Skipping secondary Fermentation and going straight to gas

[spike210957]

I'm doing a Admirals Reserve down the shed and while I've got a heater for the fermentation bin I have no heat for the king keg.

So do I lose out on anything by skipping the secondary and just moving to keg and applying gas?

Any thoughts much appreciated.

 

[Drunkula]

What kind of gas system do you have? If it's little bulbs then it'll cost a fortune to carbonate the beer.

 

[obscure]

Can you, I don’t see why not but depending on your gas source it may be quite expensive.

To carbonate 10L of beer (in a 10L stainless steel mini keg) I used 2 16g cartridges (32g CO2), cost to me £1.25 this is compared to 30g sugar at £1 a kilo. A king keg might be a bit more difficult assuming you are using a standard injection system (rather than a regulator), I guess you could add a cartridge leave it a day (maybe a bit less) for the CO2 to absorb then add another until you hit the right level, but assuming you are using 8g cartridges you could be looking at 6-8 cartridges or more.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I force carbonate King Kegs and until recently used 8g bulbs. One is needed when you keg the beer and you will need to add another every so often as you drink the beer and head space increases. If you’re having a session you’ll need to inject every three or four pints.

You can also do both, add a bit of sugar and inject CO2. At lower temperatures the production of gas is slower and if you don’t drink very much ( a pint a night?) the slow continuous secondary fermentation will maintain pressure.

I’ve fitted Schrader valves on my King Kegs because I have several and using 8g bulbs would be costly. I can now inject gas from my 6Kg bottle.

 

[Clint]

It's taken me a while to realise that when using the little gas bulbs,when tightening the holder into the valve,do so until you just crack the gas and let it dispense into the keg...I've wasted a couple or more just twisting them on too quickly...but that might just be me!

 

[spike210957]

I have one of those S30 cartridges that screws straight onto the top of the Keg. Sounds like I might have to negotiate with SWIMBO to bring the keg indoors for a bit....

 

[Tanglefoot]

I prime with sugar then bring the barrel into warmth of the house to carb, then take it back to the shed.

Then later if it gets low I'll top up with C02 from a cartridge, this depends on how quickly the beer gets drunk.
Being just me quite often I'll get near the end of the barrel before it starts to lose gas.

Like Clint, I find screwing the cartridge on slowly is best. I also leave it in the holder
to reduce the chance of leakage.


I've wondered before about the difference between beer which is sugar primed in secondary fermentation and beer force carbed in a keg without.
The former is more like a cask conditioned real ale was my conclusion, as yeast is still active.
Perhaps people could put me right on this if I'm misinformed.

 

[Sandimas]

So do I lose out on anything by skipping the secondary and just moving to keg and applying gas?

Yes you can do this, I did it at Xmas because I had a new brew I wanted in the keg over the holiday. You can just put in enough CO2 to dispense the beer rather than carb it up, Admiral's is an ale so doesn't really need carbonating IMHO. I've got one of those S30 cylinders, I guess you might struggle if you've just got bulbs.