New member here and have perused some of the threads looking for an answer to my question, but haven't found the specific one. 8 days ago I kegged up my IPA and added what I thought was the appropriate amount of corn sugar and set the keg at fermentation temperature to condition. 4 days ago I tried it and it was wonderful, but not quite ready, so I let it sit. 2 days ago I tried it and it was dead flat and not as tasty. Then I start to worry and start looking into force carbing for first time. Hooked up the gas to the beer out post. At room temp I started to add gas to the keg with a target of 30 PSI. Then discovered leaky lid. Oh crap! The beer might have oxidized in those in between days. Any how, I fiddled around and got it to seat and seal. Continued to load 30 PSI at room temp and rocked the baby for about 30 min. and did not purge any gas. Then to the fridge with gas line connected and set at 12.5 PSI at ~40 F. Haven't tried it yet and it hasn't been more than 16 hours in the cold Question: Do you think that the beer will be over carbonated because I had it at 30 PSI at room temp and shook for 30 min. and 16 hours at 12.5 PSI at 40 degrees F without purging? LEO
Probably not over carbed at this point. But the beauty of kegging is that its easy enough to check it at any time. I'd say just leave it at 12.5 in the cold and check it in a day or two.
You should be fine. 30 psi of pressure at say 65F gives you 2.58 volumes of CO2. Chances are even after rocking it for 30 minutes you didn't reach the full 2.58 volumes. Coincidentally (or maybe intentionally), 12.5 psi at 40 degrees, also gives you 2.58 volumes of CO2. So either way, your beer should not have more than 2.58 volumes of CO2 at the moment, which is the upper end of the recommended IPA carbonation level. If it were me, I would back it down to 10 psi, as I like my IPA carbonation at the lower end of the spectrum. Either way, you should be fine.
yes. or no. it will either be over cabonated or under carbonated. but probably not carbonated just right. if you are lucky you are under by a little, and a day or so at serving pressure will bring it right where you like. your method of force carbing with high pressure is routinely used by many, but you will find there is very little in the way of charts etc. to navigate high pressure carbonating. you really need to have an idea of how the gas is absorbed, and because there are many variables involved (temp of beer, how long you shook the keg, how long the keg was at high pressure, how long it was at serving pressure) it is impossible to make any meaningful conclusions. for now, the set it and forget it method is more appropriate. apply the pressure you think you would like based on the vols at temp you want to achieve. purge the keg of oxygen, apply gas, wait 5 days. then wait 2 more. done. also, you really don't need to prime a keg with priming sugar. you have a keg. you have co2 gas and a regulator. there are no advantages (for you) to secondary ferment in a keg, but there are some disadvantages. Cheers.
I don't recommend hooking up gas to your beer out post. There may or may not be a carbonation time advantage, but it's really an invitation for beer to flow into your regulator if/when the pressure in your keg is greater than the pressure being pushed from the regulator (e.g. when the gas runs out). Unless you have a check valve on the regulator, in which case, rock on.
Couldn't agree more. For the OP: Adding sugar to a keg for carb'ing is usually not recommended. It takes pressure to seal the lid . . . most of my kegs don't seal until about 4'ish psi. Until the yeasties eat the sugar and give off CO2 there is no pressure. Then as gas is produced by those little microbes, it's likely to leak out because the lid hasn't sealed (due to no pressure). If you had a really tight (natural)seal and checked it by inverting the filled keg and were absolutely positive the lid did not have the slightest leak then it might be possible . . . or not. The beauty of kegging is with a simple chart you can nail the desired carb level. Using the set and forget method you are practically guaranteed success. If you decide to change the carb level it's a simple task. With the quick carb method you introduce variables that confuse the issue. In almost all cases, the week involved in slow-carb'ing allows the beer to improve (including IPAs). Although you see lots of hints about fast-carb'ing a keg, the slow pokes routinely get there first: Regarding leaky lids, I've found a squirt bottle of starsan around a keg is as useful as a mop in the brewhouse.
