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Cold Force Carbonating
Mike, you know of anything like this for nitro? I haven't seen anything. I fianally got the regulator, did a bottom up carb on tuesday night at 35 psi after 2 hours nothing. Left it on 35 all day yesterday last night I got a little tingling but very little head and no cascading. I read 3 days should do it, can't wait, but I really don't know what I will have for vols.
Not sure if I have ever seen a chart like that for nitro.
Just to be sure I know what you are doing:
Are you using 100% nitrogen or are you using beer gas (which is like 30% N2 and 70% CO2)?
You said you had a stout faucet right? Like a guiness faucet?
I would suggest maybe trying a carbonation stone to help get the gas into solution.
N2 is less soluble in water than CO2, so its understandable its going to take more time. A carbonation stone might help out. But I think your hig pressure and increased time will help. That and get the beer even colder.... but you probably don't want to do that for drinking purposes.
I clicked on the tasty brew chart. It shows that it takes lower psi to carbonate at lower temps. So I guess it is okay to throw them in my fridge on my usual 9-10 psi.
BrewGod wrote:
I clicked on the tasty brew chart. It shows that it takes lower psi to carbonate at lower temps. So I guess it is okay to throw them in my fridge on my usual 9-10 psi.
Yep; the gas is more soluble at lower temps.
The one site does not say how long it would take at any specific psi though. I am assuming even at a lower temperature and lower psi it would take a little longer than forcing it with 25-30 psi. I put a corny in my fridge last night with 9-10psi. I will see how it works from a couple of days.
Thanks for all the input.
Well I kegged a few batches and the one keg I force carbonated in the fridge with 25psi for around 1 day and then backed it down to 10psi. It had decent carbonation after 1 day but is even better after several more days on 10psi. So I think that is going to be my new method of carbonation. Hook it up to 25psi and rock it around a bit to get it completely filled with CO2. Then put in the fridge with the 25psi hooked up to it. And after a day or 2, hook it to my main line with 10psi.
I tried starting it in the fridge with just the 10psi and it barely carbonates. I imagine it would take at least 5 days to carbonate with just 10psi only.
Drinking and learning, gotta love it.
I've been working on best practices for force carb'ing my kegs as well. Here are my notes:
1) Rack to keg, seed with 5-10psi and put in fridge to cool overnight. Next morning turn up to 25-30psi and shake like Hell for 5-10 minutes. Adjust pressure back down to 10 psi and let settle for another day or so.
Result - way over-carbonated, very annoyed. Remained over-carbonated, had to purge CO2 many times and turn CO2 WAY down to 2-3 psi to dribble my beer out. Poured perfectly for the LAST 3 BEERS!
2) Rack to keg, set pressure to 10 psi (per chart) and do nothing (let sit in fridge).
Result - much better, although requires patience. Drinkable after a week, and perfect at around 10 days or so.
3) (Currently in progress) In an effort to drink my beer sooner (patience issue), I have racked to keg, cranked CO2 up to 30, and am planning on letting it sit in the fridge for 2 days (at 30psi) with no shaking. After 2 days I will turn back down to 10psi and sample.
Expected Result - well who the hell knows, but hopefully I'll have carbonated beer in 3-4 days, that is my goal anyway.
I am on day 2 now, so any beer vets reading this feel free to comment or add suggestions for the best practices on force carbonating for impatient home-brewers (2-4 days to full carbonation).
Cheers!
I just did something similar to your first attempt and it worked out pretty well. I put the keg in the fridge until it was at temperature (didn't seed overnight) then did the force carb at about 30 psi, but I rolled it on the floor for 2 minutes at the most. I then put it back in the fridge and let it sit at 10 psi overnight. The next day it was just slightly overcarbonated.
Good to know. I'm trying to find the happy medium between shaking and setting to 10psi and doing nothing. I definitely over-shook on my first attempt. From the sounds of your experience rolling it around for even as quick as 1 minute might do the trick (if you want to drink your beer within 2 days).
My 3rd "in progress" method is now complete and was pretty good. (Set to 30psi for 48 hours with no shaking) Was drinkable, but needed just a bit more carbonation. A couple days later after sitting at 10psi it was even better.
So, 30 psi for 3 days next time, or 40 psi for 2 days, or 30 psi and roll for one minute.....getting closer to perfection!
The best results seem to be after a couple of weeks. Even forcing it with 30psi will get some carbonation quickly but the 10psi for a couple of weeks seems to be better to me. I am always in a hurry also. I am working on brewing up as much as I can so that the beer has a little more time to age and carbonate rather than drinking it right away.