Carbing beer in kegs

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Permalink Reply by vdog on February 11, 2014 at 1:15pm

My process is to chill down as far as I can (generally 5-6C), rack to kegs, connect to gas at 40psi and purge the headspace to get rid of any oxygen, then leave it alone for 24hrs. Come back the following day, drop to serving pressure and purge excess pressure off the keg, and start drinking it. I don't do the rocking/shaking thing, anytime I've done that it's gone badly so I just do what I know works for my system.

 

Some beers won't be quite at the carb level you want after 24hrs, but they'll have bubbles and be nice to drink - leaving it at serving pressure then takes care of the difference over another day or so but means you don't have to wait 5-7 days to start drinking it in the first place. 

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Permalink Reply by Matt Smith on February 11, 2014 at 3:09pm

Do you guys that force carb by rocking the keg experience any loss in foam or head retention in your beers? I'm curious about the "only foam once principle".

I've only force carbed about 3 times. The first time I nailed it, the next two times I over did it, now I'm a little nervous to try again, mostly because I'm conscious of losing hop aromatics whilst venting excess pressure.

My standard procedure is to crash chill my fermenter to -1 and hold for 3 days, then rack to a keg, add gelatin whilst filling, pop in the kegerater at 4 degrees, set to serving pressure (about 12 psi), then wait atleast 5 days. After 5 days I have well conditioned, bright, and fully carbonated beer. Waiting for it to carb up at serving pressure forces you to let it condition properly before you tuck into it. With a healthy ferment, diacetyl rest and the 3 + 5 days cold conditioning time, I'm generally drinking just shy of 3 weeks from brewday, so its not a bad turnaround.

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Permalink Reply by Richard Jack on February 11, 2014 at 3:35pm

Nope, no problems here. Because I rock it at serving pressure there is no chance of overshooting and having to play the venting game. But it takes a few minutes longer.

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Permalink Reply by jt on February 11, 2014 at 9:58pm

Same here, most consistent way to carbonate, and not over gas

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Permalink Reply by Peter Smith on February 11, 2014 at 6:11pm

I have a wheat beer that finally after 2 weeks in kegs is great,  it needed full carb to taste bitter enough...     

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Permalink Reply by Druid on February 11, 2014 at 7:47pm

No, no issues with head retention etc - I'm a firm believer that CO2 is CO2 regardless of how it gets in - it takes a while to dissipate itself evenly through a beer and achieve a 'fine' carbonation - but otherwise there's no real difference between force carbing and not.

As long as you've got a method of working out how much you've carbed it, how you get it in and how fast you do it will be immaterial after a few days.

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Permalink Reply by Peter Smith on February 13, 2014 at 10:35am

another question - How often do you do a full strip down clean of your kegs vs a starsan flush???

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Permalink Reply by Smiffy on February 13, 2014 at 11:02am

I'm using "real" kegs, with just a 50mm opening so no option for manual scrubbing. After use I rinse a couple of times, then I shine a torch in, and if I can see any sign of any "dirt", or if it seems like a while since it has been done, I clean with a mild solution of caustic soda (25g/l), then rinse then sterilize. On average I probably do that once every 3 fills.

When I first got the kegs and they had mould growing in them, I used a stronger solution (100g/l) and that got them spotless. It's great for cleaning oven shelves too.

Smiffy

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Permalink Reply by Richard Jack on February 13, 2014 at 11:27am

I flush through hot PBW, then hot rinse, then starsan. Maybe every 3 or 4 fills I'll break them down?

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Permalink Reply by Druid on February 13, 2014 at 12:27pm

Every time.

In practice it's not really that much extra.  I just remove the keg lid and the relief valve, keg in and out posts and tubes and soak them in napisan at the same time that I'm soaking the keg.  Then I repeat except using starsan and reassemble.  

I also find it's a good opportunity to force napisan and starsan through beer lines and taps while I've got each solution in a keg.

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Permalink Reply by Peter Smith on February 13, 2014 at 1:57pm

whats the napisan/water ratio you use?

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Permalink Reply by Druid on February 13, 2014 at 8:11pm

Maybe 1/2 a capful - a tbsp - to 5l of cold water? Time helps too if you've left the keg for so long that it's dried out to the point that the dregs are dried out and baked on....

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