Carbonating Kegs and leaving

The ins and outs of putting your beer into kegs.

Carbonating Kegs and leaving

Postby Nathan Davis » Friday Jul 20, 2007 2:21 pm

Hi just a couple of questions i hope someone can answer, i have been kegging my brews after two weeks in fermenter (on to 3rd keg) then transfering to fridge and force carbonating at 40psi for around 48 hours this seems to work well as the kegs dont last long usually gone in a night (with help of my mates) i want to start building stocks and am wondering should i just let the kegs sit after ive filled them then force carbonate before wanting them (can do two at a time now) or could i force carbonate in fridge straight away for 48 hours then take out and let sit next to fridge, im worried they may go flat i dont know. And how long would they last for before they start to turn. Any advice would be appreciated thanks.
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Postby Trough Lolly » Friday Jul 20, 2007 4:02 pm

Hi Nathan,
There's a school of thought, that incidentally I agree with, that says that if you carbonate a keg after racking the beer from the fermenter, you tend to inhibit the yeast's ability to further improve and condition the beer in the keg. It's to do with osmotic pressures etc. Burping the keg to remove O2 from the headspace, before storing the kegged beer, is fine, but pushing in CO2 to carbonate the beer is not recommended unless you're going to serve that beer up.
You need to consider temperature when you gas beer. If you fill a keg with room temperature beer, you should chill the beer down before you gas the keg.
If you want to increase stocks, keg the beer, seal the keg, burp it a couple of times under about 5psi of pressure to force the O2 in the headspace out through the pressure relief valve and you'll substantially lower the chances of oxidising the beer. The burped (but not yet carbed) beer will happily stay in the keg for months. If you keep the ale at room temps, the yeast in solution will further condition the beer - and add small quantities of CO2 in the process, so the beer should further improve between racking and serving.
With good hygiene, your kegged beer should easily last in the keg for at least 3 or more months. I've tapped Stouts and strong ales that I've been kegging for 6+ months without any problems.
Cheers,
TL
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Postby Nathan Davis » Friday Jul 20, 2007 9:28 pm

thanks for the advice ill just carbonate when ready to serve em
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Postby Ross » Saturday Jul 21, 2007 6:09 am

Personally i prefer to carbonate & then store. I find the beer ages just as well once carbonated & you don't have to stir up all the yeast again if you need to force carbonate in a hurry. Not arguing with TL's theory, but just from the practical experience of having over 20 kegs constantly on the go & having tried both methods.

Cheers Ross
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Re: Carbonating Kegs and leaving

Postby bentaxlebob » Saturday Jan 29, 2011 6:59 am

I love this forum, I find if I have questions I can usually find the answers if I scroll back through the pages. I was going to ask the same question about storing kegs as I can only fit 2 in my fridge. I will try just filling the head with some CO2, rather than carbonating it straight away as I would have to remove a cold keg from the fridge and re-cool it once the process was over. Although I have belonged to this forum for a while I am very new to kegging. With my limited experience and good advise from my home brew shop and this forum I will never go back to bottleing again
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Re: Carbonating Kegs and leaving

Postby speedie » Saturday Mar 12, 2011 4:31 pm

nathan best solution would be invite less mates or get a large fridge and brew much more beer
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Re: Carbonating Kegs and leaving

Postby Oliver » Wednesday May 25, 2011 4:26 pm

I split off the posts about whether a keg would go flat to here.

Cheers,

Oliver
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