Will be kegging for the first time tomorrow. Advice?

8 psi is not too high. At room temperature you won't have that much dissolved CO2. You could go a bit higher. At fridge temperature (40 to 45 F) I set my regulator at 9 to 10 psi. Here is a good chart for setting pressure (at serving temperatures).

 

First of all, 8 psi is likely not too high, particularly at room temp. (see the chart that utahbeerdude cites).

But I'm confused. Does the gauge show 2 or 8 psi? Which gauge are you talking about? Why do you think it's set to 8 if the gauge shows 2? Note that the gauge shows pressure, not how much CO2 is 'moving through' -- it should stay constant. FWIW, it will still show 8 (or whatever it's set to) until the pressure in the keg drops below that, regardless of whether the valve on the CO2 tank is on or off, unless you vent the gas to relieve the pressure (though check valves can change that behavior).

 

I've hear that, too. I was very interested to hear that Fuller's does that, because I use their yeast quite a lot and I know that it flocs like a sumbitch, and I wouldn't want to crash it immediately after reaching FG. So, what's the deal?

I think it's that commercial brewing is a very different situation. For one thing, time is money for those guys. They're looking for the fastest route to the finish line, we have no problem (or we shouldn't) with letting a finished beer sit an extra week or two to clear. Also their process is geared to exactly replicate the beer, over and over: brewing with the same OG, same grist, same mash temp, same yeast and pitch rate, same fermentation temp, etc etc, you can get pretty good at predicting exactly when to cold crash.

 

What does the gauge say whan it's not connected to anything at all? It may just be a calibration issue.

 

Is there a refief valve? There could be some Co2 trapped in the line.

 

That would point to it not being a gauge pointer calibration thing. But I'm surprised the gauge didn't go all the way to 0 if the screw was fully 'out.' The way these things are built, turning off the gas cylinder, followed by turning the regulator screw all the way out, usually results in the pressure bleeding to 0 pretty quickly. The only thing I can think of is that the screw still had a little further to go.

In any case, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Kegging paranoia is more productive when directed toward testing for leaks.

BTW, the relief valve rmalinowski4 mentioned would look like a 'lever' (not the regular shutoff valve levers for each regulator body) or a 'pull ring' sticking out somewhere. From your pic, it doesn't look like yours has one.

 

how do you know how much to blast it with?

i also just kegged my first beer last thursday, it went well and i already want to expand to multiple kegs - i was hoping to rack my next homebrew into a 2nd keg and then just hook it up when the currently kegged one is done. bad idea?

 

To really figure it out how many PSIs to hit it with initially to get 'X' PSI at equilibrium would be a bitch, though I'm sure someone has the formula. In practice, I've done 50 PSI and stored at 40F and it worked well to keep everything sealed.

 

That's typically what I do. That kind of pressure makes it easier to check for leaks right after kegging and it also gives me a nice head start on carbonation.

 

Or if they are draft only or brewpubs then it never gets a chance to warm up again. But I'd agree that it sounds like a bad practice, seems like a recipe for serious diacetyl issues if they were talking about crashing to arrest fermentation rather than doing it only once full attenuation is confirmed.