Keg Force Carbonation Times.

[Bigbre04]

I ran into a fun situation of my bartenders running my beer gas out and then not changing to the new tank. They pulled most of the carbonation out of 8 kegs...yay. The gas is a service contract so i cant do much with it as it stands. I would prefer a nitrogen generator w/ a CO2 blending station, but i dont have the space and the money is better spent other places right now.

I am building a force carbonation rig in my cooler(just a draft tower exposed on the inside wall of the cooler). I looked at the calculator, but that does not provide a timeframe. I assume that looking at 2.4vols @ 9.2 psi is at least a week of time. I was wondering if anyone had a calculator that scaled the time as well? I would prefer to run at a much higher pressure for a shorter time(even shaking the keg if i had to).

In the past we had a huge walk-in(forklift sized) cooler so we had plenty of space to force carb our pilot batches(small separate draft system for this specifically). As i recall we put the pressure up to 30psi and then shook the hell out of it for a few mins if we didnt have the time to leave it. dropped the pressure and tasted it for carb. I am in a tiny cramped walk in so shaking 8 kegs wasnt really an option.

Any help would be welcome!

 

[Minbari]

I force carb at 40 psi for 2 days, 5 gallons. Then shift to serve pressure. Gets me about 2.2-2.4 vol that way.

Obviously, less time will be less, more time will be more. I don't have a real scientific answer, just how I do it

 

[Bigbre04]

I force carb at 40 psi for 2 days, 5 gallons. Then shift to serve pressure. Gets me about 2.2-2.4 vol that way.

Obviously, less time will be less, more time will be more. I don't have a real scientific answer, just how I do it

for sure. i purged out the the beer gas and pushed 50psi for about 24 hours and then pulled the head pressure off it and put it back on beer gas. it seems to have worked for the 7% IPA but not so well for the half full golden lager...pulled the remaining beer for the kitchen to use and restocked them yesterday.

i just wish there was a calculator that would adjust for time and even volume of the keg.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

I ran into a fun situation of my bartenders running my beer gas out and then not changing to the new tank. They pulled most of the carbonation out of 8 kegs...yay. The gas is a service contract so i cant do much with it as it stands. I would prefer a nitrogen generator w/ a CO2 blending station, but i dont have the space and the money is better spent other places right now.

I am building a force carbonation rig in my cooler(just a draft tower exposed on the inside wall of the cooler). I looked at the calculator, but that does not provide a timeframe. I assume that looking at 2.4vols @ 9.2 psi is at least a week of time. I was wondering if anyone had a calculator that scaled the time as well? I would prefer to run at a much higher pressure for a shorter time(even shaking the keg if i had to).

In the past we had a huge walk-in(forklift sized) cooler so we had plenty of space to force carb our pilot batches(small separate draft system for this specifically). As i recall we put the pressure up to 30psi and then shook the hell out of it for a few mins if we didnt have the time to leave it. dropped the pressure and tasted it for carb. I am in a tiny cramped walk in so shaking 8 kegs wasnt really an option.

Any help would be welcome!

You might invest in check valves this keeps carbonation from moving backwards

 

[Bigbre04]

You might invest in check valves this keeps carbonation from moving backwards

What do you mean?

 

[west1m]

Without check valves in your lines your co2 can just go from keg to keg and then out the leak.

 

[Bigbre04]

Without check valves in your lines your co2 can just go from keg to keg and then out the leak.

Gotcha our draftlines have individual regulators. I don't think gas can travel through regulators backwards?

 

[Donoroto]

Gotcha our draftlines have individual regulators. I don't think gas can travel through regulators backwards?

Correct.

I force every 5 gallon keg I brew. 40 psi for 24 hours or so, no rocking, then to 15 psi for a day or three. Minbari’s 48 hours works too. 37 F

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

What do you mean?

What do you mean?

sorry I didn’t get that you were saved by the other kegs co2, great news I’ve had that happen myself as far as the force car issue, I built a device for that very reason, no pictures sorry but it can be done with the keg slowly spinning on its side with a pellet stove motor

 

[Yontsey]

I “stumbled” upon 32psi for 2.5 days last time with a couple rolls in the first day then turned down to 12psi and it came out pretty damn good. Normally I’d do 1.5-2 days but I was drunk and forgot.

 

[Bigbre04]

sorry I didn’t get that you were saved by the other kegs co2, great news I’ve had that happen myself as far as the force car issue, I built a device for that very reason, no pictures sorry but it can be done with the keg slowly spinning on its side with a pellet stove motor

All good! Unfortunatly i wasnt saved, the bartenders dropped all of the head pressure out of my kegs for likely a day or 36 hours while still trying to pour them. I have had them do similar for a while forgetting to fully turn on the gas in the cooler, but never to this extent. None of my kegs are daisy chained so the beergas was only going into one keg per line.

I am gonna build a mini draft tower and surface mount it inside of my cooler so that i can fix their fuckups.

 

[Donoroto]

Hate to put it this way, but can’t you go all New Jersey on them? As in, do it again and start looking for another job?

 

[Bigbre04]

Hate to put it this way, but can’t you go all New Jersey on them? As in, do it again and start looking for another job?

Dude i would have fired several of them a long time ago. It's a small island that is seasonal...not a big pool of people to pull from. We are slowly weeding out the shitty ones...just takes alot of time

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

All good! Unfortunatly i wasnt saved, the bartenders dropped all of the head pressure out of my kegs for likely a day or 36 hours while still trying to pour them. I have had them do similar for a while forgetting to fully turn on the gas in the cooler, but never to this extent. None of my kegs are daisy chained so the beergas was only going into one keg per line.

I am gonna build a mini draft tower and surface mount it inside of my cooler so that i can fix their fuckups.

You use a different keg system, probably top mounts for both CO2 and beer right so the setup is different

 

[Bigbre04]

You use a different keg system, probably top mounts for both CO2 and beer right so the setup is different

Im using Sanke taps with half bbl kegs. Not homebrewing gear.