Keg questions

[Fortunete11er]

Hey all.

Going to start kegging here in a bit, actually will do a little of both kegging and bottling. I have some questions....actually clarifications to a lot of kegging threads so bear with me as some of these may or may not have been answered.

When bottling I usually go from my fermenter 7-14 days, then to bottles and sit for 30 days or go from fermenter to secondary fermentor to bottles. Adding sugar or honey to prime.

I have heard a couple things when kegging and I'm just a bit confused.

So. I create my nectar of the gods. Then move to a keg.

1. Can I put in a keg and pressurize it with enough CO2 to let it sit (at room temp) or (recommended aging temp) then after 30 days or so or how long I need to let it sit....then force carb it and serve?

Do I need to prime it if I let it age for long period and then force carb.

then after force carbing put in cold storage to server or whatever.

2. Why do I need to Prime, then force carb it.....etc.

I thought that I could let it sit in the keg for however long, then force carb it and serve....but then people started talking about priming in the keg and it caused a little confusion. Then cold vs room temp or suggested conditioning temp.

I understand cold slows conditioning down, so my thought was to condition like I do in the bottle but not add a primer and then force carb it when its done aging.

Im new to kegging so something simple seemed to get a little confusing.

 

[BargainFittings]

You can seat the oring on the lid and let it sit at room temp for 30 days if you like and then force carb, or you could prime it and seat the lid and it will be carbed up when you are ready to serve the keg.

You do not prime it and then force carb. You can adjust the carbonation after you prime it if its a bit low though.

 

[doug293cz]

If you plan to force carb, you don't have to wait for it to complete aging. You can carb while aging. You will need to use higher CO2 pressure at the higher temps. Most carb charts don't go up to room temps, so use a calculator (like this one) to determine pressure to use at your aging temp.

Brew on

 

[Terek]

There are many different ways. You can prime sugar it, and let sit just like you do with bottles. Just think of it as a giant bottle.

Or you can force carb it. If you force carb it, DO NOT put priming sugar in it. There are several different ways people force carb, so i will tell you how i do mine, and it is also the least time consuming.

First, you want to keg just like you would bottle, as far as time frame. Most beers, i keg after 10-14 days. DO NOT PRIME. Put around 20psi to the keg, to seat the lid, then release ALL that pressure. Put the keg in the keezer over night. The colder it is, the better the co2 is absorbed.
After it is nice and cold, pull it out of the keezer and place on the floor on its side. Hook up co2 to it, and slowly bring it up to 30psi. As you are doing that, roll the keg back and fourth. Continue to rock it for 60 seconds.
After 60 seconds, put the keg back in the keezer. Leave the pressure at 30 psi.
Let it sit for 24 hours, in the keezer, at 30 psi. The next day, drop the pressure to normal working psi. I keep mine around 12 psi. It should be just a tad under carbed, but will even out after another 24 hours.
I usually pull a pint right after dropping the pressure to 12 psi and chuck it. That will get most of the leftover trub and yeast off the bottom of the keg.
Now just enjoy! It sounds complicated, but is very easy. And each step takes 5-10 min.

There are many ways to force carb, but i have found this to be the best for me, as it is ready to drink 48 hours after pulling from the fermenter.

 

[TheHopfather]

Terek's method seems like a lot of work to me. I keg, purge, then hit the keg with 30 psi for 24 hours. After 24 hours I drop to serving pressure and give it another day or so and the beer is carb'd up and ready to drink. No shaking required.

 

[SGTSparty]

Someone correct me if i'm wrong but here's my input:

I'm understanding you want to age your beer in kegs as close to the way you do it in the bottles. There are ~3 schools of thought floating around the forum that I see again and again:

1) Rack your green beer from primary to keg. Force carb it in the kegerator (either Quick carb # 30 psi for 48 hrs, purge, set to serving psi is how I do it OR set @ serving pis and forget about it for 2 weeks) let it age in place, drink in the interim if you must/need to sample etc. Pros: Drink when you want during aging, ready to drink when done aging Cons: takes up space in the kegerator, takes up a tap that could be used for aged beer.

2) Rack your green beer from primary to keg. Set your PSI to like 3, purge the head space by burping the keg w/ the pressure relief valve repeatedly. Disconnect your gas line. Burp 1 more time if you want. You've now protected your beer from Oxygen and light. Age at room/basement temp just like a bottle. Once you've aged it to your liking force carb it using either the Quick Carb or the Set and Forget methods above. Pros: doesn't take up kegerator space or a tap, can age as long as you want, allows you get a good pipeline going w/ aged beers as the number of kegs aging isn't limited by kegerator space Cons: Still have to carb before drinking/sampling

3) The other school says if you're going to do method 2 above, why not add priming suger and let it naturally carb while aging just like a bottle? so you'd mix your priming sugar solution and green beer while racking the beer into the keg. Seal it up and let it carb while it ages. Then just chill and hook up your serving pressure to push w/ and your good to go. Pros: same as above plus saves a bit of CO2 since you don't need to force carb, also your keg is pressurized when its done aging so you can serve as soon as its chilled and hooked up to serving pressure, no waiting to force carb. Cons: PITA priming process (IMO, avoiding that is part of why I moved to kegging), Still have to chill the keg before you can serve, you could force carb in that time, still need to hook it up to CO2 to serve anways and may need to adjust carb levels once on tap.

Anyways. Hopefully I didn't screw any of that up (if i did some one will let me know i'm sure) and that makes a bit more sense to you. lots of ways to do things, can get confusing but just try and find what works for you and how you brew/serve/drink

 

[Terek]

Terek's method seems like a lot of work to me. I keg, purge, then hit the keg with 30 psi for 24 hours. After 24 hours I drop to serving pressure and give it another day or so and the beer is carb'd up and ready to drink. No shaking required.

not really. the only difference between mine and you process, is i put my foot on it a rock it back and forth for a min. pretty easy, i can even do it sitting down

 

[SGTSparty]

not really. the only difference between mine and you process, is i put my foot on it a rock it back and forth for a min. pretty easy, i can even do it sitting down

I did this before I finished building my kegerator when my CO2 tank and taps were inside the fridge, now I'm up to 3 taps through the fridge and the CO2 tank is outside but my secondary bank is inside (so only 1 line through the fridge wall) net effect is my lines aren't long enough to rock n carb.

 

[Terek]

I did this before I finished building my kegerator when my CO2 tank and taps were inside the fridge, now I'm up to 3 taps through the fridge and the CO2 tank is outside but my secondary bank is inside (so only 1 line through the fridge wall) net effect is my lines aren't long enough to rock n carb.

makes sense. I keep my co2 outside, but have an extra hose outside as well. For carbing, purging fermenters, and purging growlers.