Carbing beer in kegs

[Peter Smith]

I have tried set at 12.5 and leave 10 days and set at 30 and leave 3-4 days,  I am not achieving bottle carb levels at all, ideas?  Perhaps my gauges are out?   The beer is carbed but just not as much as I wish for...

[Smiffy]

Temperature, pressure, time, and agitation all have an effect.

What level of carbonation are you aiming for?

What temperature is this happening at?

Smiffy

[Peter Smith]

about 7C  and aiming for a typical IPA bottle conditioned beer carb say 2.5-2.7

seem to get to around 2.0 ish ok on my scale...  I tend to set and leave not shake and bake...  

how long do you normally set and leave for before considering it "ready"

 on a typical keg?

[Smiffy]

My chart says you need 16 psig. (12.5 would give about 2.3 volumes).

I usually shake, but if I don't it certainly doesn't take 10 days, more like 5 for 25l kegs. Bigger kegs will take longer because of more depth, and corny kegs might take longer too because of the smaller surface area.

[Scott H]

I can normally be drinking after a week and reach full carbonation at the 10-14 day mark. Most of the time I carb at 11-12 PSI @6C.

Have you checked to make sure you have no slow leaks or blockages in your gas line or regulator?

[Matt Smith]

Sounds to me like your issue is with the temp. Like Smiffy said you need a fair bit of pressure at that temp to get to those volumes. For 2.5 volumes my calculator says 14.5psi. Problem with that is, you'd need really long lines to balance the pressure, also warmer temps promote foaming as Co2 comes out of solution much quicker.

I'm assuming your preference is to serve a little warmer at 7 degrees, but I'd suggest dropping it down to 4 and seeing what difference that makes. You should get to full carb within about 5 days with the set and forget method, at about 12PSI. Kegging is a trade off between ideal temp and ideal carbonation level, you just have to find a middle ground.

[Peter Smith]

I will move the corny kegs to a smaller fridge that holds 2C  no problems...  and add an stc1000 for control.

[Grant R Baker]

My method (so far, still tweaking) targeting about 2.2-2.5 carb level

Fridge to 2C, let the beer chill to 2C (need to cold crash it anyway). Gelatine treatment after 4-5 days if its is a pale brew.

Set to 16psi and leave for 5-7 days.

Next tweak is to extract the Gelatine (if used) after 2 days then force carb at 30+PSI for 15mins whilst rocking, stand at 30 PSI for 1 day then try it.  Going to try that tonight. Will know by Monday night how good or mad that idea is.

[Grant R Baker]

Well I tried the quick force carb option... and got a glass of snow cone sitting in front of me.

This option can work but it really is trial and error. I have turned the gas off on the keg, let the pressure out and will let it sit for two days before putting back on the tap.

Liking the ole 16psi for 5-7 days carbing myself.

[Richard Jack]

My method:

• Chill fermenter to a few degrees below serving temp
• Rack into keg as normal
• Add gelatin if used dissolved as per your normal method
• Connect gas to gas post at desired serving pressure (16PSI I guess for you Grant?), purge as normal
• Lay the keg down, gas post down, and rock it with my foot for 20 mins or so until it stops bubbling (usually working on the laptop or watching something at this point
• When it's not absorbing gas anymore, stand it up and put it in the keg fridge, the next day pull off a cloudy pint of gelatin beer, and then enjoy the nicely carbed beer that follows.

If I'm not wanting to reuse the yeast I'll fine in the fermenter not the keg, then you can have the carbed beer that night.

Generally when I try to use more pressure than serving I screw it up.

[Grant R Baker]

I'll give that a go next time.   Cheers

[Scott H]

I have tried the carbing in 4 days method with mixed results. Prefer to just wait an extra few days.

[Druid]

I've always force carbed - the trick is to adjust your pressure to about 30psi, turn the keg upside down and rock it then stop, turn the gas off at the bottle and make sure no other kegs have valves open on the same gas line so that the gauge on the bottle is only 'seeing' just the keg you are carbing and not the gas in the bottle itself.

Then turn the keg the right way up again and just rock or swirl the keg so that the pressure in the head space equalizes out with the pressure of the co2 that's gone into solution.
You will know when equilibrium has happened because the pressure on co2 cylinder gauge stops dropping and stabilizes - this gives you an indication of how much gas has gone into solution so far. This lets you see exactly how much co2 has gone into your beer as a measured by PSI.

Then repeat until you've got the carbonation you require.

You are aiming to force carb to just below your target PSI for the vols you are after. It's worth noting that even though I crash to just above zero, equalizing the beer as though it was 5*C seems to hit the right carbonation once it's finally settled out properly.

You can also set your gas pressure much higher - 60 psi - and shake for less time, once you've got a feel for it.

When you try it for the first time, you might need to do it more frequently until you get a feel for how much shaking at what temp and pressure will get you close to your target dissolved PSI.

Then leave it overnight and it's usually good for tasting so that you get an early taste of the beer's potential.

I always notice that the carbonation tastes a bit like soda water carbing ie. big, full on bubbles for a few days - but that quickly gets finer and the beer starts revealing itself properly.