Naturally carbing a keg

[Kealia]

File this under "things I thought I would never do".

I'll be kegging a pale ale this week into a 2.5G keg and will be priming with sugar since it won't make its way into the mini fridge for a few weeks. From what I can tell the typical ratio is about 2oz for a 5G keg so I'm assuming 1oz for a 2.5G keg, yeah?

Can anybody that does this confirm/correct for me? Much appreciated.

Man, keg-hopping, gelatin, naturally priming in kegs.....waht's next? Drinking stouts?

[Gymrat]

Use a calculator to figure how much sugar to use for that amount of beer. Then use 1/3 of that and you will be in the ball park.

[MadBrewer]

I come up with just over 2 oz. Table sugar for 2.5 gals at 70*. If its a little low once you hit it with co2 it will all balance out to your liking by adjusting pressure if needed.

Im naturally carbing my next batch im kegging which is a Porter. To me the natural carbonation or bottle conditioned character is nice in most ales. I can tell a difference and i miss it since i started kegging. So this will be the first time im trying this.

[Gymrat]

If you are coming up with 2oz don't use more than one. About 3/4 oz would be even better. Then I like to shoot 10lbs of C02 in mine, then disconnect the gas, just to give it a protective coating.

[MadBrewer]

Why so little primming sugar? Just curious.

[Gymrat]

To be honest I don't know. The people on the AHA forum warned me about this and I didn't listen. I used 5 oz on my first 5 gallon keg and it came out extremely over carbonated. I had to purge it several times to get it serveable. The next keg I followed their advice and only used 2oz in a 5 gallon keg. That one came out perfect. I am on my 3rd natural primed keg now. Also primed with 2oz and also perfect carbonation.

[Kealia]

Yeah, I don't know the science behind it either but it takes less sugar to carb a keg. Must have something to do with the volume but that's for smarter heads than mine.

[Beer-lord]

Maybe just pushing the beer out the keg with c02 or the little pumps adds to it.
I've only done this 3 times in a 2.5 gallon kegs and I used half or less amount I did in bottles.

[Kealia]

Alright then, 1oz it is. Gotta move out kegging from Sunday to Tuesday anyway so I have a few more days to research but I feel good about this number right now. If it gets slightly over-carbed, I can always bleed off the excess and let the regulator fix things in a few days but I think this should work just fine.

That's what I like about this board - in one thread I can give advice and in the very next thread I'm asking for it.

[Inkleg]

Yeah, I don't know the science behind it, but all the reading I've found recommended 1/2 to 3/4 the amount for that size batch.
I split that and have always done 65%. The four kegs I did that to turned out great.