Carbonating a corny keg

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Chris hamblin
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Carbonating a corny keg

Post by Chris hamblin »

Hi guys. I'm new to this forum. I have been kit brewing and bottling for a couple of years but have recently invested in a corny keg set up. I have also brewed my first 2 gallon BIAB which is now crash cooling in my fermentation fridge. Tomorrow or Monday I will be racking into one of my 19litre kegs. Can anybody give me some advise about the best method to force carbonate the beer.

Cheers Chris
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steve crawshaw
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Re: Carbonating a corny keg

Post by steve crawshaw »

Chris hamblin wrote:Hi guys. I'm new to this forum. I have been kit brewing and bottling for a couple of years but have recently invested in a corny keg set up. I have also brewed my first 2 gallon BIAB which is now crash cooling in my fermentation fridge. Tomorrow or Monday I will be racking into one of my 19litre kegs. Can anybody give me some advise about the best method to force carbonate the beer.

Cheers Chris
Firstly clean the keg and put about 2 l of sanitiser in it. pressurise with co2 and shake to ensure internal coverage of sanitiser. vent the excess sanitiser from the OUT post via the hose you will use to rack from primary. This ensures a sanitised conduit for the green beer. Vent keg with PRV ring on the lid and leave vented. attach your sanitised hose to your FV tap or siphon. Rack into corny via the OUT post and sanitised hose with the lid closed and PRV open. It will be slow, but this is the way to ensure minimal exposure to O2 and contaminants. Once racked, close PRV and apply ~30PSI for 3 - 4 days. Then reduce to your serving pressure (8 - 12 PSI) and you will be carbonated.
cheers
steve
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Chris hamblin
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Re: Carbonating a corny keg

Post by Chris hamblin »

Thanks for the reply. I like the idea of racking into the out post rather than directly into the keg. Do you use a hose attached to a disconnect or do you remove the post and poppet and slide your tube over the threaded part?
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I_used_to_brew
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Re: Carbonating a corny keg

Post by I_used_to_brew »

I would be more cautious.

Your beer may ferment several points more in the keg, I would keg it (by syphon or whatever, there is enough CO2 in solution to negate any worries about oxidation), I would apply CO2 at around 10psi for a short while. For US and UK beer styles, I would serve in a week or less.

You didn't say what beer style you have, but, for most UK/US styles, 10psi is just fine. Keep a check on the prv and release it every few days in case extra pressure is building up. If you over carbonate then enjoy serving a pint of froth.....

If you find this too frothy then reduce the pressure on the regulator and also via the prv on the keg. (depending on your set-up, a low pressure, like 5psi may well work for you as it does for me).
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steve crawshaw
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Re: Carbonating a corny keg

Post by steve crawshaw »

Chris hamblin wrote:Thanks for the reply. I like the idea of racking into the out post rather than directly into the keg. Do you use a hose attached to a disconnect or do you remove the post and poppet and slide your tube over the threaded part?
Hose attached to disconnect. I have a 2 inch length of 3/8 beer line attached to the disconnect. I use a stainless racking cane which i sterilise with a blowtorch. I connect thin wall silicon tubing (which I autoclave) to my racking cane and then suck the beer so that it issues forth (I use a removable mouthpiece - silicon gun nozzle) and then just squeeze the tube to stop the flow. I then slide the tube onto the beer line \ disconnect and release the restriction in the tube to let the beer flow. I think this keeps the transfer as oxygen and contamination - free as possible.
cheers
steve
I like to keep a bottle of stimulant handy in case I see a snake, which I also keep handy.
PMowdes
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Re: Carbonating a corny keg

Post by PMowdes »

Force carbonating is a bit of a shit to get right. I've attached a carbonation chart that should allow you to carbonate to the right volume at any given temperature (remember that it is temperature dependent).

Personally i completely dismantle my kegs, clean with percarbonate (Oxi) cleaner and the sanitise with peracetic acid.

I then assemble the dip tubes and posts and purge the keg with CO2. I siphon the beer into the keg and then close it up and pressurise.
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Chris hamblin
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Re: Carbonating a corny keg

Post by Chris hamblin »

That chart is very informative but it doesn't give you a timescale! I kegged my beer today and it is currently sat at 8 degrees with 20psi of pressure. Was going to check it when I'm home from work tomorrow.
PMowdes
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Re: Carbonating a corny keg

Post by PMowdes »

Chris hamblin wrote:That chart is very informative but it doesn't give you a timescale! I kegged my beer today and it is currently sat at 8 degrees with 20psi of pressure. Was going to check it when I'm home from work tomorrow.

True, there isn't a time scale. I find it normally takes 3-4 days if the gas is hooked up the whole time. This varies depending on how full the keg is and what volume you are carb'ing to. Giving the keg an occasional shake does no harm either.

On the plus side I find it loads less hassle and less variable than using sugar, and I find my beer is a lot more stable force carb'd in a keg than bottle conditioned, possibly because it isn't sat on a load of yeast.
60 percent of the time it works every time.
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