I haven’t kegged beer in ages, but I’d like to start again and have a saison that will be ready to go in a few weeks. Unfortunately, the chest freezer I’d ordered is on back order due to the whole COVID-19 situation, and it looks like it will not be here by the time I’m ready to keg.
Is there any reason I can’t just keg that beer, seal it off, and move just enough CO2 into it to evacuate any oxygen without pressurizing it? I don’t see a problem with it, but it’s been long enough that I figured I’d see what others thought. Thank you!
After purging the air I would want to at least pressurize it enough to make sure the lid is sealed. Just out of curiosity, why not toss in some sugar and let it carbonate itself while you are waiting for the freezer?
I haven’t done this for quite a while… Rack into a keg when the ferment is about 3 points from finished… (Cask conditioned?)…
Then Coonmanx has a method that looks worth trying…
Sneezles61
Thanks, guys. I may actually try carbonating w/ sugar. I’ll have to check gravity but I think fermentation is pretty much complete. I really was looking forward to getting back into carbonating w/ CO2 more than anything. About ten years ago, I had a refrigerator in my basement next to my ski waxing table, and I had visions of waxing skis with a homebrew in hand, tapped from that fridge. But the compressor took a digger after only two kegs and I never replaced it .
So I just saw that discussion about keg priming in the “carbonation issues” discussion. The whole idea of priming and using a spunding valve is pretty convincing. I’m curious, though: what would be the correct pressure for just dispensing beer from the keg w/o carbonating? Probably a silly question, but the whole thing is pretty new to me and I honestly have no idea. Thanks again, folks.
I usually shoot for 12 lbs. The graduations on the pressure valve aren’t large enough to be exact so if its way over I slowly dial it down and pour one (or two) purely as a scientific research. You can set it while carbonation is going on so it just releases anything over that. I sometimes have four kegs carbing and one Spunding valve so I just let them rip and check it later.
I think mine is the same. A gauge to see where the pressure is at and the dial pressure release valve. I do like the idea of transferring to the keg a few points higher than finish and let it carb itself without any help from sugar. Might try that next time.
