Hi all well seasoned brewers
Sorry if this has been dealt with before >but can someone please give me a bit of info on carbonating my new keg (new for me ) .
I want to find out what to set the pressure at in the keg, how long to leave the co2 bottle tap open as i can hear a small amount off gas coming from the regulator pressure release hole and don't want to wast to much co2 . At the moment I have the keg under 3 bar off pressure and did vent out all the air (as well as i could ) before transfering my beer to my keg from the fermentor . also want to know if i should shake the keg around to force carbonation or just let it stand under pressure? And lastly must i leave the keg outside after kegging for a few days to mature or can i refrigerate immediately after carbonation . I have a SABS 30L keg with G-coupler
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Carbonating my keg
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Personally I have found that the pressurize and wait approach works best with my setup, leave the gas hooked up to the keg all the time.
I will apply 10-12 psi or 0.7 - 0.8 bar and leave it for a 5 - 7 days with the keg inside the fridge at around 2 - 4 degrees.
I have had beer foam issues with the crank and shake method, found that I could never get the system in balance after that and only pours a glass of foam that settles into a flat beer over a few minutes. Which is a bit frustrating after all the hard work you put into making your delicious brew.
With regards to the leak...
Where does it leak exactly? Submerge the bottle in water without getting too much water into the regulator.
I had a leak on the CO2 bottle value itself (leaked when the tap was closed), fixed this with adding a cheap ball value between the CO2 bottle and regulator which can be opened and closed when the regulator is not on the setup.
Also had leaks where the regulator connects onto the CO2. The washer (white nylon type and very hard) on the regulator did not provide a good seal. fixed this with replacing the washer with a spare rubber washer from a LG-gas regulator.
I think the problem with the crank and shake is that many a homebrewer shake for way to long .... 2min is already to much in my eyes, especially if the beer is nice and cold as it will take enough COČ to actually be overcarbed over 2min on cold liquid. Then after the shake it also good to let it sit and settle out for about 2hrs. I did the shake thing for about 1min which gave me perfect carbonated beer for drinking 2hrs later, but since I never need beer in a hurry like that, I just do the 24hrs @ 30psi thing-a-majik