick disconnect. that fitting that holds the two together. Everything seems tight but I did the bubble test and it's coming from there. Since i have a two tap system and wanted to keep that keg going i used the other gas line. Is there a fix that anybody else has tried?

Since that first pour had some carb, every pour since then( which has only been a few) has had no carb. I know it's only been a week in the keg. Should i take the keg out of the fridge and unhook the gas or leave it as is?

 

[paulthenurse]

Brian,
Since you are sort of under the gun as far as getting it done here is a tried and true way to get the beer carbed. Chill the keg down cold and then attach the gas line to the beer valve. Turn the gas on and you will hear it bubbling. (The gas is going into the corny thru the dip tube, and bubbling up thru the beer.) Start shaking the corney and keep shaking it until you don't get any more bubbling. If you are force carbing like this you will want to have the CO2 at a higher PSI than usual, I do it at 20-25 psi.

Couple of things to keep in the back of your mind. If the beer wasn't absolutely clean when it went into the keg it will cloud up cause you just blasted all of the yeast off the bottom. Give it a few days to settle back down. You will need to pull the pressure relief valve before you start to pour so you can relieve some of that excess pressure, then hook it back up at the proper pressure. Use a black fitting to connect to the dip tube, you will need to change it over from the grey fitting. And be quick when you disconnect the gas from the beer out fitting or else you will get beer shooting into your gas line.

PTN

Of course, it is always better to force carb the beer slowly over many days, but this trick works. I've been able to force carb a keg overnight before and have it ready for a party the next day and you couldn't tell the difference.