Can I speed up carbonation?

[bjack2]

Hello!
I am kegging for the first time and decided to do the "set it and forget it" method. We have a party coming up and I would love to serve the beer but it is still a little undercarbonated (I set it at 12 and it has only been 5 days). It is getting close but not there yet. Is there any way I can safely speed up the carbonation process? The party is in 24 hours. If the answer is wait because any attempt at speeding up would cause overcarbonation I am OK going out and buying beer but this beer tastes SO GOOD I cant wait to get it carbed up and served!!!
Thanks,
Excited first time kegger

 

[b-boy]

That's a tough one. If the beer wasn't already partially carb'd I'd say just do the shake method. Since it's already half way there you will be taking a chance at over-carbing it. I'd give it a few shakes to speed it up or bump the pressure for the next 12 hours or so. Maybe ~20PSI? If it was me I'd probably just shake it at 12psi for a minute or 2.

Either way you may over-carb it.

 

[Walking_Target]

There's two methods. Either could lead to overcarbed beer, so use at your own risk.

#1 Higher pressure passive diffusion: Dial up the pressure to about 30psi assuming aprx 40*f keg temperature, Leave it for 12-16 hours, then drop to serving pressure, give it a few shakes, another 30 minutes and you should be somewhere in the ballpark.

#2 Higher pressure active diffusion : Again, dial that pressure up to about 30psi (once again assuming a keg at about 40*f) then tilt, rock and roll that sucker to encourage faster gas absorption/diffusion. It'll take about 10-20 minutes of fairly constant rolling/shaking. It's also easy as balls to overshoot your desired carb level.

If it's 24h till the party, i'd really recommend #2. You can always dial it up, shake it for 5-10 minutes, drop the pressure to serving pressures, leave it for half an hour (very important!) then vent the keg and run off a glass to see where you're at.

 

[bjack2]

Thanks guys!