How to Force Carbonate your Mini Keg

How to Force Carbonate your Mini Keg

Home Brewing gets that much better when you drink it fresh from a keg.  There is something special when you get that perfect pour of fizzy liquid gold.  Some people usually start off with bottles and then migrate to kegs when they feel more confident.  I found the time taken to clean and sanitise your bottles, waiting for the beer to naturally carbonate and the risk of bottle explosion was always in the back of my mind.  The beauty of our mini kegs is that you can force carbonate your beer quickly with CO2  or naturally carbonate over time.

Forced carbonation is by far the quickest and easiest way to go so we’ve broken it down into 6 simple steps that will have you going from zero to brew hero immediately.

6 Simple Steps to Force Carbonating your Small Batch Mini Keg

1. When fermentation is complete, clean and sanitise your mini keg,  Put 15g of sodium per carbonate and fill your mini keg with water and leave for 10 minutes, empty the keg.
2. Screw on the double ball lock spear, attach the barbed black liquid disconnect to the ball lock post. Syphon the fermented wort into your mini keg via the disconnect. Pull the pressure relief valve during filling to relieve internal keg pressure and keep a steady flow.
3. Connect your mini regulator to the forced carbonation kit and attach to the gas inlet on the double ball lock spear.  Connect your SodaStream CO2 source to the mini regulator.
4. Turn the valve on until the PSI reaches 30 PSI, put the keg, carbonation kit and gas source in the fridge in an upright position. Leave for 48-72 hours.
5. After 48-72 hours bleed off the pressure via the pressure release valve to 10-13 PSI and leave for a further 24 hours.
6. When you are ready to drink your home brew, bleed off the pressure between 3 & 5 PSI, leave for 10 minutes and then serve. You can disconnect the regulator and gas at this point as there is enough pressure in the keg to serve a few beers.  If the pressure becomes to low re-attach the gas kit and set the pressure back to between 3 & 5 PSI. This will allow you to have nicely carbonated beer without a lot of foam.

Important note: Make sure that the regulator does not get moisture inside the unit as this will damage the internal mechanism and void the warranty.

That’s all there is to it and remember Dream Big, Brew Small.

Our commitment is to help you brew better beer, with only the essential premium equipment you need. Get one of our home brew starter kits and mini keg kits and start your journey with us. Just because you are brewing small doesn’t mean you cant dream big. Tag us @smallbatchbrew so we can tell the world about another up and coming Master Brewer.

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