So I’m going to be putting it in a 5gallon keg, going to pressurize at 20psi, and let it self carbonate. No priming sugar…
Will this work?
You’ll have to leave the pressure on continuously for a while in order to have enough CO2 to fill the volume.
Sometimes if I’m pressed for time I’ll set my pressure at 30psi for 2-3 days and be ready to serve.
That’s assuming a beer that was cold crashed to 34F.
I’ve placed primary in the walk-in cooler, so that will bring it to 34F, I will transfer to secondary and place back in walk-in at 34F. Then I will transfer to 5gallon keg, pressurize at 20psi, and wait a week or two then I will drink it.
A week or two at 20psi is too long. What style of beer did you brew?
Black Cherry Ale. How long should i keep it at 20psi for??
If it’s for a week or two don’t use 20 psi, just set it to 8-9 psi. That’ll get you 2.4-2.5 volumes of CO2 in the beer at 34F. You could go with 20 psi for shorter, but you risk over carbonating the beer. Since you’re not in a rush, I think the lower pressure is the way to go.
Sorry for the late response but yes at least 9psi for 2.5volumes of CO2 at 34F should be plenty.
If you find you want more or less just adjust the CO2 pressure accordingly.
So 9psi? Then how restaurants keep kegs at 18-22psi? Shouldn’t this carbonate the kegs even more? Or do 1/2 barrels take more then 1/6 barrels?
It is entirely independent of volume, but you are controlling temperature, pressure and volumes of CO2 in the beer. A keg at 34F and 9 psi gets about 2.5 volumes of CO2. Same keg at 45F needs 15 psi to get about 2.5 volumes of CO2. Switch it to American Lager where you might want 3 volumes of CO2, and at 45F you need 21 psi.
Google carbonation chart and you can find one to your liking. You decide what temp you want, and how much CO2 in the beer, then find the psi setting for that keg.
I pressuized the keg to 10psi, and tossed in my walk in cooler at 34-36F…I’ll have a beer on Friday!!
As Drew mentioned above, the keg will need to be hooked up to the CO2 the whole time. I find that it takes about a week of holding the keg at a constant pressure and a constant temp to get it to carbonate. If you put it into a 34F fridge today and attach it to a CO2 tank with the regulator set at 10PSI, then you should have carbonated beer next Thursday. Unless of course, you have a CO2 leak. In that case, you’ll have an empty CO2 tank and flat beer. Oh, you can also leave a leaky cobra faucet attached and have a floor full of beer. For the most part, kegging has been great, but I have learned a lot of lessons the hard way over the years. That said I’ll never go back to bottling.
I didn’t reply to this thread earlier because I sugar prime my kegs now. But, it appears to me that you’re not properly set up to carbonate via the above method? Why not save the headache and potential hassle and give sugar priming a try? Just throwing this out there…
Sugar-priming has been the easiest and most reliable approach for me and quite frankly I don’t see any difference in clarity if this is what concerns you.
Black Cherry ale sounds interesting.
So I’ve attached my CO2 to my 5gallon keg, tossed it in my walk-cooler (I own a restaurant) and I will let it sit for a week. I was reading this article:
It told me to bring it to pressure, then release the CO2 tank. Maybe the article assumes I will pressurized at 20psi? If I increase the psi, will it carbonate faster?
I believe the article is assuming you will pressurize at 20psi. Not sure it will carbonate faster since I do the corn sugar method and hit the keg with a little CO2 to seat the lid.
I can turn up the psi if it will carbonate faster…
If you want to force carb a keg of beer quickly. Set the pressure of your chilled beer to 30PSI for 2-3 days and voila!
Just remember to turn it back down to 10-12PSI after it has carbonated to your liking or you will end up with a mug full of foam.
Ok, I’m turning up pressure to 30psi, and I will put it back down to 20psi (?) on Sat or Sun…
Sound about right?
Seems like I can only turn it up to 20psi…it wont go any higher…
The trick to understanding carbonation is that you need to establish equilibrium in the keg. At colder temps, the CO2 has an easier time getting into the beer, so you can carbonate with a lower PSI setting on the regulator. If you charge a keg of 34F beer to 10 PSI and remove the regulator, the CO2 will leave the headspace and work its way into the beer. If you check it a day later, the pressure in the keg will be really low because the CO2 in the headspace has now worked its way into the beer and established a new equilibrium. If you attach the CO2 and leave it set at 10 PSI for a week, it will establish an equilibrium where there is 10 PSI in the headspace and the beer contains an appropriate volume of CO2 at that temp and pressure.
Leaving the regulator attached for 2 days at 30 PSI, can establish a similar equilibrium to holding it at 10 PSI for a week. The trick is to catch it at the point where the beer is carbonated sufficiently, but not overcarbonated.
Here is a website that I found really helpful: