carbonating in advance

[willy69]

I am a newbie to homebrew. I have my keg, co2 tank etc. I will finish my first keg in about one week and have my next batch kegged into a seperate keg before my first one is finished off.   When I carbonated the first time it took a few days and I dont want to have to wait this time when I keg my second batch of beer. I want to be able to unhook my first keg and start drinking out of my second. How does one carbonate the second keg and have it ready to drink when one only has one co2 line and tank? If I take my co2 off the keg I am drinking out of I dont know how long that keg will remain carbonated while I am charging keg #2. Plus I dont know how long it takes to carbonate my keg 2. Any help would be appreciated

[shane]

There are many ways to carbonate a keg. If you have a week or two to wait you can keg condition. Heat up 3/8 cup corn sugar in a sauce pan and put in the keg like you would a bottle. One week at 65 to 70 degrees and it's carbonated. If you want it right now,  keg your beer , turn the co2 up to 35 lbs,connect to your keg and shut off gas. Check your keg  for leaks.  Release pressure to purge oxygen. Repeat two more times. Reopen the gas line and shake your keg for 5 to 7 min. At first you'll hear the gas go in quickly then it will slow down. I keep the keg on the ground upright and rock back and forth with force until the gas slowly goes in like I said about 5 to 7 mins.
Disconnect and refridgerate till cool. It's ready as soon as it's cool.Before you tap it release the pressure a bit so you don't get all head.As soon as the pressure gets down to 10lbs it's a like a normal pour. As long as there are no leaks in the keg it will last as long as you need it. I always check with soapy water. I tried this at 30 lbs and 40 lbs, 35 seemed just right.

    good luck and good drinkin

[LetsBrewYall]

I am by no means an experienced brewer, but I have kegged about 3 kegs so far.  The first 2 I conditioned/naturally carbonated and they turned out great.  The trade-off is waiting.  The last I tried forced carbonating (I didn't know what I was doing) and I think I over carbonated it.  It had a funky taste after that and I am not happy with it.  I've been told that is probably a carbonic acid taste.  I put about 30 lbs for like 3 days and then again another 3 or 4 hours.  I WOULD NOT do that again!     Next time I will try as Shane suggests.  Although I do like and have had sucess with the natural carbonating method.

As for your original question...I do not think that taking the gas off the first keg for the short amount of time Shane recommends for forced carbonating will cause any harm to the other keg.  In fact, if it is properly sealed it should not even notice it doesn't have the gas.  What I have done to have several kegs on tap is to purchase a manifold.  I can have up to 4 kegs on tap now.  If I really wanted to get hi-tech I would purchase another single stage regulator so I could force carb on one line at the high pressure while teaving the others on the gas as the dispensing pressure.  But, I have not found that to be a necessity...yet. 

Good luck!

[shane]

  LetsBrewYall,
  that's exactly what I have, 4 way shutoff ,3 to kegs and 1 line to force carbonate. I was also going to get a second regulator to make life easier. Soon enough. Like you said ,if you take the pressure off the keg as long as its sealed (soapy water test) it will last a long while, I've had it up to 2 months. Done 20 kegs this way.

[jomebrew]

Once CO2 is in the beer at the desired volumes in the keg (say 2.5 volumes), it stays there.  All you need is occasional blast to fill the space when you remove beer.  This keeps the pressure on the beer to push it out.  You don't need much.  You can safely move the CO2 line to the second keg and start the carbonation process.

I have 4 kegs.  I usually give them 2 days at 30 PSI (at 40F, temperature is VITAL to carbonating to the desired level) releasing the pressure in the keg a couple seconds every now and then (to bleed the oxygen).  After that, I set to my desired pressure (10.5 - 11PSI at 40F).  While there is some carbonation, it is rather coarse at first, like soda.  It always needs some time to produce smaller bubbles.

[mystrebrew]

Once CO2 is in the beer at the desired volumes in the keg (say 2.5 volumes), it stays there.  All you need is occasional blast to fill the space when you remove beer.  This keeps the pressure on the beer to push it out.  You don't need much.  You can safely move the CO2 line to the second keg and start the carbonation process.

I have 4 kegs.  I usually give them 2 days at 30 PSI (at 40F, temperature is VITAL to carbonating to the desired level) releasing the pressure in the keg a couple seconds every now and then (to bleed the oxygen).  After that, I set to my desired pressure (10.5 - 11PSI at 40F).  While there is some carbonation, it is rather coarse at first, like soda.  It always needs some time to produce smaller bubbles.

Thank you jomebrew for a great, straightforward answer!  Not sure what to make of the fact that it was your post number 666, but it definitely helped me!

[Maine Homebrewer]

How does one carbonate the second keg and have it ready to drink when one only has one co2 line and tank?

I have as many as five kegs at a time, with only one gas line and one tap.  I just manually move the lines around as needed.  Put the gas on the carbonated one to push out the brew and keep the pressure up, then pop it back to the one that need carbonating.  It's a bit of a hassle but I'm used to it. Oh, and to add to the hassle, my regulator doesn't regulate. It only works as a pressure gauge. So I'm the regulator. Like I said, I'm used to it.

[drb1215]

Here is a handy chart showing that shows pressure vs. temperature for slow force carbonation.  You look at the CO2 volume you want, it it will show you what temp and pressure to use.

http://www.kegerators.com/carbonation-table.php

-Dan