Home of the BrewNosers

Don't have my keg fridge yet and am force carbing my keg warm. Anyone have any guide lines or tips?

Leave the pressure at 30 psi for a few days.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4

Most carbonation charts only go up to 60F (roughly 20C) and at 30 psi it's roughly 2.5 volumes. Based on that, if you're 10C higher, it will have quite low carbonation. I would shoot for higher if your regulator will let you.


Sent from a rotary telephone using taps talk

Wait I got confused.... I say 30psi and assumed 30C for some reason... Haha

That said, the room ambient plays a big role in what pressure you need. If it's 20c, 30psi like X said should work perfectly.


Sent from a rotary telephone using taps talk

yea it's in around 15-20 depending on the time of day (heat isn't on yet).
Should I bottom carb it, or just feed it thought the top? Also should I rock it where I'm letting it sit?

How quickly do you need it? If not within the next week, just set it and forget it.
Will you be serving it warm into a pitcher that you're putting in the fridge, or just from the thumb tap at room temperature, or through a jockey box, or carbing it while you wait to get a fridge, and it will have a proper tap?

chalmers wrote:How quickly do you need it? If not within the next week, just set it and forget it.
Will you be serving it warm into a pitcher that you're putting in the fridge, or just from the thumb tap at room temperature, or through a jockey box, or carbing it while you wait to get a fridge, and it will have a proper tap?

No rush til I get a fridge, then installing my taps. So I'll set it and forget it. May be a cobra tap to start. I may pour off a growler however.

Is this force carb calculator any help: http://www.brewersfriend.com/keg-carbon ... alculator/

When you go to fill the growler, make sure you let off the pressure and take it down to probably like three or four psi to serve it. Otherwise you will likely have a foamy mess! Ask me how I know… haha


Sent from a rotary telephone using taps talk

If there was no rush why not just prime the keg with sugar?

Good idea.

If you go with Trevor's suggestion you might need this link now: http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html

...or you could do it like it's been done for hundreds of years, even before bottles were invented, and put it in the keg/cask before it has fully finished fermenting without priming sugar.

If anything doesn't go quite right with any on the suggestions in this thread, there is no need for concern. If it doesn't end up being carbonated enough in the kegs to suit you, hook it up to the CO2 tank for a few days, or if it is too much, vent off some of the CO2 by pulling up the ring on the safety valve at intervals over a period of a day or two.

I never thought about that, but if I were to prime with sugar how much of a mess would I have on my first 3-4 pours?

I looked at that calc, with the temp of about 18 and wanting about 2.1 volumes of Co2 in the beer (Brown Ale), it says I should leave it set to 21 PSI for a week. How much more carbonation would the 30psi vs 21psi be?

GuingesRock wrote:If you go with Trevor's suggestion you might need this link now: http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html

...or you could do it like it's been done for hundreds of years, even before bottles were invented, and put it in the keg/cask before it has fully finished fermenting without priming sugar.

If anything doesn't go quite right with any on the suggestions in this thread, there is no need for concern. If it doesn't end up being carbonated enough in the kegs to suit you, hook it up to the CO2 tank for a few days, or if it is too much, vent off some of the CO2 by pulling up the ring on the safety valve at intervals over a period of a day or two.

You need to cut back on the priming sugar for kegs. Bottle priming calculators will overcarb.

keithforbes wrote:I never thought about that, but if I were to prime with sugar how much of a mess would I have on my first 3-4 pours?

No different than if you forcecarbed.

In that link, if you put in beer volume of 5 gallons, room temp 18 C and the beer style that you want, it seemed about right to me, but I have never primed in a keg, so I defer to what X says.

LeafMan66_67 wrote: I'm more of a "set it and forget it" kind of guy. After 3-4 weeks in the primary, I rack to keg and either force carb for a week at serving pressure (10 to 12PSI) or prime with 50 to 60g's of dextrose. I leave the kegs for a month to condition at room (18 degrees C) temperature. When ready to serve, I chill the keg overnight. The first glass or two comes out cloudy, but after that, the beer usually runs clear. I haven't really noticed a difference between the force carb and primed kegs. As for serving temperatures, the kegerator is set between 38 and 42 degrees F.

I asked LeafMan66_67 about this before and his response is quoted above. I thought it might be pertinent. Someone's experience is always better than theory.