Carbonating

[Ian]

I wondered what thoughts you guys have on carbonating. Apart from being new to AG brewing, I am also new to the kegging business. It is the first time I have kegged beer and it looks like just the ticket compared with the hassle of bottling. Now, a mate I am in email contact with is a veteran brewer and in his opinion (and I am sure many folk have a different take) he reckons the beer really needs four weeks in the fridge, in the keg, to settle and condition, and sees no point in setting the CO2 pressure beyond 100KPA or force carbonating. So I have set that pressure, but the instructions for kegging (and it seems many brewers) prefer to force carbonate at a higher pressure for less time. Just wondered what your thoughts were on that? Is there any point in getting up to carbonation pressure quicker if the beer still needs to condition and settle out for a few more weeks?
Actually I wanted to draw a drop for tasters this morning and my Corny keg (which only just fits into the height of the beer fridge) tumbled out, breaking the inlet pipe off at the attachment toggle! I don't imagine I need to tell you how that spreads beer around the kitchen and you, far and wide and in quick time! I got the pressure off and re-fitted the wee pipe and clamped it with a twist of wire and it is now fine and reinstalled in the little keggerator at 100KPA - innitiation into this lark can be heaps of fun, especially for anyone watching!

[James P]

Personally I don't tend to break something that is working. If you want more room get a bigger keg...

You will also want to leave an amount of room for headspace, I am sure I read another forum in relation to the required amount of head space by the volume of the keg.... but that is a little hazy...

[jt]

If you keg a batch and taste it every day until it runs out, you'll find out what your optimum conditioning time is !

I hook up at serving pressure and tell myself to leave it two weeks, but invariably I drink it almost immediately and I'm disapointed. At two weeks it's good, three weeks is great and at four weeks I'm p1ssed off because it's finished.

If you have the standard two keg set up, get a brew on tap and a brew right behind it to condition at serving pressure, you wont regret it.

cheers, jt

[Ian]

Hi jt, I had a really good giggle at your comments. Maybe my mate who says 'keg and leave for four weeks' has it right. But I have certainly been having sippers - call it R&D to see how it's coming along.
I do have a second keg but the problem is that my wee beer fridge that I converted to a keggerator will only hold the one and I thought it might be a bad idea to brew and keg another batch and have it standing around uncarbonated at room temperature in summer? I could pump some C)2 into it after kegging of course, but still it might get hotter than it should. I guess the answer is obvious - get a biger keggerator!
Cheers,
Ian

[NVIOUS]

If your looking to store more kegs cold, here is my setup which holds 4 kegs easily. Cheap too. Fridge cost me $120 off trademe. It is also very easy to mount external taps. I haven't done that as I have young kids who I'm sure would open them up when I not around. Which wouldn't be the best thing.

[jt]

You'd be better trying to carbonate it, at least purge the oxygen from the headspace in the keg.

Some people may even suggest priming the keg and letting it carbonate naturally (though I've never tried this myself) if you have time to spare - it's just bulk priming as people do when they bottle

I keg and force carbonate as much as is possible at room temperature.
The keg sits at room temp until I have room in the fridge - sometimes upto a week.
It still takes 24 hours to chill down but after 24 hours is pretty good - chilled, lightly carbonated and drinkable.

[Ian]

Cheers jt, that sounds like good reasoning to me. But I do like that keggerator of NVIOUS'. Look as though you have two kegs attached to the CO2 and two lurking beihind to take their place when they gurgle to a finish? Seems ideal.

[jt]

I have a similar model fridge - 4 kegs gassing and serving - though nowhere near as tidy.

[Reviled]

I primed in the keg once and got so much sediment in the keg I will never do it again...

My 2cents..

[denimglen]

Kegged a bitter and primed it with a kinda krausen-like, small wort, highly hopped. Drinking it now.

Was brewed with SO4 and looks like it was brewed with a wheat yeast.

[NVIOUS]

On the money Ian. I try to have one in the fermenter ready to replace the empty one too. As far as the carbonation goes I crank it up to 2 bar when it's cold for 36 hours. Testing it and if I want more just leave it another 8. I always do it as soon as it goes into the keg. Never had any problems doing it this way.

[Ian]

Thanks NVIOUS, it sure is a help for newbie AGrainers to get an idea what other folk do - I don't know enough to be individualistic yet - but I now have some great ideas about improving my set-up. Ideally? Need a brew shed!
Hey denimglen, you mentioned a bitter. An English bitter is probably my favourite style and fair hopping is fine, but I have to admit that I'm not a complete hophead (yet) like some. So I am looking for a good bitter recipe that is friendly to newby brewers - have you some ideas? I'm not deluded about trying to emulate the likes of Fullers London Pride or Emersons Bookbinder Bitter at this early stage, but just to give you an idea, thesee are two beers I love.
Cheers,
Ian

[denimglen]

Sorry, can't help, see the other thread I just started (Recipe Advice) haha, you're asking the wrong guy about bitters.