Corn Sugar’s in the Corny
Here is goes, a first crack at carb/conditioning in the keg. I added my sugar, racked, stirred, sealed and purged (w/ CO2). Now it will patiently wait for a seat in the keezer. Since I’ve never done this before, am I correct in thinking that in about the same time it takes for bottles to condition, the keg should be ready and simply need to be chilled, connected to CO2 and enjoyed? Am I missing any steps with purging, NOT hooking to CO2 right away etc?
Thanks, Mike
Are you planning to serve the beers cask style?
If not, not sure why you would want to natural carb in a keg. You are going to have a lot of sediment to deal with.
My goal was to have it ready as soon as room is available rather than carbing over another 10-days. Why sediment? I’ve taken into consideration a first or first and one half cloudy pint as usueal.
I have done this and only had the usual sediment for the first pint.
Why more sediment?
Because you just started fermentation back up.
Muddy, after reading your first post, I searched and located several posts for sugar in the keg and found that yes there will be added sediment from fermentation but that it will not impede the batch from clearing just like any other beer racked to keg from primary or a secondary vessel so I think I’ll be fine. I actually clarified in secondary before racking so I’m even more ahead of the game. One thing I did read is purging the keg thoroughly before hooking CO2, I assume since it’s fully carbed. What I don’t want is endless foam. So in a week or so I’ll purge the keg every few days to let it carb reasonably. 1 to 1.5 pints as mentioned will likely be cloudy, no biggy. Again, when this keg is needed it will be ready once it’s chilled and that’s my sole objective.
:cheers:
I have done this and only had the usual sediment for the first pint.[/quote]
Good to hear, cheers!
[quote=“Steppedonapoptop”]Muddy, after reading your first post, I searched and located several posts for sugar in the keg and found that yes there will be added sediment from fermentation but that it will not impede the batch from clearing just like any other beer racked to keg from primary or a secondary vessel so I think I’ll be fine. I actually clarified in secondary before racking so I’m even more ahead of the game. One thing I did read is purging the keg thoroughly before hooking CO2, I assume since it’s fully carbed. What I don’t want is endless foam. So in a week or so I’ll purge the keg every few days to let it carb reasonably. 1 to 1.5 pints as mentioned will likely be cloudy, no biggy. Again, when this keg is needed it will be ready once it’s chilled and that’s my sole objective.
:cheers: [/quote]
I think you only want to purge it right before hooking up the co2. This is because if the pressure is higher in the keg than the co2 you hook up could cause beer to escape into the gas line. If you purge every few days, you could be letting out the carbonation and end up with flat beer. What I do is when I am ready to use the keg, chill it to serving temp, purge the head space and then hook up the co2. Although I currently just force carb, this has been successful for me in the past.
I think of the keg as just a big bottle, the extra sediment is just from 2 cases of bottled conditioned beer.
I have a two tap system and 4 kegs. I try to have two kegs on deck. One thing that you need to consider is keg conditioning takes less priming sugar. the koelsch that I kegged this morning only asked for 1.98 ozs. vs. the usual 4-5 for bottles. Why? I don’t know but it seems to work. First glass a little foamy and cloudy but, it clears up thereafter.
Good point. I read about reducing the sugar amount but a little late for me. I added a little less than 2/3C b/c that’s what I had. NB’s standard documentation called for 2/3. So I’ll purge and hope for the best. I’m pretty confident I’ll be fine. Worst case? Purge and don’t add CO2 until needed right?
Using less priming sugar when conditioning a keg is due to the smaller headspace in one keg vs 50 bottles.
