First time keg carbing, help!

Mon Jan 25, 2010 8:48 pm

I brewed a Schwarzbier some time back, and I'm getting ready to carb it up in my corny. How much/how long should I carb it?

I was looking at this chart
http://www.kegerators.com/carbonation-table.php
It's chilling at 40C, so I was thinking about 10 or 11 PSI. How long should I leave it at that PSI before I drink it? When should I turn the CO2 off, or should I leave it on?

Is 10 or 11 PSI considered the "set it and forget it" method or the force carb method? Which is better?

As you can tell, I'm a complete kegging noob. Any help would be great.
Bugeater wrote:I don't need to drink to get stupid. I drink so I don't notice it as much. 8)
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Re: First time keg carbing, help!

Mon Jan 25, 2010 9:02 pm

The main concept in force carbonating is equilibrium . At some point, the beer will absorb as much CO2 as it can at that pressure, and no more. Equilibrium is reached between the pressure being put out of the regulator and the pressure in the keg. If you keep the same keg for a week or a year, the balance won't change after that point of equilibrium is reached. So precise timing of any changes in the gas pressure is unnecessary.

Pick the level of carbonation you desire (guide to carbonation levels: http://sdcollins.home.mindspring.com/ForceCarbonation.html). Use that chart to dial in the psi, wait a week or 10 days, or until it tastes right, then drink.
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Re: First time keg carbing, help!

Mon Jan 25, 2010 9:15 pm

40° C !!!!!! That's 104° F. I don't think the charts go that high. :lol:

Aside from the typo, you have the pressure right. That is the set and forget pressure. If you hook up the CO2 and leave it, your beer should be properly carbonated in 5-7 days.

You can cut that by a couple days if you hook up the CO2 at around 30 psi and roll the keg back and forth for a couple minutes to get a bunch more CO2 back into solution. Some folks like to carbonate all the way with this method but getting the carbonation right is really tricky unless you get (or build) a keg pressure tester.
Image
Instructions on building one are here, http://www.hbd.org/carboy/kegpresstester.htm or you can buy one at Northern Brewer for about $15 (or $39 at Morebeer).

When you use one of these, you pressurize the keg to about 30 psi then disconnect the gas and roll it back and forth for a couple minutes. You the tip the keg back upright and check the pressure. You will need to do this several times as the pressure will only go up a few pounds each time. Once the measured pressure (after rolling several minutes) gets to about two pounds over your desired carbonation/serving pressure you are done. Just set the keg back in the kegerator and let it sit for 24 hours. This will allow that overpressure dissolve into the beer and let all the sediment you stirred up settle to the bottom. Then hook up the gas at your serving pressure and you are good to go. It will probably take another day or two for the pressure to fully balance out, but you will be close enough to drink.

Wayne
Last edited by Bugeater on Tue Jan 26, 2010 1:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: First time keg carbing, help!

Mon Jan 25, 2010 10:15 pm

Good stuff Bug! The link to the build seems to be missing, do you have it?

I've always just jammed with 30 and a good hard shake, then fine tuned it over the next couple days serving. I'd love to put one of those together.
Get 30 extra gravity points by pressing - up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, start - during the mash.
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Re: First time keg carbing, help!

Mon Jan 25, 2010 10:24 pm

You can throw away the charts (there is really nothing wrong with them so if you prefer the charts ignore the following) and use this formula to calculate the number of volumes for a given pressure (gauge) and temperature (Fahrenheit):

Vols = (PSIG + 14.695)*(0.01821 + 0.090115*exp( (32-T)/43.11)

Or turn it around to get the pressure required for a given number of volumes.

PSIG = Vols/(0.01821 + 0.090115*exp( (32-T)/43.11) - 14.695

These formulae came from a fit to the ASBC's table and are quite accurate.

While it is true that there will be some gas dissolved in the beer after a week to 10 days with the "set and forget" method, thorough integration of the gas with the beer (i.e. to the extent that it produces fine bubble for a long time giving a thick, stable head) takes more like a month. So by all means sample from time to time starting at 10 days but try to be patient so that there is at least some beer left a month from now. It will be better beer (of course the "lagering" time doesn't hurt any beer - ale or lager - as far as I can tell but I'm speaking only of the condition/head/head retention properties here).
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Re: First time keg carbing, help!

Tue Jan 26, 2010 11:14 am

Bugeater wrote:40° C !!!!!! That's 104° F. I don't think the charts go that high. :lol:


I refer to everything in Celsius when overclocking...so Yup
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Re: First time keg carbing, help!

Tue Jan 26, 2010 1:23 pm

BeerRun13 wrote:Good stuff Bug! The link to the build seems to be missing, do you have it?


Good catch! :oops: I fixed the post and here is the link too. http://www.hbd.org/carboy/kegpresstester.htm

That's what I get for posting when I'm:

1. Tired
2. Old
3. Senile
4. All of the above

Take your pick. 8)

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