Personally i mostly set to 38F and set to 11 or 12psi and leave it alone however, depending on the style i use a homemade spunding valve. I will rack the beer to keg when it is around 6 to 8 gravity points away from finial attenuation and set pressure to desired setting for temp and let sit for 2 weeks then hook up to co2 to maintain that level. I enjoy this method and it has its challenges but produces a finer/lacier mouth-feel.
Though I did not know how to describe it, this “finer/lacier mouth-feel” is what I must be missing in forced carb beer. I’ve been reading more about Cask Conditioned Ales and may try this. I’m just not satisfied with the results of my force carbonating.
CO2 is CO2 no matter what the source. Properly applied CO2 from a tank, allowed to fully dissolve into the beer, will be indistinguishable from any other source.
Thanks for clarifying. I was wondering about that.
Placebo effect?
I think so. When I did a test maybe 14 years ago with different carbing methods and sugars, after 2 months no one could tell one from another or had a preference for any of them.
+2
CO2 is CO2 no matter what the source. Properly applied CO2 from a tank, allowed to fully dissolve into the beer, will be indistinguishable from any other source.
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Yes i agree Co2 is Co2 no matter what source however for some reason there is a distinct difference to me in natural verse forced carb. The mouthfeel seems to be smoother along with head retention is “always” better on my natural carb beers. There is just something different to me. Perhaps it could be proteins, yeast and what not suspended in solution that gives me this sensation but it is definitely there. I will say that once naturally carbed i hook it up to co2 to maintain the level and can not tell the difference as time goes on so i suppose it could be all in my head:)
I guess the difference could be more related to the process and not the co2 itself.
I’m now firmly in the camp that sees no difference in quality of carbonation via force carbonation.
Have you tried a blind triangle on beers carbed each way, say 2 months after carbonation?
No i have not. Ill have to add that one to the list :) Or just state the obvious that many feel the same way and i should just stop being so stubborn 
I put it this way. If there’s a difference I can’t detect it. Unless it’s a bottle conditioned vs keg forced, and you up end the bottle when pouring.
Now if you do something like priming with fruit juice, or adding Brett at bottling, there will be a noticeable difference
IMO, the “properly dissolved” and “two months” parts of your statements are the key. I think that with shaking to carbonate (and perhaps force carbonating in general), people expect that they will have a perfect pour almost immediately and when they don’t they compare it to bottle carbed beers that have been sitting for much longer without considering the time difference.
Naturally carbonating your beers forces a degree of patience that often gets overlooked when force carbonating.
Chalk me up as another who has lost too many tanks of gas to a leaky connection. I never leave my gas on for any considerable length of time.
I have one cylinder that I hit a freshly kegged beer with maximum pressure (after I have burped the air out of the headspace) for a brief amount of time. I will then hit again the next day and the next, until I have achieved the right pressure at that cellar temp for that style of beer. Then its off to the kegerator, where I serve all beers at 40°F at 10-12 psi. I only turn the gas on the kegerator when I am drawing a beer, I shut it off afterwards. That seems to save me on losing tanks.
Yes, the rock-n-roll method will get you big bubbles and carbonic acid bite, but as Denny pointed out, its all the same after a while. In my experience force-carbed beers taste no different than other kegged beers in about 2-3 days after shaking in the CO2.
Interesting discussion. I hear from others that for competitions, bottle conditioned beers tend to score better. Must be oxidation in bottling from keg that holds back so many keg drawn entries?
this is probably true some of the time. however I have heard judges comment that if they see a bottle has no sediment they ‘look for oxidation’ and often if you really look for a flavor characteristic believing that it might be there you’ll find it.
Yeah, I’d like to see that mindset change. Now and then when I do enter a comp I use the beer gun on purged bottles. There should be no difference. Judge the beer on its merits.
That has not been my experience. Beers that are obviously bottled from kegs score equally with bottle conditioned beer.
I have had good results bottling from the keg using a beer gun.
FWIW, I have had wonderful results bottling from the keg with the beer gun. I just had feedback from a few guys that enter comps a lot and they say that there has been a perceptible bias toward bottle conditioning in competitions, so they bottle condition for almost all competition beers they plan to enter. Maybe they are wrong, but they say the same beer (recipe) in a bottle conditioned entry scored higher than when they entered it bottled from the keg with a beer gun. The next question (unasked) would be if they entered both ways in a competition and they were from the same batch - that would be the true way to see if there is a bias toward bottle conditioned beers in competitions.