carbonating a keg

[Sgraham4]

Just put my first beer in the keg!!!!!!   Not sure what the best way to carbonate it up is...should i bring the keg down to temp (36 degrees) before hooking it up to the gas?  whats ya'll procedure!?

[hobgoblin]

I'd love ta hear what other do also.....last week after ordering my sh-tuff..I went ahead and racked into one of my kegs,and primed with 1/3 cup corn sugar. so I now have the Co2,but have to wait it out...   but next round I think i may got and force carb..   need some beer NOW!!!

[Ogre]

I force carb.  There are two ways of doing this.  Turn you pressure up to 25 or 30 psi and shake the shit out of your keg.  You will hear the CO2 bubbling up in your keg.  Also, attach the CO2 to your liquid out port.  For me, it was more about "feel."  After doing it so many times I was able to feel out when my keg was done carbonating.  Also, yes, drop the temp of that beer down to your kegerator's serving temp.  CO2 dissolves easier in liquid the colder you go.  You will last a lot of CO2 trying this at room temp.  To be on the safe side, if you use this method, put it at 25 PSI and shake constantly for 20 minutes.  Even when you don't hear the gas bubbling in your beer.  Give it 24 hours to settle and serve.  If the pressure is too high.  Release the gas from your keg's headspace.  Give it some time to release some CO2 into the headspace and test again.  If it's still too high, repeat that procedure.  Be sure that you don't have your gas line hooked to the keg during this procedure or while you are waiting for gas to release into the headspace.  You will keep the keg pressurized and will defeat the purpose of trying to release excess CO2.  This is the impatient man's way of force carbing.  It works and it won't ruin your beer or anything.  I found that I was able force carb and push 6 kegs with a 5 lb tank with this method.  Be sure to have purged your keg of oxygen prior to the employment of this method.

[Ogre]

The method I use now, and the method that I find to be the best way of force carbing requires a little patience.  Hook up your gas to the gas in port and let it sit for 3 to 5 days.  At this link, http://brewingtechniques.com/library/backissues/issue5.1/flemingsb.html, you will find a simple table to show you what psi to have your tank at depending on the temp of your beer.  My kegerator is 40 degrees.  I have learned through many tries that if I set my tank to ~11 psi, not only do get great carbonation results regardless of almost any style of beer, I also get the perfect pour.  I do not worry, for the most part, about my CO2 levels in my beer being perfect according to style.  This allows me to be a little lazy but still really enjoy my beer.  If I need a CO2 levels at a specific level then I bottle prime and that takes care of that.  As a disclaimer, Most say that you should wait 10 days before drinking with this method.  For some reason my system, at max, requires five days.  You may find something different for your system as well.  Either way, 10 days won't hurt you.  Shit, if you left it for 30 days it won't hurt you.  In fact, it will let your beer age, and that's typically a good thing. 

One final note on this method before I give you a hybrid option of both methods I mentioned.  I started doing this about 4 months ago.  I am still on the same tank.  I have carbed 18 5-gallon batches, pushed 13 batches through a tap, and have 3 kegs currently priming, and 2 halfway pushed through a tap.  This method is far superior in efficiency over the "shake-the-shit-out-of-it" method.  I have only had to use the first method once in a pinch to have a cider ready quickly for this tank.  I wonder how much more I could have gotten out of this tank had I not done this.

[Ogre]

Hybrid method for when you are in a hurry and don't want to shake the shit out of your beer - Set your PSI to 35, attach disconnect to gas-in post and wait 36 hours. (Most likely it will be completely carbed) Reduce PSI to your systems serving pressure after disconnecting the gas and bleed excess pressure from keg and taste test.  If necessary, return PSI to 30-35 and test every 2-3 hours.

[Gridiron Brewer]

I use 2 methods depending on how I feel:

1--Force carb at 30psi while shaking the crap out of the keg or rolling it on my lap.

2--Natural carb with 1/2 cup corn sugar (or 1/3 cup of honey). The keg is just a big ole bottle!

[Sgraham4]

i went with this shaking the keg method....i've been pouring foam for days 

what do i do!?

[Gridiron Brewer]

When I do the shake the keg method, I shake at 30 psi until I no longer hear the CO2 entering the keg (it's a little bubbling or hissing noise). At this point, I will let it set for about an hour at cold temps (40-50F). You can either lower the pressure to around 3-5psi or leave it at 30psi. Before pulling the first pint, relieve the 30psi and pressure to 3-5psi. If you have to relieve from 30 psi, then you'll may have to wait another 15-20 minutes. Make sure your vinyl line from keg to tap is about 6 feet long. You might be able to find calculators on line to determine the exact lenght, but I just use about 6 feet. Also, the more you move the keg around, the more you'll bring out foam and disturb anything that has settled out to the bottom of the keg. It takes a couple kegs before you figure it all out. Find a book that goes through some keggin tips How to Brew or one of Papazians books. Also, the Brewing Network had a couple shows on kegging (the Sunday session and Brew Strong).

[Ogre]

Release the pressure from the keg.  Also, ten foot lines to your tap are the way to go from my experience.  I really recommend in the future that you use the non shake method.  Takes a few more days but in the end you aren't dealing with foam.

Also, while you are waiting for that foam to die down, pull the gas line off the keg.  When the beer slows to a trickle then you can put the gas back on.

[brijo]

I don't use the shake the keg method, but I do something similar and I was wondering if anyone had any experience or info on this method:

I attach a liquid out connection to my gas line and run about 30 psi through the dip tube and bubble up the gas through the beer.  It stirs up the beer pretty good, but then so does shaking the keg...  I do this for about 3 minutes or so and then let the keg sit for a day.  I do prefer to just put the pressure on about 20 and wait a couple of days but if I need the beer in a hurry...

Anybody heard that this is a bad method? 

[Ogre]

Except for using an out disconnect, that's how I used to do my shake.  The gas in disconnect fits on the liquid out post.

[brijo]

Yeah it will go on, but it's a bitch to get off.  I actually unscrewed the post trying to get the damn thing off.  Quite a mess and a criminal waste of beer!

[Ogre]

That's very strange.  I have used all of my gas in disconnects on the liquid out posts of numerous cornies one time or another and never had that problem.  I have never been able to get a liquid out disconnect on a gas in post though. 

[brijo]

You misunderstood, I did the same thing as you, but had problem disconnecting it.  Now I just spin a liquid out on the gas line and away I go.  I know the posts are different but I never really found out the specifics...

[Ogre]

I understood you.  I was just saying that when I have no trouble getting the gas in disconnect on or off the liquid out post.  I just thought it was strange that you were having trouble getting it off the liquid out post.