Why Naturally Carb in Keg?

[celticcolorado]

I have always force carbonated my beer, but I know some people prefer to naturally carbonate in the keg. Can someone tell me the reason why? Is there a flavor difference or reason that I am not aware of?

 

[onthedot]

I like it because then I can use all of my co2 manifold lines to serve beer

As soon as a keg is tapped I have another one waiting for me!

 

[dinnerstick]

I like it because then I can use all of my co2 manifold lines to serve beer

me too. small kegerator + pipeline = often convenient to naturally carb. works great for most ales. saves co2 tanks. i have a friend who swears there is a big difference between forced and naturally carbed beer. (not talking about brett conditioned beer.) i can imagine that for a very delicate beer the tiny bit of yeast activity in naturally carbing could possibly contribute something, but he also says the bubbles are finer, blah blah. i have 2x 10 liter kegs, next time they are both empty i'm going to make a 20 liter batch of something, bottle a few with priming sugar, force carb one keg and naturally carb the other, try to get all the carb levels equal, and ask him to elaborate on which is which and why. meanwhile i remain skeptical but open minded

 

[geosteve]

me too. small kegerator + pipeline = often convenient to naturally carb. works great for most ales. saves co2 tanks. i have a friend who swears there is a big difference between forced and naturally carbed beer. (not talking about brett conditioned beer.) i can imagine that for a very delicate beer the tiny bit of yeast activity in naturally carbing could possibly contribute something, but he also says the bubbles are finer, blah blah. i have 2x 10 liter kegs, next time they are both empty i'm going to make a 20 liter batch of something, bottle a few with priming sugar, force carb one keg and naturally carb the other, try to get all the carb levels equal, and ask him to elaborate on which is which and why. meanwhile i remain skeptical but open minded

I'd love to hear how the blind test turns out. I have a friend who insists there's a difference, too, but the majority opinion seems to be there is no REAL difference... I'm planning on naturally carbing my next few batches in the keg to see. In the end the attraction for me would be to save on CO2.