Force carbonating

[hoppyscotty]

Using a keg for the first time. Just got a 5 litre keg and transferred some beer to it this morning and purged the air. The beer has a some conditioning time to go so was looking at the force carbonation charts to carbonate over a 5 to 7 day period. At my fridge temp it says about 10 psi. Do I need to keep the CO2 line hooked up all the time or just unhook once I've set the pressure in the keg? At the moment I've got the CO2 line hooked up and regulator set to 10psi in the fridge.

I'm also assuming it wont harm to do a bit of a keg shake once in a while?

Thanks.

 

[crescent city Mike]

When you first fill a keg, the beer is usually at ferment temp. I often charge a new keg at 30 psi before refrigerating it. The next day I'll reset the regulator to about 12 psi, pull the keg from the chill chest, and hook it up to the gas bottle. I then rock the keg back and forth until it absorbs all the gas it can. Several hours later I repeat this. I can usually get the beer saturated with CO2 in a day or two but it normally is fully conditioned within two weeks. I have no science to back me up on this; it's anecdotal evidence. It may have the right charge of CO2 but it isn't really conditioned until that time. Exercise patience. It will reward you later.

 

[hoppyscotty]

Awsome, thanks. Wasn’t sure if I should keep the gas connected all the time while conditioning or just charge and remove the gas. Currently have it in the fridge at about 5 degs C, with the gas and regulator (sodastream bottle) at 10psi but been agitating every once in a while.

have seen the 30 psi quick carbonation method but assumed this was for if you literally wanted to be serving it in a few days time or to reduce conditioning time.

 

[Braufather]

if you are not in a hurry set and forger works a treat, two weeks for 19 lites but in a 5 litre keg that should be less than a week. no shaking needed. i now set it at around 8c at about 18-20psi to give me 2.6 carbonation and its at serving temps and just leave it.

 

[labrewski]

I set mine at 40 psi for 24 hours works a treat

 

[hoppyscotty]

Not sure if I’m over thinking this but If I’m using the slow method and chill down to below serving temp to use less gas to carbonate while conditioning, say 10 psi at 3 degrees c to achieve desired carb level, then after a week or so once carbed and conditioned raise the temp to serving temp, say 7 to 10 degs c, and reduce pressure to serving pressure, say 5 psi, then will my carbonation levels drop?

 

[muppix]

There's going to be a learning curve which will depend your keg size and head space as well as your fridge temperature. If you're going down to 4 ℃ then 10 - 12 PSI for a week will give you around 2.4 vols (at least that's what my latest Brewfather batch recommended) but as others have said you can crank it up higher and bring the time down.

One thing I would suggest - and I appreciate this may be difficult with a 5 litre keg - is to get a feel for the right level by starting low and dialling it up, rather than starting high and having to dial it down. This is because you can always increase the carbonation when you've pulled a small glass and found it to be flat, but reducing it after a foam party is a whole bunch of no fun.

Finally, bear in mind that your first pull on any given day might be more foamy than the second and third, especially if your tap is at a higher temperature than the beer. Right now I'm using a stainless steel beer gun which lives in the fridge, and I still get a touch more head on my first pint than I do on those that follow.

 

[hoppyscotty]

Ah, ok, thanks. Planning a kegorator build but until limited to 5ltr keg as that is all I can fit in the fridge. Once I've increased brewhouse capacity and built the kegarator I can move to larger keg sizes. But for now will have a play.

 

[muppix]

No worries. I'm in a similar situation myself, but the brand new fridge I recently bought is just a tad too small to fit three Cornelius kegs, so I'm going to look around for another one and use this one as a fermentation chamber / cold crasher. I wish that manufacturers would list accurate internal dimensions ... just six inches more in either direction and I'd get 4 Cornys in there, which would go some way towards justifying the money ... grrrrr.