Help with force carbonating a 2.5 gal keg

[Kenmoron]

I haven’t started kegging yet but plan to soon. I brew in 2.5 gal batches so plan on getting one or two of those sleek Torpedo 2.5 gal kegs. I’ve seen a few force carbonating charts here and there but am not sure if those would still apply to a smaller keg. Does anyone have any experience with this? Would it take less time?

Ideally I would like to be able to force carb one keg, pull the CO2 when it’s ready, and then force carb the other so that they are both ready to go. When I want to pull a pint I could just put the CO2 at serving pressure on whichever keg I want to pull from. Any issues with this?

 

[chickypad]

The charts still apply for setting your carb level. In theory a smaller keg might have more relative surface area so you'd think it would carb faster, but in practice I've not noticed a significant difference in the time it takes to carb a 2.5 vs a 5 gal keg.
You could do what you plan, though I would just get a maniford or splitter so you can carb and serve more than one keg at a time. You can also naturally carb a waiting keg with sugar.

 

[Paulaner]

Why not naturally carb through spunding its' really simple, it will save you time and money and many would argue a better beer. All you would have to do is buy or build a spunding valve. Like stated by chickypad the carb charts apply across the board from a bottle to a keg.

 

[Still Brewn]

I haven’t started kegging yet but plan to soon. I brew in 2.5 gal batches so plan on getting one or two of those sleek Torpedo 2.5 gal kegs. I’ve seen a few force carbonating charts here and there but am not sure if those would still apply to a smaller keg. Does anyone have any experience with this? Would it take less time?

Ideally I would like to be able to force carb one keg, pull the CO2 when it’s ready, and then force carb the other so that they are both ready to go. When I want to pull a pint I could just put the CO2 at serving pressure on whichever keg I want to pull from. Any issues with this?

There is no problem with doing that and your chart is still correct if you are using the volumes/temperature/pressure chart.
I would, however, be sure to purge the headspace on your second keg before letting your first keg ride on the C02 for the time it needs to carb up. Once a keg is carbed properly you can disconnect it without any issues.

 

[Kenmoron]

Thanks for the tips. I’d actually never heard of spunding until now. I wouldn’t necessarily want to have to monitor gravities too closely. Sounds like you have to have a pretty good idea about FG and time your transfer to keg pretty precisely. Is this true? Or is there some sort of easy guideline on when you can transfer and just let the spunding valve do its thing? I’d assume the earlier you transfer the more trub you would accumulate (maybe not that much though)? I don’t have the capability to spund on my primary.

 

[Paulaner]

Thanks for the tips. I’d actually never heard of spunding until now. I wouldn’t necessarily want to have to monitor gravities too closely. Sounds like you have to have a pretty good idea about FG and time your transfer to keg pretty precisely. Is this true? Or is there some sort of easy guideline on when you can transfer and just let the spunding valve do its thing? I’d assume the earlier you transfer the more trub you would accumulate (maybe not that much though)? I don’t have the capability to spund on my primary.

Ideally you want to xfr .04 gravity points left, but you can get away with more than that if you want. You will need to know your FG though, but you can easily do this, just poor a little of your wort into a the flask after you pour your yeast into the fermentor, or if your pitching the yeast direct from a packet, after you pitch the yeast pour some of the wort out into a container or flask and let it sit at room temp for a day or so and measure the gravity.