Force Carbing

[TheDarkSide]

1.5 -- purge keg with CO2 before proceeding

Damn...can't believe I missed that one.

[brewinhard]

The beer will absorb CO2 better and more quickly if it has been previously chilled first as opposed to trying to force carb warm beer.

[summy]

How does one purge an empty keg with normal kegging equipment, i.e. ball lock fittings on your gas line? Just hold it (gas out fitting) inside the keg while pushing down on the "pin", thus allowing co2 to spray out into the empty keg? I never bother purging, but may start...

[l0nni3]

Awesome thanks for all the help. I have the keg set up and just pulled a few pints. I followed the protocol with everyone's suggestions. The process took 35 minutes to shake, vent, inject, repeat. Then I left it in the fridge at 10 Psi (i shook after injection 20 psi into the keg) for 1 hour 15 minutes. The beer went into the keg at room temp and I drew it into my glass as a flat luke warm beer. But it is not infected and I plan on leaving it on 10 psi for the next few weeks and tasting every once in a while and having great beers. I've never been happier.

[spiderwrangler]

But it is not infected .

Not to be a downer, but not infected unless it picked something up transferring to the keg...

[Ozwald]

Your serving pressure is going to be determined by your kegerator setup. Mostly on how much line you have between the keg & faucet, also how many vertical feet it needs to travel. For example if you had a coldroom in the basement & served on the first floor (many bars do this), serving pressure would be higher than if your keg was directly below the tap by only a few feet. Play with the setting a little bit & you'll find that sweet spot for your setup.

Also it should be noted that repeating the shake method twice isn't a golden number. Push 30 psi on it til you hear the gas stop flowing. Every time you shake & put gas back on, do the same. If you repeat multiple times you'll notice the gas doesn't flow as long as the previous time. I don't think I've ever repeated the gas/shake cycle less than 4 or 5 times. Just depends on how patient you are.

[brewinhard]

How does one purge an empty keg with normal kegging equipment, i.e. ball lock fittings on your gas line? Just hold it (gas out fitting) inside the keg while pushing down on the "pin", thus allowing co2 to spray out into the empty keg? I never bother purging, but may start...

Simply place your gas line onto your in post of your sanitized keg and let the gas fill the keg for a short bit (10 seconds + or so). Remove your gas line, then directly before racking into your keg, pull your pressure relief valve to release all of the CO2 from within the keg. Remove the lid, and rack your beer over to the keg without splashing. You can also push your sanitizer out of the keg through the out line in this fashion to help purge your keg as well. But I just gave you directions for a ball lock keg, so hope that is what you have.

[skibikejunkie]

Simply place your gas line onto your in post of your sanitized keg and let the gas fill the keg for a short bit (10 seconds + or so). Remove your gas line, then directly before racking into your keg, pull your pressure relief valve to release all of the CO2 from within the keg. Remove the lid, and rack your beer over to the keg without splashing. You can also push your sanitizer out of the keg through the out line in this fashion to help purge your keg as well. But I just gave you directions for a ball lock keg, so hope that is what you have.

This is what I do.

I don't have pin lock kegs, but seems you could vent them just by removing the gas line and depressing the poppet as if you were letting the air out of a tire (the posts are effectively a large schraeder valve). Since the "in" side doesn't have a dip tube and sits above the surface of the beer, you'd just release gas but no beer.