Carbing in a Corny Keg

[MickDundee]

My friend connects up a catheter bag between the blow off valve and his overflow pipe so when he cold crashes it just sucks back the co2 from the fermetation. You could give that a go?

He’s taking the piss surely?

 

[phildo79]

when I got my Corny kit from brewkegtap the paperwork that came with it said to force carb at 50 psi and shake for 1 minute

Isn't that a bit much? I seem to recall reading something about fittings and gas lines only being tested to a certain PSI. Could be completely wrong but 50 PSI sounds huge.

 

[peebee]

Sounds good. I heard it during a bottled beer tasting at a craft beer off licence a few years ago. They were bigging up the virtues of bottle conditioned beers actually!

Here's one. Fermented under pressure in keg and served from same (carbonation from primary ferment). Two months old now, I'd thought it would be suffering from "musty" flavours by now (it isn't!) as it is still sitting on the yeast from fermentation. "Centennial Blonde", OG 1.043:

Looks hazy but that's the condensation on the glass (the beer is cold). The head doesn't last as long as it did a few weeks ago; not quite the "Mr Whippy" it used to be.

Err … NO catheter bags involved!

 

[dave_walton]

I have considered it and will probably give it a whirl but its more outlay and we are hoping to move if our house sells so I have put the brew fridge build on hold, but from your experience think its the way forward, always great to hear from people who are doing it, can I ask where you bought your fermenasaurus from so I can have a look at it?
Cheers
Geoff

I think I got the original Fermentasaurus from BrewUK but I think they are now end of life with a new model due out soon. I have recently bouhht a 60l fermzilla all rounder for bigger batches. Initial impressions are good so far.

 

[Brew_DD2]

Fermzilla have the 'All Rounder' too which is 60 litres.
60L Fermzilla All Rounder

I'm thinking of pulling the trigger on the 30l. Have the original Fermzilla and love it. Been keeping an eye on the all-rounder to up my capacity. Liking your 60l then?

 

[St00]

Reading through it seems no-one's added any sugar, dme or dextrose to their keg and left it to carb up naturally. I've obtained a beer engine, so I'll be attempting to keg a few points off FG and leave it somewhere warm for gentle carbing up. I've read the Brulosophy article, but it doesn't mention natural carbonation without additional sugars and I'm a tad baffled as I guess breweries ship their kegs off to pubs and they're kept in cool cellars, so how does the yeast continue fermenting?

I think I'll try a heat belt and cross my fingers on the required headspace.

 

[phildo79]

@St00 FWIW, I started off adding 1/3 or 1/2 cup of table sugar to my keg for natural carbing. The first one worked out fine, although I did leave it for almost two weeks. The second attempt was ok but not as good. The third attempt failed. I ended up force carbing that batch and it is honestly so fast and simple that I have never gone back to sugar carbing. I am also very impatient and do not want to wait weeks before trying my brews.

 

[Banbeer]

Reading through it seems no-one's added any sugar, dme or dextrose to their keg and left it to carb up naturally.

I'm new to kegging and have 3 at the mo', I added sugar to a kegged lager a couple of weeks ago but only because the kegerator had a couple in there already, I'm going to put it in the kegerator tomorrow and try it. I have only blast carbed my beer since having the cornies so will be interested to see how it has come out.

 

[St00]

@St00 FWIW, I started off adding 1/3 or 1/2 cup of table sugar to my keg for natural carbing. The first one worked out fine, although I did leave it for almost two weeks. The second attempt was ok but not as good. The third attempt failed. I ended up force carbing that batch and it is honestly so fast and simple that I have never gone back to sugar carbing. I am also very impatient and do not want to wait weeks before trying my brews.

Thank you. I force carb everything barring real ale. I could force carb it, but it needs so little carbonation and it seems an expensive extravagance getting the hand pull if I'm not going to do it "properly".

My last beer was a Ebbergarden Equinaut and Maris Otter SMaSH. If I'd inline quick carbed it with the Blichmann and remembered to fine it, it would have been grain to glass in 7 days

 

[kodak79]

Reading through it seems no-one's added any sugar, dme or dextrose to their keg and left it to carb up naturally. I've obtained a beer engine, so I'll be attempting to keg a few points off FG and leave it somewhere warm for gentle carbing up. I've read the Brulosophy article, but it doesn't mention natural carbonation without additional sugars and I'm a tad baffled as I guess breweries ship their kegs off to pubs and they're kept in cool cellars, so how does the yeast continue fermenting?

I think I'll try a heat belt and cross my fingers on the required headspace.

Having spoken to the owner of Thornbridge Brewery, I know that they spin the suspended solids out of the beer and (i think) everything is force carbed.

 

[Geoffinthewilds]

Isn't that a bit much? I seem to recall reading something about fittings and gas lines only being tested to a certain PSI. Could be completely wrong but 50 PSI sounds huge.

