Should I pressurize the keg after transfer if it's going to sit awhile?

Brewing Processes
1

I just kegged my first batch this morning and not sure what to do about pressurizing. I don’t have space in my kegerator so going to leave this keg sit on the basement floor for a couple weeks. This graph https://www.kegerators.com/carbonation-table/ only goes up to 65F and my basement is right around 72F right now. Should I put the full 30 PSI on it now and call it close enough or would I be better to wait until the kegerator is free, stick it in, chill it, and then carbonate?  I’ve got 15PSI sitting on it right now left over from venting it during kegging.

2

I believe you should pressurize it now to keep air from getting past the seal.

3

Agreed

4

I wouldn’t be concerned with carbonating at this point. Like the others said you just want to protect from oxygen ingress.

5

Ok thanks all. I connected the co2 to the gas port and laid the keg on it’s side (gas port up). Rocked it back and forth for a few minutes with 25PSI on it.  I’ve never had the regulator up that high before and the vent valve started leaking gas. I retired this regulator to the the spare parts box a long time ago because I suspected it had a leak somewhere. Guess I found it.  I should have somewhere around 25PSI on it. Sprayed star-san around all the fittings and gaskets. I don’t see any foam starting. Good enough?

6

Yep, good enough.  I take that approach frequently if I don’t spund the wort.

7

I was reading through an article on CO2, I think in the most recent issue of Zymurgy, but I could be wrong that talked about CO2 diffusion in liquid. The article pointed out that warm liquid adsorbs gas quicker than cold, kind of debunking the old chill your beer  then carbonate. While it does take a higher pressure to carbonate warm beer, my thinking is if I carb at say 65, then chill I should get a quicker force carb, and longer retention? Am I in left field with this line of thought, or am I tracking in the right direction?

Thanks,
Vince

8

Increasing temperature increases the speed of diffusion, but decreases the amount of gas that the liquid can hold at a given pressure. So at 65F, you will need about 28-30 PSI to carbonate to 2.5 volumes of CO2, where you only need 10-12 PSI at usual serving temps. It certainly can be done, and I’ve done it myself on a few occasions.