Conditioning and carbonating in Corny Keg -process check

[Yabezag]

Having taken the plunge with cornys I just wanted to confirm the process I have in mind below having read up on various posts... corrections suggestions welcome!

1. Clean everything. Full disassembly. Thorough rinse.
2. Sanitise everything and reassemble. Leave some sanitiser in keg.
3. Beer transfer from fv. Empty remaining sanitiser solution from corny. Connect long hose to fv tap and run to bottom of corny. I also have in-line filters on hose. Open tap and fill to leave gap from top of beer to bottom of gas in post -approx 18.5 litres.
4. Pressure corny to 20-30 psi. Bleed off a couple of times to remove any oxygen. Leave for a week to carbonate beer
4.1 leave gas connected or disconnect at this stage?
4.2 do you condition/carb at room temp. Or straight into kegerator at 5 degrees? This decides what temp to use with the carbonation charts.
5. After week, bleed off corny and re-pressure to lower psi for serving temp..
6. Cross fingers and pour?

 

[simon12]

1,2 & 3 yes. 4.1 Yes or disconnect and top up regularly as pressure will drop as CO2 is absorbed 4.2 It will carbonate quicker at the lower temp so unless you need the space in the kegerator for something else this is better. You can use a higher pressure initially to get it to carb quicker. 5 Its better if you can have the carbing pressure and serving pressure the same.
Hope this helps.

 

[simon12]

Forgot to say after 1st use theres no need to disassemble everything just add some line cleaner to the keg shake it about then flush the lines through and then repeat with water.

 

[Graz]

Also about to pop my Cornelius keg cherry and based on what I've read then yes with @simon12 comments taken into account that's basically the gist of it.

I've got two kegs and was thinking I'd start just by making some fizzy water in one to test everything before moving onto actual beer.

 

[Yabezag]

1,2 & 3 yes. 4.1 Yes or disconnect and top up regularly as pressure will drop as CO2 is absorbed 4.2 It will carbonate quicker at the lower temp so unless you need the space in the kegerator for something else this is better. You can use a higher pressure initially to get it to carb quicker. 5 Its better if you can have the carbing pressure and serving pressure the same.
Hope this helps.

Thanks for quick reply to my post! Will go and fettle it now!

 

[Chameleon67]

Having taken the plunge with cornys I just wanted to confirm the process I have in mind below having read up on various posts... corrections suggestions welcome!

1. Clean everything. Full disassembly. Thorough rinse.
2. Sanitise everything and reassemble. Leave some sanitiser in keg.
3. Beer transfer from fv. Empty remaining sanitiser solution from corny. Connect long hose to fv tap and run to bottom of corny. I also have in-line filters on hose. Open tap and fill to leave gap from top of beer to bottom of gas in post -approx 18.5 litres.
4. Pressure corny to 20-30 psi. Bleed off a couple of times to remove any oxygen. Leave for a week to carbonate beer
4.1 leave gas connected or disconnect at this stage?
4.2 do you condition/carb at room temp. Or straight into kegerator at 5 degrees? This decides what temp to use with the carbonation charts.
5. After week, bleed off corny and re-pressure to lower psi for serving temp..
6. Cross fingers and pour?

Hi Yabezag, thanks for the very useful list which I've now copied as I've just set up my 2-keg kegerator and waiting another week or so until my lager and wherry ferment.
Interesting you mention a tap on the FV as I use the usual plastic buckets and normally syphon to a bottling bucket before bottling . Do you think it's still worth using that method to reduce the sediment ending up in the keg, cos that way I could just use the tap to fill the keg too? I've also heard of filling through the beer out connection by connecting the syphon hose or in this case the bucket tap straight to a quick release.
You also mention having in-line filters on your hose. What type of filters and would those not induce air into the beer?

 

[stripeyjoe]

Interesting you mention a tap on the FV as I use the usual plastic buckets and normally syphon to a bottling bucket before bottling .

I jerry rigged up a gas disconnect to where the airlock hole is on the lid of my FV bucket (basically just screwed in a 1/4" disconnect post... and connected a tube from the FV tap to a liquid disconnect.
Put around 1-1.5psi CO2 into the keg and connect up the gas in post to the gas in post in the FV lid, this will push the lid up a bit on the FV but it should stay on ok. Depress the little valve inside the liquid disconnect so it fills with beer (to purge the oxygen that's in the tube) then connect it to the liquid in post on the keg, if your FV is above your keg you should now get a good closed transfer going on.

 

[Chameleon67]

I jerry rigged up a gas disconnect to where the airlock hole is on the lid of my FV bucket (basically just screwed in a 1/4" disconnect post... and connected a tube from the FV tap to a liquid disconnect.
Put around 1-1.5psi CO2 into the keg and connect up the gas in post to the gas in post in the FV lid, this will push the lid up a bit on the FV but it should stay on ok. Depress the little valve inside the liquid disconnect so it fills with beer (to purge the oxygen that's in the tube) then connect it to the liquid in post on the keg, if your FV is above your keg you should now get a good closed transfer going on.

Thanks for the reply and that's a great idea cleverly thought out. May have a go at that when the fermentation and cold crash is done. More than one way to skin a cat as they say and there's a few methods to reach the same end and to avoid the dreaded air getting to the beer :-)

 

[Manxnorton]

Hi all.
I’m re-visiting this how to, after the fourth time over the years going back to kegging.
Alas my brain isn’t too sharp, so I’ve copy the list as a ‘Brian’ (fools ) guide.
After looking at the ways to force carb, I found the 30-35psi and roll the g
Keg for a few minutes was too much as far as TOO MUCH carbonation I don’t like too much in a beer.
So I thought why it start off lower and gauge it after a week (20psi, gas line fitted & serving temp)
I like the idea of carb water test, nice one.
I think it’s better to under do the psi then can adjust the psi from there.
Hope this makes sense?
Obv depending on the style lol.
Close transfer is another biggy! But I’ll not go on with this.
Keep safe.
Bri

 

[Perrin_Abara]

1,2 & 3 yes. 4.1 Yes or disconnect and top up regularly as pressure will drop as CO2 is absorbed 4.2 It will carbonate quicker at the lower temp so unless you need the space in the kegerator for something else this is better. You can use a higher pressure initially to get it to carb quicker. 5 Its better if you can have the carbing pressure and serving pressure the same.
Hope this helps.

so if you are in no rush to carbonate and you want the carbing and serving pressure the same, what psi will you set it at?

 

[xozzx]

so if you are in no rush to carbonate and you want the carbing and serving pressure the same, what psi will you set it at?

It depends a lot on the beer style and temp. A good starting point is about 12psi, maybe a bit higher for IPA, lagers etc. The great thing about kegs is you can adjust the carbonation if its not quite right. It might take a few days to adjust the carbonation properly but then you have a better idea for the next batch.

 

[Perrin_Abara]

Brilliant. Thanks for the reply

 

[White Rose Al]

Couldn't agree more, from FV I keep the corny around the 12 degrees serving temp and 12 PSI (little bit more if its lager).

Purge 3 times and always keep the Co2 connected.

Serve after 2 weeks, carbonation is always great and if its and IPA/Lager it is crystal clear.