I thought it sounded high but it defo says 50psi, I know the kegs are rated to 130psi not sure what the fittings are rated to

 

[Joust]

I thought it sounded high but it defo says 50psi, I know the kegs are rated to 130psi not sure what the fittings are rated to

2 psi less than when it starts hissing

 

[kodak79]

Hope I'm not butting in here,

This rolling the keg around to get it to carb quickly is fine, but what about time to clear the beer ?

I clear mine by cold crashing and (sometimes) adding gelatin. I'm wondering if the crashing and gelatin strips out some of the flavour though - but that's a subject for another thread.

 

[kodak79]

I have never seen the point in burst carbonating. 1 day old fresh beer (even hoppy IPAs) does not taste good, I find it takes at least 2 weeks to start tasting decent and it often improves further over the next few weeks. I use the set and forget method of carbonating - set to serving pressure, usually around 10psi, and leave it for couple of weeks before drinking it.

I have tried the burst carbonation method and had a few of the beers the first couple of weeks and found that they didnt really shine for at least 2 weeks so saw no point in continuing doing it. I always keep ahead of myself and have a few kegs in a separate fridge waiting to go into my keezer. I bought a sodastream bottle regulator (and have a refill adapter for my big CO2 bottle so I can refill the sodastream bottle) and carbonate the kegs in the fridge while they wait to go in the keezer. I also have a party tap so I can have a taste of the ones in the fridge if I fancy.

Despite the fact that I do go for a hybrid method of burst carbing I am in complete agreement with everything you've said here. My friend and I regularly comment that the last beer pulled (before the keg kicks) is the best.

 

[marshbrewer]

Can I use the floats from my king keg s to make a floating dip tube? Of so, what kind / size of tubing do I need?

 

[Edison]

Attempting my first cold crash in the FV prior to harvesting yeast and dry hopping.

Balloon deployed, 62p next day delivered courtesy of Amazon Prime!

 

[White Rose Al]

I have never seen the point in burst carbonating. 1 day old fresh beer (even hoppy IPAs) does not taste good, I find it takes at least 2 weeks to start tasting decent and it often improves further over the next few weeks. I use the set and forget method of carbonating - set to serving pressure, usually around 10psi, and leave it for couple of weeks before drinking it.

I have tried the burst carbonation method and had a few of the beers the first couple of weeks and found that they didnt really shine for at least 2 weeks so saw no point in continuing doing it. I always keep ahead of myself and have a few kegs in a separate fridge waiting to go into my keezer. I bought a sodastream bottle regulator (and have a refill adapter for my big CO2 bottle so I can refill the sodastream bottle) and carbonate the kegs in the fridge while they wait to go in the keezer. I also have a party tap so I can have a taste of the ones in the fridge if I fancy.

Glad I found this post, it's my first dip into a Corny world.

I am brewing Red/Amber Ale, traditional Ale kits or IPA's and prefer serving temp around 12 degrees celsius.

Don't have fridge space but I do have a location which is around 8 degrees celsius.

After transferring from FV to corny. I purged the corny a couple of times and according to keg carb calculator for this beer type and temp PSI would be around 11.

I am leaving for a couple of weeks with CO2 attached at 11PSI and will drop down to 2-3 for serving. Hopefully leaving for a week or 2 will improve the taste quality's.

Anyone see anything wrong in this method?

 

[Jules61]

Definitely the method that works perfectly for me. I read somewhere that the most important things with homebrewing were cleanliness and patience. I always find waiting a month to start a new brew after kegging is well worth the wait and with reasonable planning I never run dry

 

[foxbat]

Glad I found this post, it's my first dip into a Corny world.

I am brewing Red/Amber Ale, traditional Ale kits or IPA's and prefer serving temp around 12 degrees celsius.

Don't have fridge space but I do have a location which is around 8 degrees celsius.

After transferring from FV to corny. I purged the corny a couple of times and according to keg carb calculator for this beer type and temp PSI would be around 11.

I am leaving for a couple of weeks with CO2 attached at 11PSI and will drop down to 2-3 for serving. Hopefully leaving for a week or 2 will improve the taste quality's.

Anyone see anything wrong in this method?

That's fine as far as time and pressure goes. No need to drop the pressure for serving if you've got your lines balanced correctly, which you should do anyway. 2 metres of 3/16" line inserted between keg and tap using John Guest reducers will work for anything from ales at 10psi to lagers at 25psi giving you a foam-free pour.

 

[xozzx]

As foxbat says dont drop the pressure for serving, thats the whole point of set and forget. Set it to 11psi or whatever is required and it should stay at that until the keg is finished - obviously you can make adjustments if the carb level is off.

Balancing the lines takes a bit of patience. Set the keg to the pressure you want and cut the 3/16" line to a little longer than required. Pour some beer, it should pour slowly but without much foam, cut the line a little shorter and pour again. You want to keep shortening the line until you get a good pour without too much foam. After you have the lines set you dont need to mess about with pressures.

Its worth buying a lot of 3/16" lines, its cheap and then if you cut too short you can make a new one or if you have a different style of beer which requires significantly different carb level then you can just swap the line over to a longer or shorter one.