First time kegging and force carbonating. Here's the gist.... I racked to a corny keg. I let the co2 run into the long-tube beer line and introduced co2 at 25 PSI while rocking the keg for 15 minutes. I only briefly heard bubbling but I know co2 was going in. I put the keg in the kegorator and plan on letting it sit for 24 hours at which point I will adjust the co2 till the beer is at a good level of carbonation for serving. This is what I gathered out of the millions of different ways people force carbonate. Question: In your opinion....did I do it wrong or will the beer still be tasty beer?
You didn't do anything wrong so far. You'll want to make sure that you don't over carb by dropping the pressure on your regulator sometime tomorrow as the beer gets cold. I'm assuming you didn't rack 40F beer into your keg. The beer will hold more CO2 the colder it gets and you'll want a lower pressure set on the keg the colder you go. I typically run 10' of 3/16ID beer line on my kegs at 39F and set the pressure to about 10. This gives me a little over 2 CO2 volumes. I don't measure it, I just go with what seems right. There are graphs online if you do a quick google search. One thing I'll preach is that you MUST check for leaks. Make sure you're sealed on your lid and that the pressure release valve is screwed in tightly and doesn't leak. If you have a leak you'll lose all of your CO2 and be out $20. Take some starsan in a spray bottle and spray the crap out of the top of your keg and look for bubbling. As for your technique, it's sound. Lots of people shake and bake kegs and it forces the beer to carb within a few days instead of 7-10 days with the set it and forget it method. The latter seems like it's an approach we take when we get a better pipeline going and you don't NEED to drink your first beer out of your new keg tomorrow. If you have any other questions feel free to ask.
Sounds pretty good to me. My method is pretty much the same: 1. cold crash beer 2. siphon to keg 3. attach co2 @ 25psi until the co2 stops 'hissing' as it enters the beer 4. remove co2 line, shake the shit out of the keg 5. repeat 3-4 until sloshing sounds are minimal in the keg when I shake (takes 10 min or so repeating steps 3-4 to to get here) 6. remove co2 line for 2-3 hours and let the keg sit in my keezer 7. purge keg of all excess co2 8. attach co2 @ 10psi for 24 hours 9. adjust to serving pressure, drink.
My only suggestion is that you skip the step where you run CO2 through the OUT post on the keg ("the long-tube beer line"). It really doesn't buy you much, and the hassle of swapping connectors is more trouble than it's worth (unless you have QDs, of course) I'm a "set it and forget it" guy, though I cheat by hitting it with more pressure, initially, just to get a bit of a head start.
Was the beer cold for the initial shake at 25 psi? I'm guessing no, as this would over carbonate for me. I usually shake at serving pressure (or maybe 2 lbs over) for 5 minutes if it's cold and it's pretty much good to go.
15 mins seems like a long time to rock the keg, but when I have used this technique the keg has been cold. I usually did it for 2 minutes or so.
I also chill the beer in the keg first and then rock vigorously for about 1.5-2 minutes at 25-30 PSI and that is usually spot on for me.
