I just kegged my Chinook IPA. I initially wanted to quickly force carbonate the beer, so I set it at 30psi, shook the keg until it stopped hissing and walked away. I did some reading and found that setting the recommended pressure according to the fridge temp and type of beer (ale) will achieve better results as far as not being over carbonated and better head retention. It was only about 1 hour, so I went back and turned the pressure back down to 10psi. My fridge temp is between 35 and 40. Since I initially started at 30psi, do I need to release the pressure from the keg and start over or will it settle back to 10psi over the conditioning time period?
Your pressure will settle back down as the Co2 in the headspace dissolves into the beer. Give it a week or so at 10 psi and your beer will be ready to rock. :cheers:
I have excellent carbonation, but the head retention only lasts a few minutes. Overall I am very pleased with the beer. It has some cloudiness to it, but zero sediment. One more question. Now that it’s all carbonated, should I turn the C02 off or just keep it at 10psi? Don’t want use more CO2 than I need.
TGIF :cheers:
I always reset, but that’s just me.
Reset? Turn off? Sorry to sound naive, but I am. 
Reset? Turn off? Sorry to sound naive, but I am. [/quote]
I set to 20 psi for 2-3 days…shake the keg a few times a day…Then turn off the gas…pull the purge ring, reset the gas to 8-10 and and leave it.
Thanks for the clarification. I’ll just leave it where it is then.
If you turn the gas off and continue pouring from the keg you’ll eventually decarbonate it. You want the pressure to remain steady at your chosen carbonation level. As long as your system is sealed and there are no CO2 leaks maintaining pressure and serving should use very little gas.
