Carbing, Storing, Serving Pressure

[Surye]

I know that the carbonation pressure is a function of the volumes you want and the temp it will be. And the serving pressure is much lower, depending on beer line length and volumes in the beer. But what about storing? This is basically a two part question:

1) If I carb a beer, and need to store it for some time (no room on kegerator), or I am aging it in the keg, can I just disconnect the gas and it should keep the same CO2 in suspension? (Can't imagine it would go anywhere...)
2) When in the kegerator, and on serving pressure, if I don't take pints all that often, or several days can go by between pulls, can I leave it at serving pressure and maintain my level of carbonation?

"Sorry if this has been covered"TM, but I've been seeking this info, and can't seem to find it.

Cheers!

[Bugeater]

In a properly balanced system, your keg will stay at the same carbonation level. You don't need to turn the pressure down to serve. The pressure on the keg remains constant, but the pressure at the faucet is quite a bit lower due to the resistance to flow by the tubing. If you flow is too fast, you need to get longer tubing from the keg to the faucet. If the flow is too slow, you need to shorten the tubing. Throughout all this you don't need to change the pressure setting of the regulator unless you want to change the carbonation level.

Wayne

[andy77]

1) Yes. Absolutely. I do it often.

2) Whatever carbonation level the current pressure works out to, you will eventually carb the beer to that level. For instance, if you carb a beer to 4 volumes (say it's a saison) then turn it down to 5 psi serving pressure. The first few pints will pour at 4 volumes, but after that it will begin to re-balance. After time, it will adjust to the new pressure...ie whatever 5 psi at your serving temp is. Unless you have separate regulators, there's no way to stop this. Find a length of line that can handle your desired psi, and then expect that all your beers will be at that carbonation level.

http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/562