How much do you put in your keg?

Ok, so I just did my first 10 gallon batch. Went to keg it this morning and realized I had a little too much. I filled both kegs right up to the gas in tube. The question is can you go higher than the gas in tube?

One of the kegs went into the kegerator to force carb, the other one I am naturally carbing with sugar.

I finished up with at least a quart left in the fermentor. Don’t worry though it didn’t go to waste :wink:

Paul

I usually fill to where the side of the keg starts to curve inward toward the top.

That leaves an inch or so space between the liquid and the gas in tube.

If you fill higher, above where the curvature of the keg starts you’ll reduce the surface area for contact of CO2 to liquid and could potentially lengthen the time it takes to carbonate?

You don’t want to over fill and cover the tube as this would cause a lot of foam and it gives you minimal surface area, ie, size of the tube opening, for carbonation.

If you are using sugar to naturally carb, there is no problem with filling pretty high. If you are force carbing with the “set and forget” method, you want to follow Danny’s advice and leave enough head space to keep the tube opening above. The rate you carb will be directly proportional to the gas/liquid surface area in the keg.

Thanks for the replies. It would seem that not all gas in tubes are the same length. The two kegs I filled this AM have a much longer gas tube than my other kegs. I will go ahead and shorten them so I can get as much beer in as possible.

Paul