Cooling down in kegerator

[nephtwim@icloud.com]

I keg conditioned a beer I made. After putting in the kegerator, how long should I give it to cool down so I can get a good flow rate?

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

I set my temp at 34 in the keezer, hook up the co2 at 12 and let it set for 7 days with out touching it, then its conditioned and carbed and ready to drink, keep in mind unless you have your dip tube cut, you will get cloudy beers for a day or so from all the sediment dropping to the bottom

 

[nephtwim@icloud.com]

I set my temp at 34 in the keezer, hook up the co2 at 12 and let it set for 7 days with out touching it, then its conditioned and carbed and ready to drink, keep in mind unless you have your dip tube cut, you will get cloudy beers for a day or so from all the sediment dropping to the bottom

Understood. Thank you very much.

 

[SwampWater]

I top up my keg once a day or so to allow for shrinkage. 5 psi is all you need.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

I will tell you that if you can set it at 5 psi and condition for 3 weeks, the beer will be much better, problem with some regulators they creep up some times at low settings so its hard to set it that low

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

if you have space and an extra keg I can tell you an easy way to get really good beer, just takes an extra week or 2

this is my normal practice
first ferment the beer, when done pull that beer into a keg, you won't be drinking out of this keg at all so we call this the conditioning keg

if you need to dry hop do it now, just add the hops to a 5 gallon paint strainer bag, before you add the beer to the keg tie the dry hop bag to the beer out tube and push it down where the bottom of the bag is in the middle of the keg, then add your beer, hook up the co2 and put 5 to 10 or so pounds, bleed 3 times to get air out then let that set for a week or so

at this point, a week or so "your call" some say 2, just check the carbonation level, the beer will be milky or thick tasting "don't worry"

when the carbonation level is what you want and if you have a auto siphon put the bottom on the outer ledge of bottom of the keg, not inside the dip, siphon the beer into another keg, "this next keg is your serving keg, from that point on just start drinking the beer from the second keg

I set my conditioning freezer at 34F, the purpose of the temperature is to pull the solids down to the bottom and the colder it's set the faster it will happen

 

[nephtwim@icloud.com]

if you have space and an extra keg I can tell you an easy way to get really good beer, just takes an extra week or 2

this is my normal practice
first ferment the beer, when done pull that beer into a keg, you won't be drinking out of this keg at all so we call this the conditioning keg

if you need to dry hop do it now, just add the hops to a 5 gallon paint strainer bag, before you add the beer to the keg tie the dry hop bag to the beer out tube and push it down where the bottom of the bag is in the middle of the keg, then add your beer, hook up the co2 and put 5 to 10 or so pounds, bleed 3 times to get air out then let that set for a week or so

at this point, a week or so "your call" some say 2, just check the carbonation level, the beer will be milky or thick tasting "don't worry"

if you have a auto siphon put the bottom on the outer ledge of bottom of the keg, not inside the dip, siphon the beer into another keg, "this next keg is your serving keg, from that part on just start drinking the beer from the second keg

I set my conditioning freezer at 34F, the purpose of the temperature is to pull the solids down to the bottom and the colder it's set the faster it will happen

Thanks for that. That's good stuff. Questions: when you say bleed out the air 3 times, are you talking 3 quick bursts, or 3 different times during the conditioning period? And, for how long do you pull the relief valve?

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

I am a freek about keeping the oxygen out of my beer so my practice is: every time i open the keg lid for what ever the reason, I pull the relief valve 3 times, so listen for the tank to bubble or fill up then pull a short burst, wait 30 seconds to a minute and pull another, then a third time, I know its wasteful but this just ensures that no oxygen enters the keg