How long to force carbonate

[sweendog]

Several days ago I kegged two batches of beer and mislabeled the kegs. I guess I shouldn't drink and keg......but anyway.....I found out last night that I force carbonated the wrong one. I just switched the two and force carbonated the one that I want to take with me, but was wondering how quickly you can force carbonate? Will it be good enough to take tonight (10 hours)?

[keggermeister]

Set your regulator to 30 psi and, with the beer already cold hook the gas to the out port. Turn on the gas and rock the keg for 2.5-3 minutes.
you will hear the gas dissolving into the beer.
remember that you have 30 psi in the keg! don't forget to bleed the keg down and reset your reg to about 8 for dispensing.

since this is your first time forcing i'd stop early and try the beer to see if it is carbed enough for you. it's easy to hook it back up and put more co2 in the beer, however it's a pain to try and take some out.

Hope this helps!

[Bugeater]

If you did the "shake and bake" routine, you should be good to go. Carbonation probably won't be perfect, but it won't be flat. If you have a keg pressure tester and the keg is cold it's pretty easy. Charge the keg to 30 psi, shake the piss out of it and check the pressure. Once the pressure after shaking and before charging again is in the desired range (I go 2-3 pounds higher) you are set to go. If you can't check the pressure you will just have to pour a glass and make an educated guess on whether to gas and shake again.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

[sweendog]

Thanks guys. It's not actually my first time force carbonating, just the first time that I was doing it the day that I planned to drink it. I always did it at least a couple days prior to when I knew I was going to tap and thought it needed that much time for the CO2 to drop into solution.

[Bugeater]

If you have room, lay the keg on its side. That will increase the surface area of the beer and the pressure will go into solution quicker.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company