Kegging

[Fish]

Hello All,
First post for me and I'm sure mine are questions that have been asked many times before.

I kegged my first beer last night and what a joy watching beer flow rapidly out of the carboy was. No more bottling 60 stubbies for me!

A couple of kegging questions if people could help.

1. How full can you fill a keg?
2. How long do you have to pressurize / gas the beer for? I just left it at three bar for approx. 10 seconds and disconnected but I've got no idea if this is right.
3. How long should you leave the keg until the beer can be sampled?

Thanks.
Fish

 

[Hopeye]

1. How full can you fill a keg?
2. How long do you have to pressurize / gas the beer for? I just left it at three bar for approx. 10 seconds and disconnected but I've got no idea if this is right.
3. How long should you leave the keg until the beer can be sampled?

Hi Fish,

Welcome to the forum.

No hard and fast rules (like anything to do with brewing.....), I'll generally fill up the keg to just under the CO2 inlet pin, Then gas up to 250 kpa and flush out any air (by releasing the pressure valve for a few seconds)(to help guard against oxidising the beer), then shake/roll the keg around to help saturate the beer with CO2. Then when I'm happy that I've shaken it enough, I'll top up the CO2 to 250 kpa again and disconnect the CO2 line (to prevent any holes in the line from seeping pressure from the keg) for at least 24 hours. I also shut off the CO2 from the bottle using the valve on top of the CO2 bottle (to prevent losing CO2 if there are any small holes in the line). There's a number of different opinions on this. Do what you think is best.

 

[Bigfella]

Hey Fish welcome.

It would be worth your while having a look around on the web, There is many varied methods of carbonating a keg.
Also be aware that your beer wont really suck up any of the gas until it is cold.
I usually cold condition my brews which means that bye the time it gets into the keg it already cold so I can force carbonate it and be drinking it within an hour.
But usually I just whack it in the fridge with its other mates and hook up the gas at the same pressure as all the other kegs and let time do its trick.

Just try a few way and see which is best for you.

 

[JasonY]

G'day Fish, yep there are many ways of gassing kegs ... the one I have settled on is to fill the keg to within a few cm's of the gas inlet and the burp a few times with CO2. Chuck it in the fridge to make sure it is nice and cold (usually 1 - 2 days). Then crank the gas up to 350kpa and rock it (while it's standing) 50 times (forward & backward = 1 rock) pausing eveery few rocks to let the CO2 pressure equalise.

After 50 shakes, turn off the gas and shake the sh#t out of it and the pressure should end up around 150kpa. Bung it in the fridge overnight or for a couple of hours. Just before pouring I lift the relief valve to make sure its not 150kpa and then put the gas on @ 100kpa to pour.

As with Hopeye I leave the gas bottle off between sessions to make sure if there is a leak I don't loose all my gas.

No turning back now that you are kegging .... enjoy

 

[sosman]

Fish,

I have tried to avoid "carbonation wars" but I have put together a few tips on a page at brewiki: kegging and carbonation.

If you didn't know already there is some interaction between the pressure in your keg, the length of your serving line and how foamy your beer is.

 

[Fish]

Thanks for the tips.

I forgot to shake it (guess it will just take longer to gas up) nor did I purge any gas. Oh well, I'll get it right next time.

Looking forward to sampling tonight.

Fish.

 

[GOLIATH]

Fish,

And others,

I have gassed more kegs than I could poke a stick at. Here's what I do.

Beer is cold conditioned in plastic jerrycans, so when I fill the keg the beer is already cold and ready to accept CO2.

Hook up the gas, purge the keg a bit thru the relief valve then crank the pressure on the regulator all the way round to 450KPA.

Get on your haunches as if you were throwing a medicine ball and VIOLENTLY shake the keg backwards and forwards about 80 to 100 times. Some pople roll the keg either way is good!

Turn the gas OFF, leave the line hooked up and continue shaking until the pressure guage reads about 90 to 100KPA.

Pour yourself a beer!

Carbonation will be much better after a night in the fridge but this method will get you by.

Regards
Dave Stewart
Principal
Goliath Brewing Adelaide
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