The Witches Brew

Hey fellas, just started up again after about a 15 year lay off and can't wait to get going. Went in yesterday and bought the equipment and the IPA kit. It's good to have someone like this in the area. I will be keging it which brings me to my first question. the instructions say to add the priming sugar before bottling. do I still add the sugar before I transfer it to the keg? I will be using Co2 for carbonation. Also, after I transfer to the keg, do I still let it sit for a week to condition? the instruction are only for bottling. Thanks for the help.

Rick

With kegging the easiest thing to do is force carbonate <free at the shop>.

-Chill the beer (helps the beer absorb the CO2)
-Set the regulator @30 lbs
-Turn on the gas
-Attach the quick disconnect to the "Out" poppet
-Shake until bubbling stops

Done in about 10 minutes, let the beer sit until ready to drink, enjoy. Your call on when to drink it - some people have been known to draught some off minutes after carbonating at the shop. Sudsy, but good.

Welcome!
Pauls steps are correct, but to answer the remaining question: What do I do with the sugar? Don't do anything with it! It is for bottling only. Save it for some other use down the road.

Thanks guys.

Just to provide a second alternative to the method below you can also force carb by simply hooking it up to your gas line at typical serving pressure (12-15 PSI if you're running a 6' length of 3/16" serving hose). The beer will carbonate over about a week.

The Pro's are that it's less effort than the shake 'n taste method Paul outlines and you don't need to swap around fittings or fiddle with gas presure.

The Con's is that it's helpful to have multiple gas lines so you can be carbing one while drinking from another(s) and it takes about a week to carb.

welcome sacred steel, inspiri tu sancti..in beerium we trust....... ..

I'm not a 'fella' but i'll say welcome anyway!

but you are still one of the fellas' melana.. so to speak..

Have a few friends from Easton. One right off Gs light lane!

You found one of the best secrets in New England. The best Brew Shop and best board of people. I wouldn't be brewing and loving spending money in the shop if it wasn't for this crew. When I get a great batch I owe lots of samples.

Paul + the gang beat up Chris a lot, but it is all in fun. Look at them all... They take 48 gallons of wort and reduce it down to 10-14 gallons and call it the Utopia clone! (I think that they should have named it something like, "Superior Utopia." Put it this way, I was dumbfounded and couldn't move and help when Chris told me what he was carrying was less than half the grains and hops out to his 4Runner.

The big guns on the board are the quietest in the shop. Always ready to answer questions / help and learn them selves. It kills me how they are biased for pumpkin but severely against blueberries! You'll get a kick out a search on blueberries and Chris.

-Mike

We only beat up Chris to keep him honest, otherwise his blueberry-beer brewing ass would make God only knows what. Like Pumpkin. Or Gooseberry. Or some other equally horrible waste of good grain.

PTN

Your right about that. Not sure if I would have started up if there wasn't someone in the area and the shop is only 8 miles away. I plan to get over there a lot so I'm sure I'll run in to the regulars at some point.




Woops!

HEY - i LIKE pumpkin beer.

So do I, just in very limited quantities. I'm good with exactly one pint of Pumpkin beer per year. Thats enough to hold me till the next year.

PTN