Looks pretty good. You’ll get lots of different opinions on carbonating a keg. The most reliable method being the set and forget where you adjust your pressure to the correct setting with regard to style, serving temp and vol level and leave it for 2 weeks or so.
First question I have is why 3-5 psi? I like to connect at a higher pressure 20+ psi because it helps to seal up the lid.
Here’s the method I use to “quick” force carb a beer I want to serve within a few days.
Set the reg to 30psi, attach the hose to the gas(IN) side and vent the keg to purge O2. Then I move the gas line to the liquid(OUT) side, still at 30psi, and shake it for a couple minutes allowing the gas to bubble up from the dip tube thru the beer. Leave it connected like that overnight, then next day shut off the gas, vent the keg to release pressure, set the reg to my serving pressure 9-10psi and attach to the gas(IN) side. Day 2-3 the beer is fairly close to proper carbonation.
Some will tell you to NEVER shake or roll the keg because you run the risk of getting beer into your gas line but as long as the pressure is kept higher in the line than in the keg I don’t see how that can happen. Always try to make sure the pressure in your beer line is higher than the pressure in your keg when you connect it. This will help you keep beer out of the gas line if you don’t have blowback valves.
[quote=“dannyboy58”]Looks pretty good. You’ll get lots of different opinions on carbonating a keg. The most reliable method being the set and forget where you adjust your pressure to the correct setting with regard to style, serving temp and vol level and leave it for 2 weeks or so.
First question I have is why 3-5 psi? I like to connect at a higher pressure 20+ psi because it helps to seal up the lid.
Here’s the method I use to “quick” force carb a beer I want to serve within a few days.
Set the reg to 30psi, attach the hose to the gas(IN) side and vent the keg to purge O2. Then I move the gas line to the liquid(OUT) side, still at 30psi, and shake it for a couple minutes allowing the gas to bubble up from the dip tube thru the beer. Leave it connected like that overnight, then next day shut off the gas, vent the keg to release pressure, set the reg to my serving pressure 9-10psi and attach to the gas(IN) side. Day 2-3 the beer is fairly close to proper carbonation.
Some will tell you to NEVER shake or roll the keg because you run the risk of getting beer into your gas line but as long as the pressure is kept higher in the line than in the keg I don’t see how that can happen. Always try to make sure the pressure in your beer line is higher than the pressure in your keg when you connect it. This will help you keep beer out of the gas line if you don’t have blowback valves.[/quote]
This is exactly the method I use to quick carb. Sometimes I’ll shake the keg, sometimes not, it depends on how energetic I feel at the time and how big a hurry I’m in. One addition I make, though, is to purge the empty keg with C02 before I fill it. It might not make a big difference depending on how long the beer stays in the keg, but it doesn’t hurt to keep as much oxygen away from the beer as possible
I usually put a couple quarts of star san in the keg, pressurize it and push the star san out through the lines. So when I rack to the keg it has been purged of oxygen.
I know guys who rack through the liquid line to avoid oxidation but I just put the hose on the bottom of the keg and let it rip.
[quote=“Cocky Targaryen”]So dumb question then regarding the sipon. Just open the big lid and carefully siphon from the bucket?
You dont do something crazy like fill through the liquid line or something like that?[/quote]
I put a hose with a liquid disconnect on the spigot of my fermenter and fill my purged kegs through the liquid post. The idea is to minimize the chance of oxidation. Works great, as long as you don’t tip the fermenter too much and clog the line with hop debris. Yeah, I know it’s a little excessive, but that’s part of the entertainment.
Man damn, I think I am more confused than when I started. Kegging is next weekend. I have one more week to figure procedure. Only one of my buckets has a spigot.
I usually put a 3" ss hop ball screen on the end of my Autosiphon hose so that nothing gets into the keg which might clog it up. Basically, I stabbed a hole in the screen and jam the hose into the hole. Friction holds it on and then the kegs stay free from hop trub.
[quote=“Cocky Targaryen”]Man damn, I think I am more confused than when I started. Kegging is next weekend. I have one more week to figure procedure. Only one of my buckets has a spigot.[/quote]You can use an Autosiphon; that’s what I would do.
Thanks for the feedback Muller, I was thinking easiest thing is to use Auto Siphon I got in the NB kit and rack to the bottom of the keg through the big hole on the keg. I would take the bucket lid off so I can see what I am doing and not suck up a bunch of yeast. Then once full I would purge out the air with CO2 and let the thing come down to temperature then start forced carbonation.
