New Brunswick Craft Brewers Association
Brewing => Technique => Topic started by: Jake on April 04, 2012, 10:32:48 PM
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Anyone ever prime kegs for a couple weeks with corn sugar and they're ready to serve once you put them on gas?
I have a lot of beer coming down the pipeline and not enough gas lines.
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Think JQ etc do something like this with spunding, just without adding sugar.
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yes some beers taste better when bottle/keg conditioned
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Think JQ etc do something like this with spunding, just without adding sugar.
Correct, the last 3-5 points of gravity will pressurize a keg up to 25-30 psi (and higher), enough to naturally carb up anything.
I haven't used any CO2 for carbing in several months now.
It's really just the same as adding sugar, right?
The Yeasties are munching on the final bits of sugar from the wort, or they're munching on the sugar you added.
JQ
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I've primed with sugar in the keg before. It works just like bottling except you want to use about half the sugar. Dissolve 1/3 cup of corn sugar in warm water, add it to the keg, rack the beer on to it, hit the keg with about 10 psi to seal the lid, put it away in a room at 70ºF and wait 2 weeks.
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Would it need to be dissolved into boiling water to sterilize or warm water fine? I've never used bulk priming even for bottling so I have no idea. I'm thinking about letting some kegs age in the basement and thought it would be nice to have them drinkable on demand over the summer. Rather than have to plan 48 hrs in advance and put them on co2.
Not to mention I'd imagine I'd be saving a lot of gas in my tank. First beers will likely be chunky but after that should be fine.
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I used to use boiling water, add sugar, let it cool, keg.
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Hey Jake,
Want me to pick you up a 4 port manifold and some fittings from princess auto? I'm coming up on saturday and can drop them off. I can even pick you up some gas line...
the manifold runs about $6
barbed fittings run about $1.99 for 2, I'd pick you up a few packs
gas line good for 160psi is $0.29 a foot...coupld pick you up 20 feet or so.
Actually, I think I have 3 spare ball valves for the manifold if you want those...$1 each or something.
Otherwise, you can definintely throw priming surgar in the kegs and treat them like bottle conditioning. you could probably speed up the process a bit by shaking up the keg after 4-5 days of conditioning.
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I've never bothered boiling water for beer, but I know some people insist on it. It won't hurt anything if you do.
You definitely need to keep them primed at 70sih for a couple of weeks, or they won't carb though.
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Thanks for the offer Fakr but I'm going to pass. I just dont have the space for them in the keezer at the time. Thanks for offering though.
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I like this idea Jake... Been using too much gas force carbing... so 1/3 cup, warm/hot water, keg, seal... 2 weeks its good to go...?
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I don't understand the concept of using a 1/3 of the required priming sugar for a keg...doesn't make sense... if you need a cup of priming sugar for 20L of beer, it shouldn't matter if you put it in a keg or bottles...that's how much priming sugar you need for a certain volume of CO2.
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I don't understand it either, but I've read it lots of places, and seems to be standard wisdom.
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Yea it'd be nice to have the kegs ready to go in my basement and not having to think about it. Saving CO2 is a plus
I saw the use less sugar thing too
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maybe it's a headspace pressure thing....that much sugar would create too much head pressure in the keg?
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Just out of interest, since I've been Spunding via a capture keg, I've noticed that the capture keg ends up with 24-30 psi in it.
I've subsequently used that CO2 to purge kegs and pressurize the next batch. Would be interesting to use it to carb up future batches that I missed the pressure shut down time to have the primary carb, I might start saving a few kegs with just CO2 in them to see if there is enough volumes to do that.
JQ
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I don't understand the concept of using a 1/3 of the required priming sugar for a keg...doesn't make sense... if you need a cup of priming sugar for 20L of beer, it shouldn't matter if you put it in a keg or bottles...that's how much priming sugar you need for a certain volume of CO2.
It has to do with head space, and more importantly, the amount of surface area that the beer has.
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Jake, there are 75 carboys for sale at that auction on kijiji - just buy them and that should take care of your pipeline for a while. :)
Hope that 1272 worked out well for you.
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1272 is soooooo slow. It's been at high krausen for like 6 or 7 days and does not seem to want to drop out.
On another note, I added 1/3 of a cup of corn sugar (dissolved in boiling water and cooled) to a full keg of bitter. I followed directions by hitting with gas and purging out any O2. I plan to put on CO2 exactly 2 weeks from now and I'm hoping it's good to drink once it hook it up.
If it works out, I'm thinking this could become routine for me. I like the idea of having multiple full kegs in my basement and when I want to drink I can immediately hook it up and be ready to go ... but it'll be interesting to see how much will be wasted from the sediment at the bottom of the keg before it's relatively clear.
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So yeah what Jake just said... I primed two kegs and im just wondering if my first few glasses or so are going to be filled with sediment...
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Yup pint or so full of gunk. Clears fine after that though.
I'm finding this to be a good option. Once I'm doing 10G batches consistently, I'm going to put one on gas and prime the other and let it age for a month or so ... and when I want to drink it'll be ready
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k Sounds good.. Ill toss the first glass or so
Yeah im planning something similar, Probably end up priming most of them. Ill be 10 gal soon and pumping out quite a bit.
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This was good advice.
I primed a couple of kegs with corn sugar last night. Hopefully this will yield some good results since dextrose is cheaper than CO2 around here - if you have the time to wait.