Congrats! Youll never bottle again! There are lots of ways to force carb. I like the simplest. I put the filled keg in the serving fridge. Hook it up to serving pressure, generally around 10-12 psi and forget about it for a week. It'll be carbonated perfectly, all the sediment will have dropped oit and after a pint or two you'll be drinking clear beer with minimal fuss.
I set it to 20 psi for two days, release the gas, drop it down to about 9 or 10, and it's good to go.
's my exact procedure. After a few 'tuning' days at 9 - 10, I drop it to 6 or so for serving pressure, but that will depend on your line lengths.
I prefer this method. It eliminates all the stupid from the equation such as over carbing, shaking (yeast in your beer), forgetting to adjust and fighting with your regulator. Set it and forget it. Plus, a week is great for clearing your beer.
I'd like to pick up a kit to start brewing, and would appreciate your thoughts. Hopefully under $1k? I can build my own steel rack like the one I've seen in this thread to keep the numbers down. Thinking of going all grain and 5 gal kegging. Thanks!
I brewed 5 gal. all grain batches with a 5 gal bucket with a false bottom, 2x ss pots (5gal&8gal), random hoses and a turkey fryer outside. Oh, and an immersion chiller. You can get going for $2-400. Don't get sucked into thinking you need an expensive setup. You don't. The SS pots are the only major expense.
I've been going lower as well for serving - probably closer to 6-8 as I've had some really foamy batches as of late.
shop Craigslist. People selling their brew stuff all the time as they upgrade or get bored of brewing (weird I know). making beer is very easy. making really good beer over and over again takes some trial and error. relax...have a homebrew
thanks guys, those are good suggestions - and, in fact, I will be using my turkey fryer this Thursday! anyway, the parents and inlaws want some xmas gift ideas, so I can look at new rather than craigslist.
Well I'm a shaker. You can look up a chart on the web and find out how many Volumes of CO2 is required for the style of beer your making. Look at the chart, know your beer temperature and see where you should set your pressure at. I like to get it about 33 degrees for a couple of days and settle out. Draw off the yeast and then set my CO2 pressure to what's required and start shaking it. I put an OUT connector on the CO2 and put the gas into the OUT post so it bubbles up through the beer. You shake until you don't hear it bubbling anymore. If you have the time to wait by all means do as mentioned above. But using the chart and shaking the keg will carbonate your beer in less than ten minutes and it will be right on. I have never over carbonated using this method. For an example, if you have a pilsner at 40 degress you can use 12 psi on the gauge and shake until there are no more bubbles. Done. Perfect.
I set it at 50psi, leave it 24hrs. Or 30psi for 48hrs. I serve most beers at 10psi (38deg). Stout at 7ish psi for now. I want a stout faucet! Sent from my fat thumbs on a small touch screen.
I also bottle a six-pack of each batch I keg, using the sugar drops, so I usually have 70-100 bottles sitting in the basement for when people come over, or when I want something different. About every fourth or fifth batch I brew, I do specifically to bottle, usually for something that I would not want to drink on a weekly basis. (plus, in order to get enough bottles, I get to buy a bunch of good beer - usually Boulevard or Sierra Nevada, since I like their stubby bottles the best). I usually do this with a porter or most recently an Irish Stout. I just tried the first couple bottles of the stout, bottled 10-1, tonight. It's very good, and since I have a Bass clone on tap right now, it makes an excellent Black and Tan. If I didn't keg, I'd probably have lost interest long ago. Bottling is messy and a pain IMO. As it is, I brew once a month or so.
i'm going to try this method. i can wait for 24 hrs. i can't wait for two weeks. i'm hoping to be trying this stout tomorrow night, and hopefully filling a few bottles to bring along for the weekend. good thing i don't keep food in the fridge:
Make sure you check the pressure rating on your corney. most are only rated to 35 PSI. that being said, I've gone over that before, but you should know before you take a risk. most likely it will just leak, YMMV
I didn't know that! I thought they were tested to 60.... I did a quick search. Wiki says they will hold 130psi. Northern brewer says they are stamped, but most are about 120psi.
let me rephrase that. some kegs are rated at 35. you are correct. the older cornys that I have say do not exceed 35 psi on the side. The newer styles usually hold much more. again, YMMV. sorry for the misleading info. :eek1
you, sir, are a genius. this method worked just fine for me. the only question now is, once you have a 5 gallons of beer on tap, how do you avoid becoming an alcoholic? the bottles were easier to dose. i filled six bottles for traveling/gifts (using my picnic tap) and they were fine. later picked up a #2 stopper with a hole in it. will try that for the next batch of bottles. of course i'm willing to share/trade with anyone in the nyc area.
This comes up a lot in homebrewing and it is a serious issue. I set a strict 2 pint a day limit. YMMV
you are the first person to ever say that....probably the last. Glad it worked well for you. I also agree with sharing the beer. Most of my buddies are more than happy to drink my beer I like to bottle a 6pk or so to store too. Sent from my fat thumbs on a small touch screen.
