Priming 5l Kegs vs bottles

[MickDundee]

I did debate a corny but im limited on space, even the 9.5L is just about too big for my limited fridge space or what my better half would allow sat in the kitchen however when we move in a couple of years no doubt ill upgrade

Yeah we moved just under 2 years ago, and finally got a garage so I went out and acquired 2 tall fridges for fermenting/conditioning.

I was put off going down the corny route for ages by the thought of having to go out to the garage every time I wanted to fill my glass. Then I got one of these, went through the keg sitting in the kitchen far too fast and decided that maybe having to nip out to the garage to refill my glass wasn’t such a bad thing after all.

 

[HeavensBrew]

20g dextrose for the entire 23L batch? That would explain the under-carbonation!
Even for the lower end (1.5 volumes), for a 23L batch, according to this calculator, you'd need 64g of dextrose (packaging at 20C). But I see you're doing a lager, so according to the calculator, even at the lower 2.2 CO2 volumes, that would need 181g for the 23L batch.

Just realised that I had typed 20g when I read your response again. I had actually put 80g of dextrose in that 23L batch.

Just bottled/kegged another batch this morning. Filtered a little less and went 120g on the dextrose. Probably be over-carbed this time!!!

 

[AnimatedGIF]

Just realised that I had typed 20g when I read your response again. I had actually put 80g of dextrose in that 23L batch.

Just bottled/kegged another batch this morning. Filtered a little less and went 120g on the dextrose. Probably be over-carbed this time!!!

Trying it is a good way to find out for the future. I am an advocate of experimenting. I think people, myself included, get put off trying things out and learning through experience by some of the things people say. On the other hand, there's lots of great advice on here.

 

[HeavensBrew]

Trying it is a good way to find out for the future. I am an advocate of experimenting. I think people, myself included, get put off trying things out and learning through experience by some of the things people say. On the other hand, there's lots of great advice on here.

Agreed. But it's worth asking in case that reduces the learning curve.

In this case, the recipe/kit had only given 5-7 days for carbonation and the instructed to put it in a 'cool place' for 3 weeks. I have decided that 2-3 weeks are needed for carbonation, especially if the 'cool place' is a cold fridge!!!

 

[terrym]

Agreed. But it's worth asking in case that reduces the learning curve.

In this case, the recipe/kit had only given 5-7 days for carbonation and the instructed to put it in a 'cool place' for 3 weeks. I have decided that 2-3 weeks are needed for carbonation, especially if the 'cool place' is a cold fridge!!!

I assume you understand that you need to put your beer into a warm place (say 20*C) for the yeast to be able to work on the priming sugar. As the carbing temperature falls so does the yeast activity and below about 15*C (for ale yeast) the yeast more or less falls asleep and won't do much at all. But when carbing is done you can move it into the cold place if you have one, to condition. And fyi I carb all my beers at about 20*C and most are fully carbed within a week, rarely longer, and I know that because I mostly use PET bottles.

 

[Chris_S]

I may be wrong, but for the 5l minikegs, isn't around 12g the maximum recommend? If you're using a pressure valve, it won't be a problem but I would have thought without a pressure valve the keg would buckle. I once went for 16g table sugar and had to vent the minikeg repeatedly to be able to pour.

2g - 3g per litre is what is recommended by the the kegs that I bought as a mini keg starter kit.