(Should) my keg floweth over?

Question

So, I kegged my first time (straight from a 3.5wk primary vs 2wk, which I recommend). I tried a little bit of the "force carb", i.e. set to 25-30psi and agitate the keg until I didn't hear any more consistent CO2 flow. I tried not to overdo it.

I then wanted to "Reset" down and set to 10psi (American Ale style). So, I tried to use my little bleeder cap (pin lock keg) but every time I tried to release off the gas post I got foam/beer coming out as well.

So, I gave up (ok, technically I tried to pour a couple of beers just to see what would happen, and it was 90% foam that settled into 50% carbonated beer... a good start I think), and set it to 10psi and put it in the fridge to 34F.

Now, if my science-fu is strong, which it may not be, I believe/hope the following to be true, and would your help confirming:

1) the foam coming out when I tried to bleed at first was from the beer being agitated and foamy and not a clean CO2 head at the top to "purge". If I let it chill and settle, should I be able to purge from the gas post as necessary w/o liquid coming out?

2) after the beer chills more (it was at about 50F during initial carbing), leaving it stationary and gas line on to 10psi should continue/finish the carbonation process, and "level" off as the liquid absorbs the excess (and then constant) pressure, assuming I didn't somehow manage to heavily overcarb the beer itself (which I don't think I did based on the sample).

3) I'm making it harder than it needs to be. RDWHA-hopefully-carbonated-HB-in-a-couple-days

I have to say it was fun, and I think I did it OK. This was my first time using a carboy (super cool to be able to watch it for a change), an auto-siphon (luxury but nice), cold crashing (very useful), and kegging (just cool in general).

Comments, answers, and accusations welcome :)

Thanks guys!

Answer 1

All three of your assertions are correct.

The beer coming out of the gas out post could be because it's foamy, pushing foam up into the gas stem, or because you filled to above the gas stem - either way, the gas will then push beer out through the stem when you open the gas out post.

Rather than using the gas post, you can use the pressure relief valve. However, with such a small amount of gas in the headspace, you only need to just quickly pull it. To be honest, I wouldn't bother. There's no need to bleed of the 30psi - the gas in the headspace will dissolve into the beer given a few days, especially at cold temperature. Since the regulator is set at 10psi, there's no danger of overcarbing. You'd have to fill the headspace many times over at 30psi to do that.

Answer 2

A short answer is that your beer will level out on the carb. Keep at 10psi-12 and you will be good.

What I do:

To card a beer in my kegs I set the psi to ten and just wait for 4 days. I have messed around with rolling the kegs and doing the high psi pushes to try and get the beer carbonated quickly but have never been really happy with the results. The beer always came out a little foamy and seemed a little troublesome.

What I would suggest is to find what psi your style of beer needs to be at and use a carbonation calculator: http://www.brewheads.com/forcecarb.php

Then let the beer sit for around five days. Then drink!

Happy brewing! Cheers!