CO2 connected to corny keg liquid out post

[tripelthelightfantastic]

Just checking if anyone carbonates their keg by injecting the CO2 into the liquid out post?
At least for the initial gassing having the CO2 traveling from the bottom of the keg would help some gas dissolve and help whatever O2 is in the headspace be pushed up to the top of the keg.

The downside would be when the keg is pressurized you might get beer flowing into the gas line.

Any other pros/cons you know of?

 

[Tim K]

It's how I've been carbing my beer since I started kegging. I cold crash in the fermenter rack to a purged keg with the gas line back to the fermenter and the beer going in the out post, then 30 psi into the diptube and rock it back and forth on it's bottom. I put it back in fridge and hit it with CO2 until it's carbed to where I want it. I've drank it the same day this way.

 

[tripelthelightfantastic]

Nice, thanks Tim,
What about topping up gas after drinking a few-do you set the regulator to above the keg pressure to stop beer flowing back into the line?

Same day drinking sounds good!

 

[Tim K]

I've found that most times that the pressure in the keg drops close to serving pressure overnight, you can leave the gas line off and let the excess pressure push the beer out or vent it with the prv. I've got 2 CO2 tanks so I use one for the keezer and the other for purging / carbing usually. I use a long clear line so I can see if beer backs up into it when I reconnect it.

 

[McMullan]

Unless the CO2 is being forced through a sintered stone, pushing CO2 down the liquid dip tube isn't really going have much of an effect. You can get carbonation lids for corny kegs, if you want to speed up the process to get a nice tight level of carbonation sooner. Carbonation is a very important element of beer. It can't be rushed, in my experience. Even with a sintered stone it takes days to carbonate properly. Loosely carbonated beer is awful, in my opinion. It's 'flabby' and loses condition too quickly.

 

[mongoose33]

Unless the CO2 is being forced through a sintered stone, pushing CO2 down the liquid dip tube isn't really going have much of an effect. You can get carbonation lids for corny kegs, if you want to speed up the process to get a nice tight level of carbonation sooner. Carbonation is a very important element of beer. It can't be rushed, in my experience. Even with a sintered stone it takes days to carbonate properly. Loosely carbonated beer is awful, in my opinion. It's 'flabby' and loses condition too quickly.

I've never heard of this. I generally seal up my Spike with several points of gravity remaining and allow it to self-carb (similar to how a bottled beer carbs), and that works fine. Side benefit is it's virtually completely carbed at kegging.

But occasionally I'll still ferment in my old Bigmouth Bubbler, force carb it most of the way to completely carbed, and then set at serving pressure to finish.

I've never heard the terms "loosely carbonated" or "flabby." Not to denigrate your experience, but do you know any sources that can support this?

It's not clear to me how the beer knows whether it's been slow carbed or force carbed.

Not trying to get an argument going here, just trying to learn something.

 

[McMullan]

I've never heard of this. I generally seal up my Spike with several points of gravity remaining and allow it to self-carb (similar to how a bottled beer carbs), and that works fine. Side benefit is it's virtually completely carbed at kegging.

But occasionally I'll still ferment in my old Bigmouth Bubbler, force carb it most of the way to completely carbed, and then set at serving pressure to finish.

I've never heard the terms "loosely carbonated" or "flabby." Not to denigrate your experience, but do you know any sources that can support this?

It's not clear to me how the beer knows whether it's been slow carbed or force carbed.

Not trying to get an argument going here, just trying to learn something.

It's not clear to me either 'how the beer knows whether it's been slow carbed or force carbed'. What I know, based on empirical evidence associated with my personal observations, is that it takes time to get CO2 to dissolve in beer by force carbonation, unless a fancy industrial process is being used. Yes, natural carbonation using the last few to several gravity points - when billions of active yeast cells are in suspension, producing billions of tiny CO2 bubbles throughout the conditioning beer - is the quickest method, in my experience. A sintered stone produces millions of small bubble that go into solution as they rise through the beer. A liquid dip tube produces a few large bubbles that rise rapidly to the head space therefore carbonation (CO2 going into solution) happens at a much slower rate. I'm pretty sure the phrase 'tight carbonation' has been used to describe the tiny Champagne-like bubbles characteristic of beer carbonated properly. I guess 'loosely carbonated' and 'flabby' might be my descriptions based on how I view it. I don't know. Maybe you read it here first? I doubt it, though. I think the model is pretty straightforward to understand and I'm pretty sure the subject of carbonating beverages is covered sufficiently in the literature. Let me know what you find