First of all, hello! My name is brad. I have been brewing for many years but have mostly stuck to the kit stuff. I recently moved into the boiled kits to hopefully some day make recipes from complete scratch. So anyways, I have a batch of what I call “lake Houston pale ale” because its literally made from the water from the lake.
My question is I’m trying not to force carbonate the beer in my corny this time, I’m trying to add about 1/3 cup priming sugar to the batch and let it carbonate naturally. I put about 5psi on the corny to help with the seal. Should I just let it sit for two weeks no matter what the internal pressure ends up being or do I need to keep relieving the pressure down to 5psi? What’s a safe pressure level? Obviously since I put some sugar in there the pressure keeps rising. Thanks for everyone’s help WAY in advance. Cheers
You have to leave the pressure so that the beer carbonates. Otherwise, it’s just gonna ferment out and be flat. So, don’t vent.
Most cornies can take around 135 psi. so you don’t need to worry about too much pressure for the keg.
In more worried about the carbonation level. 135psi would be a pile of foam lol. I read in one of my beer books that yeast deactivates at a certain psi, but it didn’t specify.
Carbonating in a keg uses the same amount of sugar as you would for bottles. Usually, after a couple weeks the keg will be ready for the kegorator. Then I’ll vent it right before pouring after it’s been in there a week or so. Sometimes as soon as 24 hours. 
OK, i will be the first to ask, although certainly not the first who has thought it, but what will this beer made from lake water taste like? have you brewed with this water before? take good notes. i’m not trying to curb your enthusiasm for brewing, just asking…
As long as the lake water is boiled then the beer should be fine.
And perhaps filtered. I wouldn’t want to brew with the water from some of the murky lakes I swim in. And pee in…
Lol let me clarify. Lake Houston is the drinking water for all of Houston. So it gets sucked out of the lake and then goes through purification (just like all your municipalities do unless you are on a well) before hitting my sink. Although I do live right on the lake and could just take a 5 gallon pail down to the water, I chose to get it out of the faucet, already “purified.”
I remember seeing a video with Dr. Charlie Bamforth brewing a batch with filthy water from a duckpond. Everyone loved the beer and it showed to prove how the process of beer making made the water safe to drink historically.
that was from the little ‘river’ that flows through the arboretum. It is nasty particularly in summer.
I looked in Bru’n Water and there isn’t an option for “little duck pond river”. How much magnesium (MgS04) would I have to add for that?
Yeah but I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near one that failed at that pressure!!!