Kegging guidelines

[JohnDoe Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JohnDoe]

Hi all;
I was wondering to get some local advice for kegging my extract kit. I am checking my sg soon and hope it's good to go. I fermented in a 25L carboy.
What's your guideline for kegging? Do you force carbonate or make use of natural carbonation? How much head space to leave in the corny keg? When do you start drinking from the kegged beer / how long do you condition?

[CapeTownBrew Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close CapeTownBrew]

Hi JohnDoe,

I let my beer sit in the fermenter for a while first, let the yesties clean up a bit! I then rack into the corney and force carb for about a week. If you can carb at a lower temp, 2 degrees or so, you need to use less CO2 and your beer is already cold, so you can drink it as soon as it is carbed. Head space isn't really an issue if you force carb, but I always do my best to get the full 19L in. Don't forget to purge the air after you have racked into the corney before you pressurise. As far as conditioning, I find it depends on the beer/style, my APA is good straight away, but my Saison is better after a couple of weeks.

[JohnDoe Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JohnDoe]

Hi JohnDoe,

I let my beer sit in the fermenter for a while first, let the yesties clean up a bit! I then rack into the corney and force carb for about a week. If you can carb at a lower temp, 2 degrees or so, you need to use less CO2 and your beer is already cold, so you can drink it as soon as it is carbed. Head space isn't really an issue if you force carb, but I always do my best to get the full 19L in. Don't forget to purge the air after you have racked into the corney before you pressurise. As far as conditioning, I find it depends on the beer/style, my APA is good straight away, but my Saison is better after a couple of weeks.

Thanx for the reply.
How long do you let it sit in the fermenter? What pressure do you force carb at?

[CapeTownBrew Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close CapeTownBrew]

At least a week, sometimes 2, pressure depends on temperature,

[JohnDoe Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JohnDoe]

Thanx for the chart

[Stefan Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Stefan]

All good advice. http://www.kegsolutions.co.za/ has some good info too

[FishersFirst Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close FishersFirst]

That looks like a useful cart CTB. Are the pressure and temperature scales based on carbing for a particular time?

I'm a fan of keg conditioning if I can be asked to wait that long. This involves racking the beer from fermentation vessel to the keg at room temp and bulk priming the keg with half the amount of priming sugar that you would typically use for bottling.
Then leave to condition and carb in the keg.
When ready, vent the keg and serve at dispensing pressure, typically 8-10psi.
I find this method really good for that final conditioning as I don't use a secondary fermenter.

[CapeTownBrew Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close CapeTownBrew]

Hey FishersFirst, it is from Brewing Classic Styles, it never mentions a time period, but a week works for me. I tried the keg conditioning originally, but it was over carbonated and I kind of got annoyed with the process!

[JohnDoe Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JohnDoe]

CapeTownBrew, I got into contact with a guy selling kegging equipment and he sent me some PDF files. One was from a worthog presentation. The guy presenting it actually carbonated his keg within 90s at a very low temp. Is that really possible?

[CapeTownBrew Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close CapeTownBrew]

I have seen a video of an Australian guy who did it in about 2 and a half minutes at a high pressure, 30psi if I remember correctly, by agitating the keg, his beer was cold.

[FishersFirst Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close FishersFirst]

You could force carb by doing a rock and roll method very quickly.
Amp up the pressure to 50psi with the beer cold. Lie the keg flat on its side and roll on a towel back and forward vigorously for about 2 minutes (a good arm work out) the pressure should have dropped to around 20psi by this point.

It's should be carbed up by this point, but I've found the need to keep it at say 20psi for a further day or so to keep it at the level I want.

Personally I'm more in favour of a more gentle approach. If you're going to aggressively force carb, you probably should make sure the keg has been purged with co2 first or try and ensure that as little O2 is present in the headspace as possible.
I've tried this method of force carbing a few times and had problems with O2 uptake and some acetaldehyde flavours as a result shortly after carbing.

[Rooster Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Rooster]

The three variables in carbonating are temperature, time and pressure. I force carbonate at 2 bar (about 30PSI) for 90 seconds at about 4 degrees. When finished the rocking and rolling I disconnect the gas from the keg and leave it for a few hours. I reset the regulator to dispensing pressure before reconnecting and then I purge all the gas in the headspace before reconnecting the gas. This is important because if the keg is still pressurised at a pressure higher than the second stage of the regulator it can push back into the regulator if you do not have a one way valve on your regulator - not many do. This creates all sorts of issues, firstly it can wreck the regulator but it can also leave residue in the gas line which can be a source of infection. Having looked at hundreds or corny kegs the gas outlet tube varies from about 5mm to almost over 75 mm. If your keg does have a long one it could dip into the beer and this would then push back into the regulator, even foam into the gas line is not what you want.

Be wary of over carbonating, one you have too much gas dissolved in the beer it is not easy to get it balanced and back to equilibrium. Simply purging gas and reconnecting will make little different. So best to slightly under carb and then when all connected up it should balance quickly.

[JohnDoe Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JohnDoe]

I racked the beer into the corny this weekend. It went pretty well. Just my bottle filler too short. I will try and fill via the outlet connector next time. I carbonated for about 1.5 to 2 mins. I want to play it safe for now.
Now that it is carbonated at low temp, should I dispense some and test if it is good enough?
I need to travel about 300kms where the beer will be served through a cold plate. What is the best way to ensure I have properly carbonated beer at the time the beer will be served(keg will be at room temp)?

[Rooster Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Rooster]

Hi JohnDoe,

Yes I would test it at the temperature you gassed it at and at the pressure you used to get the carbonation saturation. Moving the keg will shake it up, a bit like dropping a beer in a can so it leave it for a few hours to settle before testing it. The temperature of the beer inside the keg will determine the pressure you dispense at. So if the beer has warmed up to say 21 deg you will need to set your regulator to about 30PSI or 2,1 bar if you were targeting 2,6 volumes of CO2 (see the table in the post CapeTownBrew above). As it passes through the cold plate and chills the CO2 will be less likely to cause foaming at the tap due to the lower temp. You must not change the pressure setting until the beer is at the room temp, if you crank up the pressure and the beer is still cold it will absorb more CO2 at the lower temp and will then be over carbonated when you dispense it. Make sure your beer lines are balanced when serving, the problem with these mobile setups is the variables of temp and pressure keep changing, so err on the side of caution and use a longer beer line or a narrow internal diameter line, because if the line is too long it will slow the filling rate on a glass but that's better than foamy flat beer.

[JohnDoe Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JohnDoe]

Thanx Rooster. I will keep it in mind. I had a taster just now and I cannot decide if the beer has enough C02. If I pour the beer, there are very few small bubbles going to the surface. If I give it a swirl, many small bubbles appear and forms a bit of foam. It is an IPA style and guess it's OK. I am not sure. Perhaps I can add C02 when the beer is being served (keg at room temp)and ppl complain about it being a bit flat?