Some of you know that I am new to kegging (have the stuff but haven't kegged a batch yet) and I am wondering what people to force carbonate and serve within a few days. I've done a bit of reading online as to what some people do but I am wondering what you all do.
I am looking to keg two batches on Sunday and have them ready to go on Wednesday night and want to know what you all recommend as the proper procedure/best method.
I have read that 30-40psi for 24 hours should get you close to 1.8-2.0 volumes of CO2, and have also read that shaking the keg can do it even faster but they are risks of over-carbing.
Who can help me out?
Thanks guys, this is all great advice!
Keeping your regulator higher (position not pressure) than your keg will also help to prevent any beer flooding back to the regulator. If you are shaking...to force carb...def make sure the regulator is above the keg.
There are charts out there that can guide you. They compensate for temp and psi.
Thanks for the reply! I guess my two biggest fears are over carbing and backflushing beer into my regulator. I am usually pretty cautious so I don't think overcarbing is going to be a big issue, I am more likely to drastically under-carb. As for backflushing, Bill assures me that as long as I let the keg sit for a few hours and settle down, then purge the co2 in the head space I will be fine.
For me, cranking up to 20-30 psi and shaking for 1-2 min for a cold keg (not room or caller temp) and then leaving on that pressure does well. Then I turn it down to about 10 and I'm pretty happy. I have also tried just letting it sit at 10 psi with no agitation and little headspace for 5 days, and it's still pretty flat. It's the agitation and the higher pressure.