We naturally carbonated our Artesian Pumpkin Ale and let it sit in the keg at 65 F for three weeks before we tried to drink it. This was not enough, or I do not know what I am doing yet. But hey life is an experiment, right? So when we tapped it there was no carbonation and it was very sweet. Leading me to believe that I killed the yeast by not cooling down my priming sugar before adding to the keg. Damn my impatience. So after this happened I decided that maybe we should try and force carbonate this batch since we want to drink. I knew that it would still be very sweet from the residual sugar that the yeast did not eat but it would at least be carbonated. Here is how I did this:
1. Crank PSI up to 30 on beer that is at 40 F and inside the keg.
2. Rock the keg on its side back and forth on the ground for about 1-5 minutes or until you do not hear anymore hissing.
3. Remove attachment to regulator and let sit in kegerator for a day or so. We waited two days.
4. Check head pressure by reattaching regulator, making sure the CO2 is not on, and opening up all of the valves in order to feel how much pressure is coming back off of the keg. It will be around 19 PSI or so because the beer will have absorbed a good deal of it.
5. Use the pressure relief valve on top to lower pressure down to 10 PSI.
6. Serve up a glass of homebrew.
Cheers
Are there methods to carbonate beer that isn't kegged?
ReplyDeleteGlad you found a solution, and were able to enjoy your pumpkin ale!
I don' know if there is any other method of carbonating besides force carbonating and naturally carbonating. If you are talking about bottles then unless you have some expensive commercial equipment then you have to prime with sugar, or you can always Krausen your beer which is a purest method for carbonating. You take a bit of wort and keep it to the side and then ferment your beer separately. Once fermentation has ended then you can add the wort to prime your beer instead of sugar which is an adjunct. This way the only things that go into your beer are the four ingredients necessary, barley, hops, yeast and water.
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