Keg conditioning?

[Ben]

g'day everyone,

I am new to kegging and im wondering about everyones processes for conditioning. My last brew an APA got the following treatment, in primary around one week, then rack to keg and add sugar to prime, left it about a week then into the fridge where its under 1 bar of CO2. Thats where its at now, I have another in primary, and an IPA planned for this weekend.
whats your thoughts on this process?

cheers,

Ben

[jt]

I don't prime my kegs, just ferment, secondary and then rack to keg.
Then into the fridge under serving pressure where it conditions for about a week before I start to drink (though I do taste it before the week is up)

I thought priming a keg would take longer than a week, but I guess depends on a lot of variables.

cheers, jt

[Barry]

Yeah me too, I just gas it up. no need at all to prime in the keg, in fact you'll just create more yeasty muck on the bottom.
Having said that a lot of people swear that the taste from forced carbonation is different to natural, I call bollocks. Surely co2 is co2 is co2.
If you want to be drinking quicker, leave it on 40psi for a day and a half (scientific eh!) and then return to serving pressure. Day 3 start drinking. Disclaimer: do this once you have some experience with kegging, otherwise you'll end up overcarbonating which is a pain to correct.
Or even quicker, charge to 40psi and invert the keg, or hook the gas line up to the beer out post - so the gas goes down the dip tube to the bottom of the keg - rock the keg for 2 minutes. Leave for an hour, burp, hook up at usual serving pressure and drink. If undercarbonated, repeat. You can have drinkable beer the same day.

[jt]

Priming would need some calculation - Volume, FG, temperature, volumes of co2 required etc etc to be accurate wouldn't it - like bulk priming ?

The yeast from that conditioning supposedly gets poured in the first few pints - but never having tried it cant vouch for it.

I vote for carbonating and conditioning at serving pressure, you can't overcarbonate. After many weeks of problems and pints of froth when I started kegging (ok, dodgey fridge in the equation too) I wouldn't go any other way.

cheers, jt

[denimglen]

What I do as well.

So much easier, no fiddling with regulators, overcarbing and such. Set and forget.

[denimglen]

"...Having said that a lot of people swear that the taste from forced carbonation is different to natural, I call bollocks. Surely co2 is co2 is co2..."

Maybe something to do with the extra fermentation byproducts etc? I've heard that natural carb creates smaller bubbles too. But it doesn't really worry me. I did it for the first couple of kegs cause I had a problem with my fridge.

[jt]

I guess the test is "what's the beer like Ben ?"

[Ben]

cheers for the feedback,
my reasoning behind priming the keg is that the fermentation should soak up any diacetyl and/or acetaldehyde that might be produced due to oxidation during the racking. not sure if this is significant in practice though?
jt - the beer is looking alright, it took a couple of glasses to remove the 'mud' at the bottom though. It is still quite hazy but it has only been in the fridge a couple of days.
I think the next one I will forget the priming and throw it straight in the fridge to carb.
on that, does anyone else go straight to keg from the primary fermenter? if so how long do you typically wait after fermentation is complete, if not how long are you leaving it in the secondary?
thanks for the help.

[Barry]

I never secondary. Ever. Ales go into the keg straight from primary after 10 days minimum. Unless I'm out of beer (like right now) in which case it'll be in the keg asap, 7 days or so and force carbed to drink as soon as I can.

Leave ales in the primary, at correct temperature until fermentation is complete, then at room temperature for the remaining up to 10-14 days total, that'll scrub out any diacetal or acetalaldehyde. Then get it into the keg and drink it.

[Greig McGill]

I agree Barry. It's the Way of Zainasheff! How can it be wrong? ;)

[Ben]

Disaster has struck!, my keg fridge which sits in the carport, had the door blown open by the wind this morning, somehow knocking the tap open. I came home from to find the tap spitting co2 and a puddle of yeast on the concrete, sickening..
I'd be drinkin away my sorrows but Ive got no beer, except one in the primary just finished fermenting,.. but I haven't sunk that low since uni.
i'll be fastracking this one for sure.
truly gutting though, hope no one else has ever had this happen.

[Barry]

Thats bloody terrible. Commiserations.

[jt]

Maybe the Temperance League are active in your neighbourhood ?

I'd be gutted to come home and find that, never mind the cylinder of gas ....