Force Carbonation Charts

[bribrisprings]

I have always been a big fan of natural carbonation, but would like to experiment with force carbonation in kegs.  I have noticed that most carbonation charts list PSI and Temp to achieve desired CO2 volumes, but I see nothing describing over what time period they are suggesting to leave the keg connected at pressure.  The Carbonation Tool in the Beer Smith Software gives no mention to a scale of time.  Is there a standard amount of time that you want the keg attached to the gas per amount of pressure/temperature?  12 hours?  24 hours? 

[prj28]

I let mine go from 4 to 7 days at 37˚ F. The PSI depends on the style I'm carbonating.

[hopaholic]

Time is proportionate to surface area vs height (or total volume). Lay it on its side and it will go from top to bottom faster. IOW, the top takes up the CO2 first. This is why the shaking method workas. It's why carb stones work as well, putting tiny bubbles in from the bottom up.

[Minimeans]

Better than shaking or carb stones, remove the ball lock (if sankey style keg) & hook up your gas-in line to the beer-out tap on the keg. This will send CO2 down the spear to the bottom of the keg and carbonate the beer in less than half the time, from the bottom up instead of from top down.

[dtapke]

Minimeans, not sure if you noticed but this thread is 3 years old...

also, few homebrewers use sankey kegs, and even fewer commercial breweries carbonate in kegs.

most brew shops sell lids for corny kegs that have a length of tube and a carb stone that sits on the bottom of the keg to apply co2 in a fine bubble stream from the bottom up. Blichmann has also introduced a quick carbonating device that carbs inline while transferring beer.

personally, i generally just raise the pressure in a corny to about 30psi for 2-3 days at 33F and then drop to serving pressure.