Guide To Keg Forced Carbonation.

[cat007]

Hey

Just wondering - I've got a Y splitter from my gas bottle regulator going into the top of 2x50L sanke kegs. Just wondering if having two kegs hooked up to the same reg will have any effect on the carbonation time?

For example, if one keg takes 7 days, will 2 take 14?

Cheers!

 

[real_beer]

Hey

Just wondering - I've got a Y splitter from my gas bottle regulator going into the top of 2x50L sanke kegs. Just wondering if having two kegs hooked up to the same reg will have any effect on the carbonation time?

For example, if one keg takes 7 days, will 2 take 14?

Cheers!

No. just make sure you've got a non return valve after your regulator in case you run out of gas & the pressure in the kegs tries to push beer back up the lines back into the regulator.
This subject is a well covered in this post: http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...c=26473&hl= :icon_cheers:

 

[Maheel]

just had a go at my 1st eva keg and force carbing


after i charged it up to 300 and gave it a shake for 1 min i took the gas off and put it back in the fridge

going to go get a curry and come back and burp.....

does that sound right / ok ?

if you had a no-return on the line do you still see the gas drop ? i dont but the gas did not really "go down"
# i am using a fire X to charge then a small co2 bottle to pour

 

[jbowers]

Why not use the fire extinguisher to pour also?

That all sounds fine. Similar to what I do. I generally shake for 50 seconds then turn the gas off and continue to shake just to absorb a little more CO2. Definitely try to leave it for a little while before you burp it though - it's not fun getting a face full of foam...

 

[Maheel]

bit of a fail... flat beer with no real head ? <_<

chucked my small co2 bottle in the fridge with it and shot a bit more gas into it and will leave it alone
will pour some more tonight and see what happens

taste is ok just needs some bubbles

if you had a no-return on the line do you still see the gas drop ? i dont but the gas did not really "go down"

i had a think about this over the curry the pressure would drop inside the keg and lower the pressure on the other side of the valve ...drr :lol:

 

[jbowers]

bit of a fail... flat beer with no real head ? <_<

chucked my small co2 bottle in the fridge with it and shot a bit more gas into it and will leave it alone
will pour some more tonight and see what happens

taste is ok just needs some bubbles





i had a think about this over the curry the pressure would drop inside the keg and lower the pressure on the other side of the valve ...drr :lol:

If your beer was cold (under 5 degrees), there is no way you could have a flat beer after a minute of shaking at 300 kpa? Did you have the keg on it's side with the gas disconnect closest to the ground? That's how I do it, and I've had great success.

 

[Maheel]

If your beer was cold (under 5 degrees), there is no way you could have a flat beer after a minute of shaking at 300 kpa? Did you have the keg on it's side with the gas disconnect closest to the ground? That's how I do it, and I've had great success.

yeah rolled it on it's side DC down low and heard some bubbling in the keg.
I filled the keg from the fermenter that was sitting at nearly 2"c and would have lost a little chill in the process but still very cold

i just had another pour and there is "some" bubble action but beer is WAY cloudy ....lol
it was not that cloudy coming from the fermenter so maybe some chill haze?

i know the the little bottle is very low, hence hitting it with the fire X to begin

i have to leave it alone for a while, i need to use the car....

 

[jbowers]

I find when it's first carbed up the carbonation isn't very well 'integrated'. Takes a couple of days. Also, you need to remember that being so pressurised and disturbed, the beer is going to scream right out of the tap at quite a speed. This will cause a lot of foaming and consequently, a lot of CO2 loss.

 

[MarkBastard]

After doing forced carbonation a fair bit I've got a system down pat that I'm happy with. This works for me, it may not for you.

I keg my beer, then purge air out of the head space with co2. I then connect a gas line with a beer disconnect and hook it up to the keg at about 275. I shake it for 45 seconds, then just pull the disconnect off and shake it for a minute. I don't bother turning the gas bottle off and watching the regulator to see what it drops to or anything like that. I then put it in my bar and let it sit for about 20 minutes before burping the keg (I give it a little burp to make sure it's not going to piss out beer first). Once I have burped out all of the co2 pressure in the head space I connect up a gas disconnect as per normal (including normal pouring pressure) and taste my beer.

I reckon the beer is probably 80 or 90% of the way towards perfect carbonation when I do it this way, and it gets to 100% by absorbing the serving pressure co2 over the next day or two. I see it as a lower risk. When I followed the instructions in the OP I found I was over carbing my kegs, so I'd rather deliberately under carb them and then let them get to proper carbing more slowly.

A slightly under carbed beer is still good enough to drink and satisfy your curiosity with regards to how the brew turned out.

 

[Kingbrownbrewing]

I found that for me the whole shaking of the keg was an inconsistent science, and after talking to one of my customers who happens to be a member of AHB (snow) he told me to just hook it up to the gas at 275 - 300 (depending on how carbed you want your beer) and leave it for 24 hours.

Every one I have done so far has been perfectly carbonated, whereas before I was always over carbonating it.

 

[freezkat]

I found that for me the whole shaking of the keg was an inconsistent science, and after talking to one of my customers who happens to be a member of AHB (snow) he told me to just hook it up to the gas at 275 - 300 (depending on how carbed you want your beer) and leave it for 24 hours.

