Carbonating...

[warb]

how do you do it?... at the moment im a 'can' type of home brewer.... once in the keg i carbonate for 48hr at approx 30psi.. sometimes i jam the gas onto to 'out' part, sometimes on the 'in' ... but my beer still does not carbonate like to commerical ones, how do you experts do it?....

 

[sosman]

I don't know how the experts do it but I just "crash carbonate". I only use the gas in, if you use the liquid connector you can get beer in your CO2 tubes and even your regulator (and what a waste of beer that would be).

I crank up to 200-300KPa, disconnect and shake keg like buggery. Repeat this several times. After that it is fine tuning.

brewiki: kegging and carbonation

Has a few more tips. Overall I would say as you do a few kegs you will get the feel of it. The main problem I see is that CO2 takes time to dissolve in beer and once you get a handle on that you are pretty right.

 

[Goat]

make sure the beer is chilled before you start - CO2 does not dissolve in warm beer and purge the 'air' from the top of the corny (burping) a few times before you start cranking up the reg..

 

[warb]

thanks for the replys, yeah i burp and have been known to shake, all my beer goes into the kegs cold as they larger in another frige for about 4 weeks.. the bubles are huge, its like drinking softdrink sometimes, can i get the bubbles smaller?...

 

[Snow]

Warb,

the big bubbles are not from your carbonation levels, they are most likely from the body of your beer. This is typical of "can only" brews (I'm assuming you are only using a kit can and a kilo of dextrose/sugar?). To get a tighter head on your beer and better mouthfeel, try adding a kilo of malt extract in place of your dextrose/sugar and try steeping some specialty grains, such as crystal malt and carapils. You'll get better flavoured beer and it's the first step to getting the confidence to try formulating your own recipes and getting away from the "kit n kilo" approach.

Cheers - Snow