Natural carb question

[barley ben]

So I'm trying to jump the gun here. I have my spare fridge for kegging but don't have the taps set up yet. Just made a basic dry stout last night and picked up a used corney while I was at the store. I'm hoping to have my fridge ready to go in a month to a month and a half. So heres the question. Can I prime/ carbonate the batch in the keg before I have the CO2 for it. I know I have read that some people hit the keg with like 30 psi to set a good seal and then release the pressure and let it carbonate on it's own. Is this nessesary to do or does the lid already seal itself enough that it can just pressurize itself? I don't have a CO2 tank yet so I can not hit with pressure. The kegs were already pressure tested, so there shouldn't be any leaks.

Figured if I can do it this way, then I'll have one ready to go the day I get the fridge set up.

[mmmBeer...]

I don’t see why you couldn’t do it…just you wouldn’t know for sure if the lid was seated properly. The air in the headspace should be enough to pose any threat to your beer. I guess after a period of time you could try and release some pressure to see if anything is building up. You could also mark the lid and keg so that you know where the lid aligns for the tightest fit…

At least I would recommend getting the gasket nice and soft with a good boil. That should help it seat nicely (I do this anyways).

[barley ben]

I was thinking about releasing a bit of pressure anyways. This way it would push out any bit of oxygen that was in the headspace before it would dissolve into the beer. Thanks for the boiling idea. It fits really tight as it is and that would just make it better.

[Jughead]

It may depend on what shape your keg is in. None of my kegs are in mint condition, and none of them will seat properly without pressure. Have a close look at the rim around the opening. If it is totally dent free, then you may get lucky.

Put some water inside the keg and put the lid on. Hold the keg upside down. This will tell you pretty quickly if the lid seats without pressure.

[barley ben]

The top of the keg is in perfect shape. Because of my intention, that was what I looked for first. I also filled it when I cleaned it up last night, turned it over and shook and nothing came out. Plus one other thing is when I opened the pressure relief is hissed when the warm water was in it. Seems like I don't have any leak problems. Guess thats my sign to go for it.

[Jughead]

I guess that's what I get for buying cheap kegs.

Even if it does leak, you'll just end up with flat beer and you can force carbonate it when you get the rest of your setup. I think force vs natural carbonation has been covered elsewhere on this board ;)

Cheers

[barley ben]

Yeah, I tried wording it so it doesn't start another battle of which one is best. Just a will it work question. And I'm not planning on drinking it till I have the fridge ready. Just too impacient to wait for it to force carbonate. Pre chill it a day before I set it up and drink it the moment the lines are connected!!

[mmmBeer...]

I think you’ll be fine.

I doubt that you have anything to lose. Even if the seal isn’t good your priming should create a CO2 blanket that will protect your beer until you can hook up the CO2…then you could reseat the lid and force carbonate.

[mmmBeer...]

Damn jughead you beat me to it :D

[Jughead]

You gotta be quick on the submit button around here.