Carbonation lid questions

[agillies]

He everyone,

Hoping you can help me yet again.

I've got an all grain brew that has fermented and will be kegging / bottling this Friday.

I have a couple of mates coming over the following Friday for some pizza and beers. They loved the DrS Golden Ale I did before so this time have done a Sierra Nevada APA clone, with a few more hops.

Now i want it to be drinkable (and enjoyable) by the Friday, have I got any hope?
if i got a carbonation lid that would carbonate it quick enough, but would it still be too 'green'?
Also with the carbonation lids, how do you stop it from overcarbonating? wouldn't it just keep carbonating the beer?

I also think I read somewhere here, that 1 week in the keg equals a certain amount of weeks in a bottle? Is that true?

Thanks

Adam

 

[slash22000]

1) How long as it been fermenting for? That is what will determine if it tastes "green", not the kegging portion.

2) You don't need a carbonation lid. I'm not convinced anybody needs a carbonation lid.

3) 1 week is probably not enough time to carbonate slow and steady, but you can carbonate at 30 PSI for the first 24-48 hours to speed things up, it should be drinkable in a week, just note you're going to lose some hop aroma from venting the keg to return to serving pressure.

4) The beer will not "keep carbonating". That's not how it works. You set a certain gas pressure and temperature, the beer will carbonate to a specific volume of CO2 and then it will stop carbonating once it hits equilibrium. Just do not leave it at 30 PSI the whole time.

5) "I also think I read somewhere here, that 1 week in the keg equals a certain amount of weeks in a bottle? Is that true?" - I'm not 100% sure what you mean there. In terms of what? Carbonation? That depends on a lot of things. Pressure, volume, temperature, etc.

 

[agillies]

Thanks for the quick response Slash.

1) How long as it been fermenting for? That is what will determine if it tastes "green", not the kegging portion.
Been Fermenting since the 24th August.

2) You don't need a carbonation lid. I'm not convinced anybody needs a carbonation lid.
My partner will be happy to hear I won't need to spend more $$$

3) 1 week is probably not enough time to carbonate slow and steady, but you can carbonate at 30 PSI for the first 24-48 hours to speed things up, it should be drinkable in a week, just note you're going to lose some hop aroma from venting the keg to return to serving pressure.
By Slow and steady do you mean carbonating it at serving pressure? I might give your suggestion a crack then. I'm sure I can find some info on this forum about that

4) The beer will not "keep carbonating". That's not how it works. You set a certain gas pressure and temperature, the beer will carbonate to a specific volume of CO2 and then it will stop carbonating once it hits equilibrium. Just do not leave it at 30 PSI the whole time.
Ahhh ok, I thought with a carbonation lid it would just keep getting fizzier and fizzier. Not that it matters now anyway.

5) "I also think I read somewhere here, that 1 week in the keg equals a certain amount of weeks in a bottle? Is that true?" - I'm not 100% sure what you mean there. In terms of what? Carbonation? That depends on a lot of things. Pressure, volume, temperature, etc.
I'm not sure what i mean either now. I just know that the beers i have bottled are better after a month or more than they are after 2 weeks. And i'm sure I read somewhere here that the beer 'ages' quicker in a keg.

 

[CosmicBertie]

I think you're got your wires crossed. 1 week crash chilling at 1C is apparently the same as 1 month at normal temperatures for lagering.

Some beers are certainly better if left to mature...others are best consumed relatively young.

 

[Alex.Tas]

3) 1 week is probably not enough time to carbonate slow and steady, but you can carbonate at 30 PSI for the first 24-48 hours to speed things up, it should be drinkable in a week, just note you're going to lose some hop aroma from venting the keg to return to serving pressure.
By Slow and steady do you mean carbonating it at serving pressure? I might give your suggestion a crack then. I'm sure I can find some info on this forum about that

Although i haven't ever kegged beer, sounds like you should be looking for info regarding force carbonation. I'm sure there is some info on here about it. Check youtube too... From what i understand (very little) you jack up the CO2 pressure for a few days, rocking the beer back and forward to help dissolve the CO2 quicker. Then you need to drop to your serving pressure, then vent some excess pressure from the keg. Then leave it for a bit.
I think thats the basics, but i would definately do some research first.

Edit: included quote.

 

[slash22000]

You don't need to rock it back and forth. You do that sort of thing when you're trying to carbonate the whole keg in an hour. Thing is that it messes up all your hop aroma.

What I'm talking about is putting the keg in the fridge, once it's cold, hook it up at 30 PSI and leaving it for about 48 hours. It should be just about fully carbonated. Vent the keg, reattach at serving pressure. Done.

As I said though, every time you vent a keg, you're losing volatile aroma compounds. If you can smell hops blasting out of the keg (which you will), that's aroma that's no longer in your beer. If it's something like a stout, not such a big deal. Something like a pale ale or IPA, big problem. These days I always leave my kegs for 1-2 weeks at around 12 PSI to carbonate slowly, but OP needs a 7 day solution.

 

[anthonyUK]

If you have read the British beers thread you'll have seen we like our beers with less carbonation and not too cold.
With AG pale ales and IPAs especially the hoppy ones, I find they are great early so after fermentation and CCing it is into a pressure barrel, a squirt of CO2 for dispensing and drinking from then on.
If your mates are hopheads they'll love it.