Carbonating my first keg help

[Fents]

just connect the gas to the keg and crank it up to 250kpa for 24 hours, then back it off to serving pressure and have a beer. should be pretty close to being fully carbed in 24 hours.

its a happy medium between force carbing and not force carbing.

 

[Black n Tan]

It seems that having the co2 bottle and regulator sitting in the keezer it gets a different psi reading then sitting outside at room temp...should I just set it to 12 psi when at room temp then put it in the keezer and not worry what reading it says when cold or should I adjust it when cold to 12psi?

When you say it seems, do mean that this is something you have observed? I would think that it makes so little difference that it is not a real concern. The important thing is the temperature of the keg of beer not the temperature of the CO2 bottle. So just set it at 12psi in the keeper and you will be fine.

 

[Siborg]

I use 4(or 5)mm ID hose and use about a metre between the tap (perlick). I run my reg at about 10-12 PSI.

Brendo taught me this method and its a hybrid of the "set-and-wait" method and force carbing:

When I'm carbonating, I run it up at like 30-40 PSI and then TURN IT OFF (in my n00b days, I left it on - not fun). It will absorb into the beer and your pressure will drop. Do this a few times a day, then after a day or so of doing this, drop your pressure back to 10-12, taste and repeat until you get it carbed enough for your liking.

This can take a week down to a few days (depending on how often you can recharge it).

To speed that up, do the same thing but tip the keg on its side and "rock it" with your foot - and that's force carbonating.

 

[mattyg8]

I mean that before I placed the co2 bottle in the chest freezer so it would be at room temp, I set it to 15 psi... I then placed it the keezer and had it set to 3deg I wanted to let it carbonate for 2 weeks then drop it down to serving pressure...the next day it dropped down to 10ish psi over night im guessing this is because the co2 bottle was cold... do I leave it at this pressure or turn it up to 15psi again

 

[Black n Tan]

Sounds strange. I suspect that it was not actually set at 15psi but in fact was set to 10psi, but was reading high (15psi) due to a higher head space pressure in the keg. As the CO2 was absorbed it dropped to the actual set pressure, 10psi. I am no physicist but the temperate of the CO2 cylinder will cause such a dramatic change in pressure. So just set the pressure to 15psi. I suspect you will need to lengthen your beer line to keep it in balance, especially if the ID is 5mm.

 

[Mullo]

I mean that before I placed the co2 bottle in the chest freezer so it would be at room temp, I set it to 15 psi... I then placed it the keezer and had it set to 3deg I wanted to let it carbonate for 2 weeks then drop it down to serving pressure...the next day it dropped down to 10ish psi over night im guessing this is because the co2 bottle was cold... do I leave it at this pressure or turn it up to 15psi again

My guess is that the change in temp may have effected the regulator. I would speculate that the reduced temp may have reduced the pressure within the diaphragm of the loading element (or effected the loading mechanism) causing it to retract and close the restricting element at a lower pressure for the given adjustment.

I'm no expert, just throwing some random guesses out there. You would think a reg should be accurate over a range of temps. Another option is the bottle could be empty.

 

[431neb]

When I started kegging I immediately threw myself headfirst into force carbonation. It was a hit and miss idea as I lacked the discipline to choose and stick to one method. I now set my reg at about 60 to 70 kpa and gas them up for a week. If anything I give them a quick shake when I connect them at that low pressure. As you can see, I'm a little gun-shy with force carbing now (degassing beer you really wanna share with your mates sucks).