Well it has been awhile, but I wanted to write a quick post with corresponding links to how you should be carbonating your beer. Carbonation is a relatively simple thing to do as you really only have two options on how it is done. You can either naturally carbonate or force carbonate. I am not going to get into which one is better, but they each have their benefits and drawbacks.
Real quick though natural carbonation is when you add some form of a sugar (corn syrup, table sugar, dextrose, etc…) to the beer as you put it in a keg or bottle. The yeast that are still suspended in the beer (even though you cannot see them…they are there) take those sugars and convert them into more alcohol and also CO2. Within the sealed environment of a keg or bottle the CO2 is forced back into the beer, and BOOM it is carbonated. The process usually take 2 weeks at room temp.
Force carbonation on the other hand is just for those who are kegging. You take the keg of flat beer and apply CO2 pressure to your beer from your tank of CO2. You can either set it at the desired PSI and leave for about a week, or you can give it a little shaking to speed up the absorption of the CO2 in the beer. Just leaving it if you are not in a rush is a better idea as you do not risk over carbonation. I will leave that chose up to you though. If you are carbonating via a CO2 tank make sure to have the beer at the serving temperature you desire, and then apply the pressure. This will insure when you pour your first glass the carbonation will be spot on.
Here is the good stuff I wanted to get to. Below are some links to useful websites for naturally and force carbonating beer. Use these charts and calculators next time you are looking to create a perfectly created pint. One more thing, force carbonating talks in CO2 “volumes”, so I list below some quick reference volumes for specific beer styles.
Natural Priming Sugar Calculator – Priming Sugar Calc
Force Carbonating Reference Chart – C02 Volume Chart
CO2 Volumes for specific beer styles
Blonde/Cream: 2.6
American Pale: 2.4
American Amber: 2.3
American Brown: 2.3
IPA: 2.4
Double IPA: 2.2
Porter: 2.1
Stout: 2.1
Imperial Stout: 2.2
Mild: 1.8
English Bitter: 1.5
Barley Wine: 2.2
