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natural carbonation in a keg possible?

Good day-

I'm doing an 'orange blossom honey' amber ale. The priming uses 5/8 cup of orange blossom honey. I usually keg, and not sure I can round up enough bottles at bottling/kegging time (about a week from now).

Has anyone heard of naturally carbonating in a keg? I'm guessing I'd put a bit of CO2 in the keg to seal the top on it (so the carbonation doesn't escape). If you have ANY input or tips, I'd greatly appreciate it. I'd really like to use the honey for carbonating as I expect this would affect the taste of the beer.

If not, I guess I'll skip the honey in the priming and just use CO2. Thanks in advance...jeff

Reply to
jahammel68
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Ok - you want to add one ounce of honey per gallon for carbonization and you're a keg guy like me.

My advice add the honey in the secondary. Keg it when it's ready. hit the keg with 35psi and leave it alone for a week. Reattach the CO2 at 10 psi and bleed off the excess pressure. Now serve - it will be well carbonized and have a delicious honey taste.

Dick

Reply to
Dick Adams

Did the recipe include any other honey? Like maybe a pound or so at the end of the boil? The reason I ask is because you are not going to taste

5/8 of a cup of honey. When I used to bottle I used honey all the time for priming (stepfather used to keep me supplied from a farm in Oklahoma with more than we could ever use) and because honey is so fermentable you are left with very little honey flavor.

Anyway, that is beside the point: yes you can certainly naturally carbonate in the keg. I know a few homebrewers who do it exclusively. Just add the priming sugar to the keg, seal the top with C02 and let it sit for a couple of weeks at room temp. Be aware that the initial pint or two will have some yeast sediment from the natural carbonation but after that it should be fine.

_Randal

Reply to
Randal

When I use my keg I only ever use natural carbonation. I use the same amount of priming sugar as I would for a bottle (about half a teaspoon sugar per pint) and this works perfectly for me.

Reply to
PieOPah

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