6 Guys Brewing

The very first beer I ever made came out great. It was a Honey Porter from morebeer.com. CO2 levels were perfect, it had a great flavor and awesome body. 5 gallons lasted 3 hours. I thought I knew everything about brewing. The second brew was pretty good too, though certainly not of the same caliber as the first. I think I got a little lazy and wasn’t as careful with all the instructions the second time around. The third beer was horrible, or so I thought. The flavor was pretty good, but I could not get the stupid thing to carbonate.

I have always forced carbonated in a keg. I think it’s easier, more consistent and faster. Kegging also requires a lot fewer bottles to clean, and the one thing I hate about brewing is cleaning, so kegging just makes sense. I read a bunch of different things on the best way to force carbonate a beer and believed that setting the CO2 to 12psi for a couple weeks would get the job done (and it usually does). However, this can take a long, long time. You see, in order to effectively carbonate a beer, you have to expose as much of the beer to the CO2 as possible so that it can be absorbed into the beer. Think of it this way: if you want to mop up a spill on the floor, it works most effectively if you use the entire towel versus just a small portion. Sure, the liquid will eventually migrate to cover the entire toweling, but it might take a long, long time.

The first thing you should do when carbonating a beer is to purge the air out of the keg. To do this, set the pressure to about 30 psi, fill the keg. Wait til it is done filling, turn off the CO2 and pull the bleeder valve. Repeat this step 3 times, and all that should be left in the keg is CO2 and beer. To get the CO2 into solution, hook up the CO2 at 30 psi to the OUTPUT of the keg. The pin lock quick connects are different sizes for input and output on the keg, but you might be able to get the gray quick connect to fit on the output. I dedicated a black quick connect (output sized) for the CO2 and use that for carbonation. Turn the CO2 and you’ll hear the CO2 working it’s way through the beer and up to the top. Wait for the bubbling to stop and the pressure to equalize in the keg. Disconnect the CO2 and find a towel to put on your lap (the beer is cold) and a place to sit. Put the keg on your knees and roll it around until you can no longer hear the beer sloshing around. While you are doing this, make sure you have nothing attached to the keg. If you do, you’ll end up with beer in places that it shouldn’t be. Take a bleeder valve (available from Northern Brewer) and measure the pressure in the keg (on the input side of the keg). It should be around 10-12 psi. I like my beer around 12 psi, but the carbonation chart will give you an idea of what your pressure should read depending on the serving temperature of your beer. If your beer is not at the desired pressure after your first roll in your lap, reconnect the 30psi CO2 to the output and put just a little bit more CO2 into the beer. Roll it around in your lap again (this time, it may not stop sloshing). Remeasure the CO2 with the bleeder valve. When it gets to the desired pressure, you’re ready to serve!

It has been my experience that this method works equally well for cold and warm beer in the keg. However, cold beer does tend to carbonate faster and will be a little less rolling around in your lap. Either way though, using this method, your beer can go from the carboy to read-to-serve in about 15 minutes.

Tags: caronation, Kegging