Force Carb Off Gas

[Robbo2234]

Hi all,
I plan on kegging a beer tonight but I also plan on drinking from another keg too! I only have one gas bottle so my idea is to push in X-kpa into uncarbed beer and disconnect, set the reg back to pouring pressure and connect the already carbed beer and drink away.

In 24 / 48 hours release the pressure from the now carbed beer and connect to pouring pressure.

Has any one done this?

Thanks

 

[tones0606]

Make sure you purge the keg before hooking gas back up to it

 

[bignath]

Hi all,
I plan on kegging a beer tonight but I also plan on drinking from another keg too! I only have one gas bottle so my idea is to push in X-kpa into uncarbed beer and disconnect, set the reg back to pouring pressure and connect the already carbed beer and drink away.

In 24 / 48 hours release the pressure from the now carbed beer and connect to pouring pressure.

Has any one done this?

Thanks

Yeah mate easy... you've just described force carbing. It's still "forced carbonation" whether you turn the gas back off and disconnect. All you've really done is just carbed at a higher (much higher) pressure than pouring pressure.
The only difference between keeping it hooked up to gas is the amount of pressure used and the amount of time it's hooked up.

I never force carbonate by leaving it hooked up. I have my own little process that may not work for everyones tastes but it works brilliantly for me.

I hook up a COLD keg to my gas with regulator set to 250psi/kpa (cant remember which, they may be the same for all i know....i just know where on my regulator this is and keep forgetting the unit value) for exactly 60seconds and shake it hard at a stroke rate of two back and forth motions per second (120 beats per minute - im a drummer and yes i have used a metronome to do this).
Then i disconnect the keg and walk away for 20mins. Come back and burp off all excess gas.
Repeat process again (250 for 60, 20mins disconnected, come back and burp).

Then i drop the regulator back to serving pressure, one last pull on the keg pressure release valve, quick disconnect back on and pour me a beer.

 

[angus_grant]

So what tones means is purge the pressure from the carbonating keg.

If you have the regulator set at serving temp and then hook it up to a keg with higher gas pressure the beer will force its way out of the keg and up into your regulator and will screw it up. A cheap investment is a one way valve which stops gas or fluid running back into your regulator.

I also have a sneaking suspicion that a one way valve will stop uncarb'd kegs from "stealing" pressure from carb'd kegs when hooked up to the same lines via a t-piece. For example you have carbonated keg 1 and are drinking from it. You put keg 2 in to carbonate. Because there is less pressure in keg 2, pressure from keg 1 will escape into keg 2. One way valves on all the lines would stop pressure running from one keg into another if you ever have two hooked up.

As to comments on your carbonating process I don't have a comment. I carbonate my kegs using serving pressure over 7 days or so. It forces me to get a new batch into the keg when my kegged beer is running down.. I don't have to worry about whether the gas pressure is too high, did I shake it enough, shake it too much, etc, etc. Plus it lets the beer sit and mature a little bit until I actually get to drinking it.

 

[donburke]

Hi all,
I plan on kegging a beer tonight but I also plan on drinking from another keg too! I only have one gas bottle so my idea is to push in X-kpa into uncarbed beer and disconnect, set the reg back to pouring pressure and connect the already carbed beer and drink away.

In 24 / 48 hours release the pressure from the now carbed beer and connect to pouring pressure.

Has any one done this?

Thanks

if all you are doing is filling the headspace at 300 kPa and disconnecting, the beer wont carb sufficiently

it will absorb that gas, which is bugger all,

you need the gas connected for it to continue to flow into the beer to absorb sufficient gas for carbonation

 

[mxd]

I go the other way, leave keg to force on gas and take drinking keg off gas (there's generally enough gas in headroom to pour the beers for the night otherwise give it a squirt when the pour is low )

 

[bignath]

For example you have carbonated keg 1 and are drinking from it. You put keg 2 in to carbonate. Because there is less pressure in keg 2, pressure from keg 1 will escape into keg 2. One way valves on all the lines would stop pressure running from one keg into another if you ever have two hooked up.

Whilst this is true, what a one way valve won't do is stop keg #1 from taking on additional gas if you are carbonating keg #2 at a higher pressure than serving pressure.

If force carbonating keg #2 AT serving pressure then the above quote is correct.

 

[QldKev]

if all you are doing is filling the headspace at 300 kPa and disconnecting, the beer wont carb sufficiently

it will absorb that gas, which is bugger all,

you need the gas connected for it to continue to flow into the beer to absorb sufficient gas for carbonation

phew, a proper answer

When you think about it you want 2.5 times the entire vol of the keg in CO2 for the average beer to be gassed. Then you gas up a small area of void in the keg and hope it will be enough volume of CO2 to carb the keg. Allowing that void is a lot less than 1/20th of the keg you would need over 50 bar in it...

Easy way to carb is leave all lines connected to both serving and carb'ing kegs at serving pressure. After a week the carb'ing kegs will be good. No need for any shake, rattle and roll.

If you want to rapidly force carb a keg while dispensing you need to stuff around more. Basically take the carb'ing keg up to desired pressure and leave it until you want a beer. When you want a beer unplug the carb'ing keg and drop the pressure to serving and then hook it up. Once you finish drinking for the arvo, wind the pressure back up to carb pressure and hook the carb'ing keg back up. OR buy a dual outlet reg that allows two different pressures. All my beer these days is carb'd done at serving pressure, then I rarely need to touch the regs anymore.


QldKev

 

[Bada Bing Brewery]

I go the other way, leave keg to force on gas and take drinking keg off gas (there's generally enough gas in headroom to pour the beers for the night otherwise give it a squirt when the pour is low )

+1, easiest option

 

[Robbo2234]

if all you are doing is filling the headspace at 300 kPa and disconnecting, the beer wont carb sufficiently

it will absorb that gas, which is bugger all,

you need the gas connected for it to continue to flow into the beer to absorb sufficient gas for carbonation

I guess that would be the case, bugger

I go the other way, leave keg to force on gas and take drinking keg off gas (there's generally enough gas in headroom to pour the beers for the night otherwise give it a squirt when the pour is low )

Sounds like the easiest option

thanks all