Every one I have done so far has been perfectly carbonated, whereas before I was always over carbonating it.

Has anyone done a video of this and posted to youtube? This guide thread needs to be a 1 page locked sticky. 10-11 pages of discussion. I would like an empirical method.

cheers
bob

 

[TBird]

Few guys kegging their first beer are going to wait a week to drink it.

If you are not comfortable with rapid carbonation & you are desperate to try your first beer - Simply roll back & forth at 300kpa for 30 seconds & disconnect from the gas. Then after waiting 5/10 minutes for the head to dissipate, release the pressure & reset the gas to 70kpa & continue to shake/roll until you can't hear any more bubbles being released into solution.
This will take a little longer, but will make over carbing your 1st beer impossible.

Cheers Ross

Hi

Last night I tried this method. After the last step of resetting the gas to 70 kpa and rocking it, I could hear the bubbles being released into the solution. However, it kept on going and after a couple of minutes I stopped because I feared overgassing. Are my concerns unwarranted and should I have just kept on going with the roll, roll, roll, gurgle, gurgle, gurgle until it stopped gurgling even though it could take several minutes.

I've left the keg in the fridge overnight with the gas attached (at around 80 kpa).

Hope this is explained OK.

Cheers

 

[Flewy]

Hi

Last night I tried this method. ... Are my concerns unwarranted?

I have used Ross's method above a few times, and as he says, by doing it this way it is impossible to overcarb the keg. If the beer's fully carbed up, and your pressure is still sitting at 70kPa, you can keep shaking as long as you want, no more gas is going to go into solution. If you've given it a decent effort as described by Ross, and had it sitting at 80kPa overnight, you should be good to go.

Relax!

 

[MarkBastard]

by doing it this way it is impossible to overcarb the keg.

Where does the 70kpa come from though? You need to know the temperature of the beer and the desired level of carbonation before working out a pressure.

 

[TBird]

Thanks Flewy

This morning I set up the keg again and starting rolling the keg and listening for any gurgling. I must have pulled up short on my original attempt because it took about another 15 mins of rolling for the gurgling to stop. The brew is a bit hazy at the moment so it's hard to see any bubbles in the glass, but I'm fairly confident it's close to an acceptable carbonation level.

By the way, the beer was about 6 degrees c while I was carbonating.

Cheers

 

[Flewy]

Where does the 70kpa come from though? You need to know the temperature of the beer and the desired level of carbonation before working out a pressure.

Yeah, fair point. The 70kPa came from Ross's original post, and should probably just say "whatever your normal carbing pressure is, based on temp and desired level of carbonation". Personally I used 85, because that is what works for me with my setup, but the basic theory stays the same.

 

[HaveFun]

i will get my first beer in 2 weeks and i will try the ross carbonation method ...

before i try it with my beer can i give it a go with a keg full of water ?

thanks
cheers
stefan

 

[stux]

i will get my first beer in 2 weeks and i will try the ross carbonation method ...

before i try it with my beer can i give it a go with a keg full of water ?

thanks
cheers
stefan

You could, but I find its much harder to carbonate soda water than beer for some reason. And I normally carbnate the soda water at a much higher pressure.

Anyway, I leave my soda keg on 300kpa for 3-4 days to get it nice and fizzy. After that there's plenty of gas to dispense just based on my standard dispense pressure (85kpa)

I've used the ross method to get a soda water on tap quickly, but it takes a helluva lot of effort to get it ready.

My point is, soda water at beer carbonation levels tastes almost flat, so you're not really going to get much beer relevant experience from playing with water... But why not make some soda water while you're waiting

 

[nala]

You could, but I find its much harder to carbonate soda water than beer for some reason. And I normally carbnate the soda water at a much higher pressure.

Anyway, I leave my soda keg on 300kpa for 3-4 days to get it nice and fizzy. After that there's plenty of gas to dispense just based on my standard dispense pressure (85kpa)

I've used the ross method to get a soda water on tap quickly, but it takes a helluva lot of effort to get it ready.

My point is, soda water at beer carbonation levels tastes almost flat, so you're not really going to get much beer relevant experience from playing with water... But why not make some soda water while you're waiting

Why does everyone talk in kpa pressure instead of PSI or Bar.....am I the only forum member with a Harris
CO2 regulator which registers in PSI or Bar ?

 

[nala]

You could, but I find its much harder to carbonate soda water than beer for some reason. And I normally carbnate the soda water at a much higher pressure.

Anyway, I leave my soda keg on 300kpa for 3-4 days to get it nice and fizzy. After that there's plenty of gas to dispense just based on my standard dispense pressure (85kpa)

I've used the ross method to get a soda water on tap quickly, but it takes a helluva lot of effort to get it ready.

My point is, soda water at beer carbonation levels tastes almost flat, so you're not really going to get much beer relevant experience from playing with water... But why not make some soda water while you're waiting

Why does everyone talk in kpa pressure instead of PSI or Bar.....am I the only forum member with a Harris
CO2 regulator which registers in PSI or Bar ?