Whats the best way to force carb?? Should I do 10 psi, set, and leave it for a week? Or should I use a volume chart and use 22 - 25 psi for 3 days? And whats a good pressure to store it at should I store at 10 psi and disconnect? 22 - 25 psi and disconnect? Leave it on 10 psi and don't disconnect?

20 psi for a week works for me, if I'm not in a hurry.

No best way just many ways. I crank it up to like 30psi shake for a few min then, put away and check in a couple hrs or a day and adjust.

You can use charts for the temp and pressure and time. It works. I like to get it right then, put away for whatever time I'm going to store. That way I can get samples with the co2 were I like it.

i'm a fan of setting it at one pressure for carbing and serving (12-14 psi, for me) and letting it carb up slowly. this usually means it's passable after a week, perfect after two (when everything has cleared out, anyway). this is the most exact way to do it, but you need to be sure you have no leaks. if i'm in a hurry, i'll double the pressure and check it after three days.

I force carbed a keg quick last week and was happy with the results. I'm sure that you know this but in case you didn't, force carbing works best when your beer is already cold. Somehow I am able to attach the gas fitting to the liquid-out post on my kegs pretty easily, some peeps have problems with the fittings getting stuck doing this. Theoretically the beer will absorb co2 as it travels up through the beer. I attached the gas-in fitting on the liquid-out post with the pressure set at 5 psi. A half hour or so I adjusted the regulator to 10psi, a half hour later to 20 psi and then finally 40 psi. After the hissing stopped at 40psi I took of the gas fitting and gave it the proverbial shake then reattached the gas fitting and let it pressurize again and then disconnected so that I could lower the pressure and reattach my kegs. The next day I opened the pressure relief to lower the pressure in the keg and reattached the gas-in and bingo bango I had carbonated beer.

There has been alot of discussions on this topic.
Many different approaches will work.
If you think about it, it's artificial carbing. Everything is better when artificial(slap-joke).
One method I practice(only because I skip the secondary and go straight into the keg) is not to shake the keg to "speed up" the saturation. This is only because I use the keg to continue the "settle" process.
Have fun with it.

I'll just connect periodically and bring it up to 40psi over the course of several days. When the keg starts holding a steady psi I know it is close to being ready.

If you plan on storing the keg why not try sugar priming instead? One can get surprisingly bright beer this way. Just another way to force-carb if you are co2 conscious.

Great topic as I am new to kegging myself. I go from primary to the keg and have good results with setting the keg to 20 psi for two days and shaking once in a while. I check it and when I feel it's carbed enough I lower the psi to 10 psi for dispensing to reduce foaming. Nice thick head that lasts all the way down to the bottom of the glass, great aroma and good taste. The only draw back is that the two batches of beer I've kegged so far have not been clear at all. Almost thick and muddy like. I think that the next time I keg I'll secondary for a couple of weeks before kegging. I hope that will help.

Richie

Ok so what I get from this is that there are many ways to achieve carbonation. But it ultimately comes down to preference and patience. Is it safe to say that the set and leave it method is a sure thing over the period of a week or two and higher psi requires more attention and adjustment? And another thing, I thought it was a big no-no to put your gas in line on the liquid out line, but I can see where this would be effective. What is a good psi to store it at? Should I just keep it at 10 ? 15 all the time in the fridge? Or when I?m done dispensing for the day, pump it all the way up to 20-30?

Im fairly new to this also, about a year, the one thing you dont want to do is put 30 on it and forget about it....been there, done that. That said, yes the slow method is better, but I thought different styles need different pressures??? they say a wiezen needs alot of carbing....just gave me alot of foam...been lucky with 8-10 psi and leave it. Have done the 30 and shake...wait 1 hr..shake...taste test...bleed down to 10 and leave it, and I also use the out line to carb...works for me......happy brewing

Richie-
if you go from primary to keg(what I too practice), I've found it best if not shaken. Allow the sediment to settle, draw a pint, pitch, and then draw another. Should be nice and clear(at it's best).

if you balance your setup correctly you can store at your serving pressure. My fridge stays at 40 degrees, so I set my psi to 10 to carb/store and also serve at this temp. You just take your psi/2 to get your length of bev out tube. Works like a charm and I don't have to keep changing my pressure between store and serve PSI.

I must be the odd man out. I carb with the old rocking method @ 25 psi
I roll my kegs on their side and rock'em for 4-5 minutes or so.
It has always been a sure fire method for me that works perfectly every time. I found no reason to carb any other way.

cny...what size bev line do you use.

i'm pretty sure its 3/16th ID

One thing to consider:

I read in either a BYO article or one posted around here about achieving good head retention without using the obligitory wheat or unfermentables. It stated that beer has a certain amount of head retention "compounds" that can be used up by inducing foam (i.e. shaking vigorously while quick force carb-ing).

So, all things considered, unless you're under a strict time crunch or impatient as hell, i would recommend setting it at the desired volume of CO2 and letting it go for at least a week or two.

Though, i cannot comment on the shaking method because i've never done it, for the reason above, as one. Just don't wanna throw that extra "what-if" in there.

I've done both the shaking method that Greg mentioned and simply letting my kegs sit at proper pressure for a couple of weeks with no discernible difference in the head. The only downside I've seen to shaking is that sometimes it takes longer for any yeast to fall back out of suspension, whereas with the slow method the yeast usually clear within a few beers.

Since it rarely bothers me to have yeast in suspension I choose whichever method is convenient for me at the time. Right now I have two kegs slow carbonating because they could use another week or two of aging.

One other thing to mention is to make sure you release the pressure before you hook up a keg to a multiple keg system or you may end up pushing beer back up into your gas lines.

My beers come out pretty damn clear even with the roll method, of course whirlyfloc tabs and cold crashing right away after fermentation completes helps me a bit.
I guess I'm a bit impatient.. Rack and Roll... drinkin em up in a couple hours ..
I have to admit as prolly most of you guys who age their beers, I found drinking my beers a week or so after fermenation is the best for me with IPAs and PA .. Hops just bust out and taste the freshest...

Garrett, Never had a head retention problem from shaking. Been doing it for years.

I've read the same info as Garrett and I shake anyway. It certainly hasn't caused me problems with head formation or retention. I think that if your beer is well brewed in the first place, a bit of "damage" isn't gonna be a big deal.

I like a good fresh ale too.

I'm not saying it's a tried and true rule that shaking = bad head retention. I just wanted to put it out there. Honestly, it's not going to keep me from shaking in the future. Beer in kegs don't last long enough to determine something like that.

Richie,

Dito what WApilot said. But also, once the keg is carbed up don't move it. There is still settled yeast in there which generally stays in its place if the keg is not moved. Moving means it gets stirred up again.

Personally, I am somewhat flexible as to carbonation. Within reason of course, but my low patience level inwaiting for the beer to be ready usually means I force carb at high pressures and deal with some foam for the first few pours. It is still beer.

Garrett, I do believe the theory that there are only limited amounts of foam positive elements in beer and that they can be "used up" and not available for head retention and formation. But I also believe that if you have a well made beer. there are enough of those foam positive elements that destroying some of them won't necessarily result in a lack of foam in the finished beer.

Does temp play into this? Will it carb up quicker if kept worm or chilled?

CO2 is absorbed faster into cold liquids rather than warmer ones.

Since starting to keg I've always gone to 20-28PSI and shaken. I've also had the last 2 sit at my serving preasure longer and they are fully carbed in 2 weeks.

I'm surprised no one has stated force vs slow carbing produces different bubble sizes. Or the force vs priming and conditioning is better...

Personally I'd recommend experimenting and trying the various methods and see what works for your style...