Priming sugar or not?

[musicis]

I have a complete CO2 beer fridge from Perlick. My very first home brew is about ready. Bypassing the bottling and going to the Corny kegs what would you guys do? Let the beer sit in the keg with priming sugar or force carbonate the keg? If force carbonate what is the best way for this?

 

[Gigan]

I force carb, Im not saying its the best way but this works for me. I turn the psi to 30 and let it sit for a day, next day I cut the psi and release the pressure, once thats done I put the pressure on a serving pressure say 10psi, and sample. Im my experience it usually needs some more so I crank things back up to say around 25 psi for another 24 hours. After that time Ill release the pressure again and re taste, It is usually where I need it carb wise but needs about 4-5 days for the flavors to really mesh. Thats how I do it. Im sure others here have better/different ways but thats what works for me. Good luck with your brew. Let us know how it turns out and WELCOME to the Forums!

 

[spokaniac]

Everybody has their own way, or at least seems like. What works for me is using the priming sugar,purge with CO2 to seal it and letting the keg sit for 2-3 weeks. Then hooking it up at about 35 psi. But then I keep my kegs at room temp and serve through a refrigerated cooling tap system.
With a kegerator and this being your first batch (meaning there is room to put the keg in right away) I would look up the pressure for the CO2 volume you want and the temp of your kegorator, purge and seal the keg at that pressure. Let it sit at that pressure for a few days to a week and start sampling until it gets to the carb level you want.
In the meantime get another batch started so it will be ready when that first keg goes dry.

 

[Gigan]

In the meantime get another batch started so it will be ready when that first keg goes dry.

Very Important step here, Could ruin the whole batch if not followed to a tee. :rockin:

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

In the meantime get another batch started so it will be ready when that first keg goes dry.

Agreed, this^ is the most important step here!

What I do is set my keg(s) to ~30psi for 48-72 hours, after that I kill the pressure for about a day or so, then kick it back up to serving pressure (12 psi) for a few more days before pulling the first pint. Usually within a week of kegging the beer, it's good to go. You can carb faster than this by 'blast carbing' (shaking the $h!t outta the keg when it's on high psi), but read up on the pros and cons of that method before trying it.

 

[musicis]

I kegged two 5 gal batches Saturday night and cranked up the co2 to 30psi on both in the kegerator. It sounds like it will be a week before ready. Any reason to not touch it for a week before purging the co2 and setting it to 11psi (overall psi that gives me a good draw)?

 

[musicis]

?

 

[zeekage]

you need to make sure you don't over carb the beer. Look at a chart to see what temp and waht pressure will give you the carb level you want. The "set it at 30psi for a few days and then back it down" method is only to speed up the process. If you let it sit for a week at 30psi at fridge temps you will most likely have VERY over carbonated beer. If you set the pressure really high to speed up the carbonation process you need to watch the beer until you figure your system out so that you don't end up over carbing. It is much harder to de-carbonate beer once it's over done.

Look here: http://www.kegerators.com/carbonation-table.php
and this thread has some good info: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/keg-force-carbing-methods-illustrated-73328/

If you want to speed up the process without risk of over-carbonating you can figure out what your serving pressure should be (12psi for me) and get the beer to fridge temp. Set the regulator to that, hook your keg up to the gas. Purge the head space a few times to get all the O2 out that you can. Then sit in a chair with the keg sideways in your lap. Rock it back and forth and you'll hear the regulator hissing as it lets more gas into the keg. You can also hear the gas tube bubbling. If you keep rocking it for 5-10 mins you should hear the activity die down. At this point your beer is probably close to fully carbonated, but can't be over carbonated (assuming correct pressure and temp). Let it sit for an hour or two to settle down and pull a pint to check carb level. Now just leave it in the fridge on the gas and keep sampling until it's good to your taste.

 

[TopherM]

The MOST CONSISTENT way to force carb is:

1) Hit the keg with 30PSI CO2 just long enough to seat the o-rings. I hit mine with the 30PSI, then spray the top with starsan and look for air bubbles. If there are bubbles, indicating a slow leak, I purge the CO2, reseat the top, then try again. If there are no leaks, the seating procedure is done.

2) Once there are no leaks, turn the CO2 flow off and purge the keg, which purges both the 30PSI of pressure AND any remaining oxygen. Then put the keg on serving pressure (12-15 PSI for most ales), turn the CO2 flow back on, one more quick purge of the keg to equalize the pressure, and wait about 2 weeks for perfectly carbonated beer.

That's it! All of those extra procedures to speed up this process lead to inconsistent results unless you are extremely precise in the timing. This procedure is by far the easiest way to get perfectly carbed beer.

 

[zeekage]

The MOST CONSISTENT way to force carb is:

1) Hit the keg with 30PSI CO2 just long enough to seat the o-rings. I hit mine with the 30PSI, then spray the top with starsan and look for air bubbles. If there are bubbles, indicating a slow leak, I purge the CO2, reseat the top, then try again. If there are no leaks, the seating procedure is done.

2) Once there are no leaks, turn the CO2 flow off and purge the keg, which purges both the 30PSI of pressure AND any remaining oxygen. Then put the keg on serving pressure (12-15 PSI for most ales), turn the CO2 flow back on, one more quick purge of the keg to equalize the pressure, and wait about 2 weeks for perfectly carbonated beer.

That's it! All of those extra procedures to speed up this process lead to inconsistent results unless you are extremely precise in the timing. This procedure is by far the easiest way to get perfectly carbed beer.

This is definitely true. Even more reason to get that 2nd batch going. Get that pipeline up so you don't need to be rushing things. If impatience gets the best of you (and it does to all of us sometimes), be careful not to over do it on the burst carbing at a high pressure. It'll take even longer to get it back down to the level you want.

 

[hotspurdotus]

1) Hit the keg with 30PSI CO2 just long enough to seat the o-rings. I hit mine with the 30PSI, then spray the top with starsan and look for air bubbles. If there are bubbles, indicating a slow leak, I purge the CO2, reseat the top, then try again. If there are no leaks, the seating procedure is done.

I really like that procedure, TopherM. I've been painting the top of my kegs with diluted dish soap to check for leaks, but that method seems easier. Are the bubbles easy to spot? Will iodophor work instead of starsan?

 

[zeekage]

Starsan works because it's foamy like soap to begin with. I don't think iodophor would be as effective since it's not foamy. Don't fear the foam!

 

[hotspurdotus]

No fear of foam here.

I'm still a novice and I'm working my way through the various sanitizing solutions; I've tried Star San, Sani-Clean and Iodophor so far; I think I'll pick up some Star San again, if only to be able to use it to leak check kegs.

 

[musicis]

Great info guys. The leak test with star-san was a great bonus!

I checked my keg after 72 hours at 30psi and it needs more time. I purged and then set it at 13psi and will leave it for the next 10 days. That should do it. That was my first taste of my own home brew.