To keg or not to keg

[dhelegda]

Ok so I have a batch of English Pale Ale in the fermenter which is done fermenting and just sitting in my closet. My kegerator currently holds two kegs, both of which are half full. I have an available keg that I can transfer the brew to, but no room to chill it and not enough CO2 lines to carb it. Should I just leave it where it is, or would I get any benefits from transferring it and letting it clear in the keg? Just looking for some tips on what would be best for the beer.

 

[Stauffbier]

You can keg it. You can put priming sugar in it and it will be carbed when you're ready for it. Or you could put about 30 lbs of co2 on it and just let it sit, and it will be partially carbed when you're ready for it. Or you can keg it, purge it a few times, and just leave it without pressure like a secondary until you're ready to carb it.

I usually do option 3.

 

[Transamguy77]

I usually hit it with 30lbs and let it sit till a keg kicks and swap it in and it's usually ready to go once its down to serving temps.

 

[dhelegda]

Oh I never thought about carbonating it. I don't have any Dextrose laying around since I don't bottle. Can I use regular sugar boiled down? If so how much should I use for a 5 gallon keg?

 

[Stauffbier]

I've personally never primed a keg, but I know lots of people do it. Table sugar is perfectly fine. I use it to carb in bottles quite often. I believe you're supposed to use less sugar when priming a keg. I also believe there are calculators out there to find out how much sugar to use for kegs. Perhaps someone will chime in and recommend a calculator.

EDIT: So I checked on Beer Smith and it shows that you would use half of the amount of corn sugar in a keg as you would for bottles. So all you have to do is use a calculator to see how much table sugar to use for bottling and cut it in half for kegging..

 

[BigFloyd]

I'd go with 2 ounces (by weight) of table sugar to carb a 5 gallon keg at room temp for a few weeks. If it's a tad undercarbed, you can always make up the slight difference with CO2.

Don't forget to purge with CO2 a few times after you've sealed the lid.

 

[duboman]

I'd go with 2 ounces (by weight) of table sugar to carb a 5 gallon keg at room temp for a few weeks. If it's a tad undercarbed, you can always make up the slight difference with CO2.

Don't forget to purge with CO2 a few times after you've sealed the lid.

+1, exactly what I do and works out well.