Nano: Looking for Advice on Carbonation and Bttling from Keg

[CalaBrewingCo]

Hi Everyone,

As a starting nano we are developing our products (American Ales) and packing beer only in kegs, with the following esoteric carbonation technique:

1) Chill the keg to 39.2F (4C)
2) Attach CO2 10 (ten) minutes a day @ 3 PSI
3) repeat step 2 five times (five days)

Can you share your thoughts with us about the best and optimized force carbonation techniques for this beer styles?

Additionally we are going to start bottling from kegs with a counter pressure filler. Any advice regarding keg carbonation level for this? Should the beer in the keg be a little more carbonated to bottle from keg?

Any advice and ideas will be appreciated! Thanks in advance, cheers!

[Matt Dog]

Unless you mean 30Psi this makes no sense. You would also want to go colder as close to 32F as possible. You can apply head pressure and let it set for a few days or do the old shake the keg to do it in minutes. Either way you wont be extremely consistent though you can get pretty close. Go to the Meheen or Zham site and download the carbonation chart for reference. You will need between 10-15Psi to maintain carb depending on levels and temps so 3psi is pointless.

[CalaBrewingCo]

Hi Matt,

Thanks for your reply, sorry my mystake I meant 3 BAR (43 psi).

What do you think about bottling from carbonated keg with a cp filler, should the keg be a little more carbonated?

Regards

[Thirsty_Monk]

It can be done.
Push CO2 to the keg thru "beer out" port. This will speed your carbonation.
Do not over pressurize your keg over manufacturer recommendations. Bad things can happen.
Bottling from keg with CPF is fine.
Yes you want to be a little bit over carbonated because you will loose some at filling process.

[callmetim]

keep your co2 on for the full three days. don't pressurize over keg max, and Yes, you can bottle from kegs. We use a beer gun. Have done 30k+ bottles this way.

[BrewinLou]

CPF from a keg is easier if you can chill down the bottles a little.

[CalaBrewingCo]

Thank you all for your comments!

[rudge75]

You could also run the beer line thru a 25 ft coil of 1/4 inch stainless in a bucket of icewater to get the beer colder as you bottle.