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Cold Force Carbonating
I generally force carbonate my kegs with 20-30psi for a day or two. I was wondering if I just hooked up my keg in my fridge with the 10psi for pouring, would it still carbonate? Maybe just take a few days to a week?
I kegged a batch last night and my small 2.5lb CO2 tank that I use to force carbonate was empty. I hooked up my CO2 from my fridege and shook the keg untill the beer didn't swish around freely and then let it rest a bit. I did that a couple of times before I went to bed and left the keg sitting out in my basement. I am just wondering if 10psi will be enough to carbonate and if it can just be done within my fridge. Even if it takes a little longer it would be easier to just keg and stick in the fridge with 10psi and wait for it to carbonate.
That's what I do. I set it to the proper PSI for the CO2 volumes I want. (You have seen a carbonation/temp chart right?).
I set it and let it sit for a week or more. I sample occasionally to see if its where I want it. And I adjust as necessary.
What you are suggesting and brewchez said I think is the proper way to force carb. I do the 30 psi into liquid side to give it a jumpstart and get more co2 into solution quicker (impatience), then hook to pouring pressure. I feel I get a conditioned beer quicker this way. I do check w/ a bleeder valve to make sure I don't over carb from the get go.
What do you mean by conditioned? Do you mean carbonated? Or are you saying that force carbonating will help the flavors meld together to make a balanced beer?
I know that when I bottle my beer, I have to wait at least 2 weeks for it to be carbonated, but it isn't conditioned to me. The flavors don't come together for another month or two.
I recently got a kegging system from my in-laws. I just brewed a English Nut Brown. Should I secondary the beer for two weeks just to clarify the beer or to help the flavor of the beer before I keg it? Can I go directly from primary to keg? If so, about how long should I wait to drink it? How long can a beer sit in a keg?
Sorry to bombard everyone with questions.
Thanks and happy brewing
sippi wrote:
I recently got a kegging system from my in-laws. I just brewed a English Nut Brown. Should I secondary the beer for two weeks just to clarify the beer or to help the flavor of the beer before I keg it? Can I go directly from primary to keg? If so, about how long should I wait to drink it? How long can a beer sit in a keg?
Sorry to bombard everyone with questions.
Thanks and happy brewing
Using the secondary is really up to you, IMO. I always use a secondary as I try to get clear beers (although I'm not very good at it). It also helps round out some of the flavors, but does increase the contamination risk.
Some people use their kegs as their secondary. They simply rack from the primary straight into the keg, let it sit for a week or two, then draw off a couple of pints to get rid of the sludge and carbonate.
How long can a beer sit in a keg? I don't really know - I've found that my beers are drank much faster when they are in a keg. 
sippi wrote:
How long can a beer sit in a keg?
How long can beer sit in a bottle?
It depends on the style and the beer. Some beers are meant to be consumed quick, some do better with more time. Even an three year old summer wheat will still be drinkable. It depends on your tolerance for fresh beer taste.
I find that most peoples recomendations for how long a beer is fresh is far shorter than their actual pallates ability to DETECT "fresh"
SO my recommendation is that you store beer in a keg as long as you want. When it starts to not taste fresh to you, then its time to drink it all up or dump it. And if you actually get to the point where it doesn't taste fresh anymore, than your palate probably didn't really care for that beer anyway and you were never going to finish it on your own.
I go through beer pretty quickly, however the end of the keg always tastes better than the beginning. I just did a DFH 90 minute and was somewhat dissatisfied on first taste after about a week of carbing,. I left it another week and drank other stuff then checked it the other night (got my nitro and the stout wasn't ready yet) and it blew my mind how much the flavors melded, not crystal clear like dfh, but tastes identical. Lucky if that one will last a week.
brewchez wrote:
That's what I do. I set it to the proper PSI for the CO2 volumes I want. (You have seen a carbonation/temp chart right?).
I set it and let it sit for a week or more. I sample occasionally to see if its where I want it. And I adjust as necessary.
I have never seen a carbonation/temp chart. I will have to doa search and find one. I checked my keg last night and it is not doing much of any carbonating. I don't have it hooked up constantly though. My CO2 runs into my fridge to a manifold with 3 outputs.
That's what I wasn't sure of, the whole temperature thing. If I put the keg in the fridge @ 38deg. with 10psi it sounds like like it could take a week or two. Or it I cranck up the CO2 to 25-30psi, even in the fridge, it may carbonate in a couple of days.
I am going to try to get my spare CO2 tank filled today that I use for force carbonating. But it is always good to try different methods. I have 3 taps and 3 corny kegs right now. Maybe I can get a couple more cornys and prime the whole keg with corn sugar and let it sit for a couple of weeks before putting it in the fridge.
Gotta love tasty brew! Check this out should help http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/carbonation.html
thirsty wrote:
Gotta love tasty brew! Check this out should help http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/carbonation.html
Here is a chart form of the same thing essentially.
http://sdcollins.home.mindspring.com/Fo … ation.html