Make Your Own Keg Carbonation Lid

[egolds77]

I put this together late last night and put it into my yet to be carbonated APA. I woke up 4.5 hrs later and checked the carbonation of the beer, just about perfect. I'd say another half hour it would have been just right.

I was looking at buying one of craft brewers keg carbonation lids but they are out of stock so I looked through all the bits I had in the garage and put one together and it works really well, 5 hrs give or take and your beer is carbonated and ready to drink.

I had a old lid with a strange bell shaped dome on the outside as some sort of relief valve. I cut this off flush and used that hole to work with.

I tried to use a s/s hose crimp around the hose on the thread to the lid but it was just a little too small. The zip tie seems to do the job, the hose is threaded onto the thread as it was a tight fit and so is helping to secure and seal it. Thread tape on all joins and a tap washer was a perfect fit on the outside.

It could be simplified, I just worked with what I had to do the job.

I think the stone is 2 microns.

 

[Steve]

I dont get it? How are you carbing using that rather than the normal gas in post? Whats its purpose?

 

[benno1973]

I think that the difference is the tube that runs to the bottom of the keg which has an airstone attached. I assume that this works better than hooking the gas directly up to the liquid out tube?

Elton - did you hook the gas up at serving pressure or higher?

 

[egolds77]

I turned the pressure up to 250 kpa and it handled it fine.

The carbonation stone allows the CO2 to dissolve into the beer quicker as the bobbles from the stone are much much smaller than that coming from the down tube of the keg, therefore carbonating much quicker. Which is handy when you need to carbonate a keg quickly before a mate and his wife come for the weekend and you only have 12 hours before they arrive to carbonate a keg.

 

[MVZOOM]

I turned the pressure up to 250 kpa and it handled it fine.

The carbonation stone allows the CO2 to dissolve into the beer quicker as the bobbles from the stone are much much smaller than that coming from the down tube of the keg, therefore carbonating much quicker. Which is handy when you need to carbonate a keg quickly before a mate and his wife come for the weekend and you only have 12 hours before they arrive to carbonate a keg.

You could use the Ross / Rocking method... .2 hrs....

 

[Brad Sofield]

Could we not just extend the gas in tube with an airstone at the base?

 

[egolds77]

I've been told by Ross of CraftBrewer that the carbonation stones block very easily from wort/beer if the flow of CO2 / air/ pure oxygen is stopped and the wort/beer allowed to seap into the stone which is what would happen if one was attached to the gas in tube of a keg I would imagine.

And regarding the rock & roll method. There is no way I'm doing that for hours.

 

[QSR]

Could we not just extend the gas in tube with an airstone at the base?

i bet you were the kid that invented the taco shell with the flat base too.......weren't you? :icon_chickcheers:

 

[schooey]

Could we not just extend the gas in tube with an airstone at the base?

Umm.. isn't that kinda what he's done? .. :blink:

...but with it in the keg lid, he can remove it once it's carbed and switch the gas back to the gas connect, put another lid on it and go carb another keg. Putting an airstone in every keg is going to be a very expensive and painful exercise..

 

[Murcluf]

Not try to sound thick but what is the benefit of going to all this trouble with airstones and carb lids when and waiting 4 to 5 hour 250 kpa? If require a keg to be carbed in a hurry I just put the CO2 on the out post at 300kpa wait til it pressurises and rock/shake the living snot out of the keg for 50 to 115 seconds depending on the required carbonation and done. Must point out when racking I cold condition proir to kegging which helps with the absorption of CO2

 

[schooey]

The idea of the aeration stone is to atomise the gas into the beer, allowing it to be absorved quicker. Similar to the shaking effect I guess. Personally, I can't say I've ever been in that much of a hurry to have a beer that I've needed to bother with either of the methods

 

[benno1973]

And regarding the rock & roll method. There is no way I'm doing that for hours.

The Ross Method just involves rocking for around a minute, then you leave for an hour and purge the headspace of excess gas. No rocking for hours.
Check out this thread

 

[egolds77]

I guess I just enjoy making things. I was impressed how well it worked with no effort involved. Will carbonate as normal most of the time but it's nice to have on hand when needed.

I can see how it's not needed by most but thought some may be interested in the idea. If you have the pieces lying about why not make one, you never know when it may come in handy.

 

[benno1973]

Yep, it's not necessarily where you end up, some of the fun is how you get there. Homebrewers are tinkerers and it's great to experiment. One downside of the Ross method (I find) is that the initial carbonation is rather coarse with large bubbles. This settles down after it's been at serving pressure for a few weeks, but the first few pours have slightly larger bubbles which seems to affect head retention. Maybe using an airstone (due to the finer injection of CO2) you'll find this won't be a problem.

 

[litre_o_cola]

Just noting that you removed the relief valve, how do you now burp the keg and drop your pressure from 250kpa?

 

[Steve]

And regarding the rock & roll method. There is no way I'm doing that for hours.

Elton, its great that you've built this yourself instead of buying a shop one. Im jealous, as Im a retard at building stuff. But you should have another look at the force carbing method if unexpected guests arrive again. Takes me 10 mins and 30 seconds to carb a keg.

Cheers
Steve

 

[egolds77]

Just noting that you removed the relief valve, how do you now burp the keg and drop your pressure from 250kpa?

I used something pointy to press down the 'GAS IN' valve to burp or release the pressure to remove the lid.

 

[egolds77]

Elton, its great that you've built this yourself instead of buying a shop one. Im jealous, as Im a retard at building stuff. But you should have another look at the force carbing method if unexpected guests arrive again. Takes me 10 mins and 30 seconds to carb a keg.

Cheers
Steve

Just read the 'Rolling' technique, sounds interesting, may try it but with the lid I made as the bubbles of CO2 will be much smaller. I will try the rolling method on 2 different kegs, one with the lid and one using the down tube and compare, should be an interesting comparison to try.

 

[litre_o_cola]

I used something pointy to press down the 'GAS IN' valve to burp or release the pressure to remove the lid.

I thought you might have, I would be worried (as I am a heavy handed *******) that I would nick the poppet or similar.
I was going to do something similar but retain the relief valve also, but due to the success that I have with force carbing it never eventuated.

 

[cooperplace]

I put this together late last night and put it into my yet to be carbonated APA. I woke up 4.5 hrs later and checked the carbonation of the beer, just about perfect. I'd say another half hour it would have been just right.

I was looking at buying one of craft brewers keg carbonation lids but they are out of stock so I looked through all the bits I had in the garage and put one together and it works really well, 5 hrs give or take and your beer is carbonated and ready to drink.

I had a old lid with a strange bell shaped dome on the outside as some sort of relief valve. I cut this off flush and used that hole to work with.

I tried to use a s/s hose crimp around the hose on the thread to the lid but it was just a little too small. The zip tie seems to do the job, the hose is threaded onto the thread as it was a tight fit and so is helping to secure and seal it. Thread tape on all joins and a tap washer was a perfect fit on the outside.

It could be simplified, I just worked with what I had to do the job.

I think the stone is 2 microns.

I just use the shaking method. I turn the gas up to 40psi, and shake the keg, rocking it back and forth, counting to 100. If quite warm, 120. If chilled, 80. If the keg is less than full I only count to 80, because when the keg is tilted over there is more surface area for CO2 absorbtion. CO2 is readily soluble in water. I then let ti settle down overnight. Always perfect.