Serious force carbonation

Recently, I made a couple of batches on a very tight schedule for a friend's party and needed three solid days of force carbonation for the beer to be ready -- and absolutely no less. I transported my kegerator over to his house and set up the CO2 at about 12 PSI. In the past, 3 days at this level yields solid carbonation (longer is always better, of course).

I had to leave town for two of those three days, and when I returned, the pressure gauge on the regulator was at zero, and the beer was flat! The party was only seven hours away and I had flat beer. A frantic Google search led me to HomeBrew.com and this page, which provided an "impatient method" for force carbonation:

1) Follow step 1 through 3 from the patient method

2) Set your regulator to its highest setting or 60 psi (whatever comes first), pressurize your keg through the black beverage fitting until you hear/feel the flow of gas stop, disconnect the gas (this is important-you don't want beer flowing into your gas line) and shake your keg vigorously for 5 minutes.

3) Repeat step 2 until:

a) your beer will receive no more carbonation at this pressure setting.
b) Your testicles drop down to your ankles.
c) You die of a massive heart attack.

Obviously this method should only be used as a last resort. Even if it doesn't cause you grievous bodily harm it leads to rough handling of your precious homebrew and uncertain carbonation levels.

Fortunately, I stopped at 3(a) above, and though I was racked with uncertainty, the beer turned out great. All was well, as these happy beer drinkers could attest. Posted by Chad Dickerson at July 29, 2004 09:03 AM