| 1. | Clean everything that will come in contact with your beer. I use this opportunity to flush out the beer line since the keg has cleaning solution in it. | |
| 2. | Purge the keg of air by connecting to the CO2 line and set the pressure to 100kpa (15PSI). Open the saftey valve and allow the gas to purge the keg for 30 seconds. Do this three times using the safety valve release all the pressure. | |
| 3. | Fill the keg to within 50-75mm of the top. This is about the weld seam at the top of the keg (or the second knuckle on your index finger is close enough). Replace the lid. | |
| 4. | With the keg sealed connect the CO2 line and pressurise it to 100kpa (15PSI). Open the saftely value and vent any remaining air. | |
| 5. | Presurise the keg for 10 seconds at 100kpa (15PSI). If the lid begins to leak, open and reseat it. | |
Beer Line Length |
| This the most perplexing and frustrating thing to get right. Its a combination of line flow resistance (diameter dependant), beer temperature, Vol of CO2, regulator pressure and beer tap position in relation to your keg. As each beer sytle has different Vol of CO2 this requires different beer line lengths, beer temperatures and regulator pressures. To bloody complicated! I suggest you select a Vol of CO2 you like, i.e. more or less bubbles, say between 2.0 - 2.5 and the temperature you like to drink your beer all year round. There a million ways to calculate line length but I have found only one (http://aussiehomebrewer.com, member and author 'crozdog') that encompasses all of the variables. |
Spreadsheet for Designing a Balanced System |
What Pressure Do You Set The Regulator? |
| Check out the carbonation chart. |
CO2 Carbonation Chart |
Force Carbonation |
| An easy method to carbonate your beer. First decide how many volumes of CO2 you want and what your serving temperure will be. Refer to the Carbonation Chart for the pressure required. |
| Example: If you want to serve your beer at 4°C with 2.5 Vol of CO2 using the chart you will require 12lbs at the regulator. |
| So you will chill the keg to 4°C and set the gas at 12lbs and after a few days the keg is carbonated to 2.5 Vol of CO2. |