Total noob question here.
My red ale is ready for cold crashing and I plan on moving it into my new keg system (1st time for me) for the journey. My question is about carbonation. Can I carbonate at the same time? Only enough Co2 to purge the O2? Is forced carbing an option? Whats the best approach?
It might be a good idea to cold crash before you transfer to the keg. That way you get less material in your keg. Once you put the keg in the fridge/keezer (after transferring) it will “cold crash” further and anything in solution will fall to the bottom of your keg and will be in your first beer or so. You can force carbonate your beer in a few days to a week (once in keg) OR you can “prime” with sugar (in keg) and wait the normal time that you would for bottling (2 weeks). I would say either way gives you good beer, just a matter of preference. If you have multiple kegs, “priming” multiple batches of beer in kegs allows you to naturally carbonate beer while you have one on tap. Thus allowing you to have less downtime in between batches of beer on tap.
This what I do:
-Cold crash my carboy for 48 hours
-Disasemble and clean my keg with the cleaner of choice… PBW, Oxyclean, etc
-Sanitize all the parts and reassemble
-Purge my keg with CO2 the best I can
-Transfer my beer into the keg
NOTE: If you are planning on dry hopping, additional flavorings, other alcohol (Irish whisky, Burbon, etc), coffee…you can do this now.
-Careful not to allow oxygenation to the beer
-Once full, close it up and apply 25 lbs of pressure.
-Purge and oxygen out of the head space. 5 or so purges from the bleeder valve on top of the keg should do it. If the pressure drops slightly over the next few days, just turn it up and keep it at 25psi.
- Give the keg a slight roll around just to blend in some CO2 for a few minutes wether that be on the ground or in your lap.
-Let it sit for 3 days and back the pressure off to serving pressure. For my IPA’s and Pale Ales I keep it between 8 and 10psi.
After this point, the longer you let the beer sit, the better CO2 will absorb into your beer. At this stage, your beer will be carbonated, but it will lose carbonation quickly while in the glass. Give it a week or so and your golden.
Obviously different styles may need longer times to condition than others, but you’ll have to use your judgement on that.
GOOD LUCK
Also, if you want info on adding gelatin to your keg let me know. I do that as well and the beer comes out really clear
Check out brulosophy… You can also ask and ye shall receive… Sneezles61
Personally, I don’t have any ability to cold crash a carboy as it won’t fit into my fridge. I’ve never had any issues with not cold crashing. Typically I leave beers in primary for 3-4 weeks before transferring to keg. I do use whirlfloc (1/2 tablet 5 mins left in boil) and my beers come out crystal clear. I transfer to keg (I clean them when they’re empty, put in some starsan, seal and swirl around then pump out through my tap lines so it’s pre-purged with CO2) then put them in kegerator at 30 psi for 1-2 days, drop to 20 psi for 3-5 days and start checking carbonation levels. When I get where I want, I set to serving pressure (around 10-11 psi on my kegerator).
Rad
