Guide To Keg Forced Carbonation.

[Lovemebeer]

Must have been something to do with the gas in connect. I pulled it apart, and put it back together.then tried force carb for the first time, and within the hour she was good. Couldn't wait another week

 

[doctr-dan]

Just a quick one , I've been force carbonating at 40psi for 48hrs and have found this a little hit and miss but not to bad.

I now have my kegerator setup with a single co2 line into the fridge and then a splitter of to each keg.

Since I only have one regulator I wanted to try carbing at serving pressure so I don't need to adjust the regulator up and down etc etc

I've got it set to about 70kpa / 10psi

At this pressure how long does it take to carbonate? I've read through a fes threads and it seems to range from 4-7 days

Thanks

 

[danestead]

Just a quick one , I've been force carbonating at 40psi for 48hrs and have found this a little hit and miss but not to bad.

I now have my kegerator setup with a single co2 line into the fridge and then a splitter of to each keg.

Since I only have one regulator I wanted to try carbing at serving pressure so I don't need to adjust the regulator up and down etc etc

I've got it set to about 70kpa / 10psi

At this pressure how long does it take to carbonate? I've read through a fes threads and it seems to range from 4-7 days

Thanks

Probably 7-10 days if your beer is cold to be at a stable carbonation. Probably about 5 days until there is enough fizz to not think you are drinking a hand pumped real ale.

 

[Grott]

Hi doctr-dan, IMO carbonating a keg for 7-10 days at serving pressure ("set and forget") is fine if you can have multi kegs being chilled or have a slow consumption rate. Using a two outlet manifold attached to the outside of the fridge I have an external gas connect line from the regulator so I can purge and force carb kegs. The other line goes into the fridge and splits to a dispensing keg and another keg to just finish off and prepare the next keg (a forced carb keg).

Try this, assuming you have 19l kegs chill down to 3-4 degrees, remove from fridge/kegerator, release any pressure and attach external gas disconnect to the gas in, set reg to 30psi, lay keg on its side and rock back and forth for 100 seconds (use stop watch on mobile) - you will hear gas bubbling through the beer. After 100 seconds turn gas off at bottle and continue to rock, the pressure gauge will go to zero and continue rocking until the pressure gauge drops to 20psi. If it goes past 20psi open tap on bottle, turn off again and repeat rocking. (do this only once). This keg will now be just slightly under carbonated, put in fridge and leave min. of 3 hours to allow beer to settle, then release pressure in keg, connect other gas line at dispensing pressure and it will be ready to drink when the other keg finishes.
Cheers

 

[tonyod]

The rule of thumb I use is to carbonate for 70 psi-days. Since I pour at 10psi that takes 70/10 = 7 days to properly carbonate. If I'm in a hurry 2 days at 35psi (2 x 35 = 70) will do. Or 3 days at 24 (=72. Close enough). Those times I accelerate the process I disconnect, release pressure, hook up and pour at 10psi - perfect.

Cheers.

 

[danestead]

The rule of thumb I use is to carbonate for 70 psi-days. Since I pour at 10psi that takes 70/10 = 7 days to properly carbonate. If I'm in a hurry 2 days at 35psi (2 x 35 = 70) will do. Or 3 days at 24 (=72. Close enough). Those times I accelerate the process I disconnect, release pressure, hook up and pour at 10psi - perfect.

Cheers.

Interesting. I'd like to try that myself.

 

[sixfignig]

What adjustments should I make when force carbing a 9.5L keg (if any) ?

 

[tonyod]

What adjustments should I make when force carbing a 9.5L keg (if any) ?

Half the beer (9.5 vs 19L) means we need half the gas to carbonate - so try 35 psi-days as the rule of thumb. If you pour at 10psi then it will take 3.5 days to carbonate.

Cheers.

 

[Grott]

What adjustments should I make when force carbing a 9.5L keg (if any) ?

or 50 seconds with the force carb method mentioned above.
Cheers

 

[danestead]

Word of warning, this force carb method is very variable by the amount of headspace in your keg. You are better under doing it than over doing it and having over carbed beer.

 

[doctr-dan]

I've had mine since last Wednesday afternoon at serving pressure 70kpa and this morning (morning of the tenth day) it's still pretty flat!

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Never been able to get the rock n roll method right, so I just turn up to serving pressure and wait a week.

 

[bradsbrew]

Never been able to get the rock n roll method right, so I just turn up to serving pressure and wait a week.

Having it sit at 3 bar for 24hrs works a treat as well.

 

[razz]

I've had mine since last Wednesday afternoon at serving pressure 70kpa and this morning (morning of the tenth day) it's still pretty flat!

Take a couple schooners out of it, it will carb up ok.

 

[doctr-dan]

Take a couple schooners out of it, it will carb up ok.

How does taking a couple of schooners out of it help?

 

[manticle]

Makes the waiting less painful

 

[razz]

A bit more head space, works for me.

 

[Grott]

Never been able to get the rock n roll method right, so I just turn up to serving pressure and wait a week.

Just give my method above one go, I'm sure you will be pleased. Cheers.

Word of warning, this force carb method is very variable by the amount of headspace in your keg. You are better under doing it than over doing it and having over carbed beer.

Use the seam below the gas tube as your guide, repeatability is fairly consistent. With my method (adaption of the Ross Method) as described, never over carbed, just under.
Cheers

 

[GNU]

Easiest and fastest way to force carb beer that is 15 degrees

 

[Rocker1986]

Dunno about 15 degrees but I use a variation of tonyod's method for my kegs.

I always put three full kegs into the kegerator at once, and fill the next three while those are being consumed. Then I wait until the last of the three is empty before the next lot of three goes in, and so on. This also allows me to clean out the kegerator periodically if needed without having to move partially full kegs around. Anyway...

My kegs are at room temp when they go in as I don't have a keg storage fridge (yet), so they go in and I hook up the gas at 45 PSI, and leave it there for about 20-22 hours. At this point I remove the gas disconnects and let the kegs sit for another 6 or 7 or whatever hours before bleeding any pressure and hooking the gas lines back up at normal serving pressure, and the beer lines as well. I find this results in slightly under carbonated beer, but still carbed enough to enjoy a glass or two and by the next day they're fully carbed. So all up about one or two days and they're all good.