My Brew Shop Guy Is Confusing Me...

[tangent]

it's finding that all the gas is gone at noon on a Saturday which sucks arse.

 

[jkeysers]

for the record, i DID mean kpa not psi. my bad. i may be a noob but i'm not that stupid. haha.

well, this thread has been both helpful and not at the same time. im glad i cleared up that i can leave the gas on (i'll listen to people here b4 my HBS guy from now on), but now im not sure if i <i>should</i> leave it on. its been on there for 8 or 9 days now, i figured if i had a leak, i would notice something by now. but the reg is staying steady at about 13-14 <i>psi</i>.

for those who take it off, what exactly is the process? i'm assuming that the carbonation phase is the same, 14ish psi for a week. then what? just put the gas on at that pressure every time i pour? every 2nd time?

 

[Hashie]

As some one else already said, you have to do what works for you.
I naturally carbonate my kegs and only turn the gas on to pour. At all other times the gas is turned off at the bottle. If you are going to wait a week or so to force carbonate your kegs, why not naturally carbonate them and save a heap of gas?

 

[Wortgames]

There are other factors involved with naturally carbonating, not least of all you are going through the whole fermentation stage all over again, with trapped byproducts etc which will take just as long to clean up as they do when bottling. One of the beauties of artificial carbonation IMO is the ability to drink really fresh beer. If you naturally carbonate then you have to allow weeks for it to clean up again.

CO2 is pretty cheap really, I wouldn't worry too much about trying to save dollars there. A cylinder will last for ages, even when force carbonating.

 

[pint of lager]

Watch those seals.

We had an o'ring on the beer post with a split in it, came out to find a pool of beer under the fridge. The gas was on too.

Haven't lost a cylinder of gas, but have spokedn to quite a few people that have lost a cylinder due to minor leaks. Like Tangent said, that empty cylinder on Saturday afternoon would be bad.

Like the others have said, use what works for you. Forced carbonation, balanced systems, natural carbonation, kegs, bottles, PET and huge fridges with 10 taps all have their place.

 

[Lactobacillus]

it's finding that all the gas is gone at noon on a Saturday which sucks arse.

Or worse yet, at 6pm on the Friday just before four days worth of Christmas weekend and public holidays start h34r:
Couldn't have happened at a worse time - will NEVER happen again (spare bottle now permanently on hand) :angry:

Lacto

 

[mobrien]

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=10667

All the info you need for quick CO2!

M

 

[Brewer_010]

I have left my gas bottle on since i have owned it. Just tighten up your hose clamps and you'll be fine.

it was actually a slightly dented lid on the keg (or it wasn't lined up exactly, or something). And of course I happen to notice it on a drinking day on a weekend with nowhere to fill it for days!

 

[BenH]

it was actually a slightly dented lid on the keg (or it wasn't lined up exactly, or something). And of course I happen to notice it on a drinking day on a weekend with nowhere to fill it for days!

I force carbonate using the "Ross method", and I find that the higher pressure at the start helps to 'set' the lid - and allows me to check for poor seals (as the higher pressure makes leaks more obvious) - I also spray my sanitiser over the posts to check for bubbles, which would indicate a leak due to a faulty poppet or seal.

All being well, I leave the gas on my keg. :beer:

I found that once I understood how a balanced system works, that I can be less fussy with my force carbonating too, as any difference in absorbed CO2 due to sloppy technique will work itself out over the next day or so.

In answer to the question of "should", I've found that by keeping the gas up to my kegs, they say at a constant carbonation level. When I used an on-again-off-again method, I found that the carbonation varied because I'd drink a few pints and then forget to top up the gas

I think the answer to "should" is "it depends" !! This site is great for information - but there's very few "shoulds" - read all the info you can and do what works for you.