National Homebrew Club Ireland

General Discussions => Chit Chat => Topic started by: Beerbuddha on January 28, 2015, 11:55:11 PM

Title: natural carbonation V forced
Post by: Beerbuddha on January 28, 2015, 11:55:11 PM
Some people swear by adding sugar to keg v force carbonation but I I'm not sold as to why.

Natural gives smoother mouth feel .
Natural gives better shelf life.
iDK.
I do agree natural does give the lowest 02 lvls but after that I'm not convinced !
Opinions and taughts ?
Title: Re: natural carbonation V forced
Post by: LordEoin on January 29, 2015, 01:57:36 AM
i have limited experience with force carbonation but from what I've found the bubbles feel smaller when naturally carbonated, adding to the mouthfeel. Whereas force carbonation seems to have bigger harsher bubbles.
Although it might all be in my head, or just me force carbing wrong.
Title: Re: natural carbonation V forced
Post by: johnrm on January 29, 2015, 08:33:34 AM
Would nucleation points be a factor in this?
Does yeast in suspension serve as an additional nucleation point when pouring?
Sorcerers Apprentice - I would be interested in your thoughts on this.
Title: Re: natural carbonation V forced
Post by: auralabuse on January 29, 2015, 08:44:54 AM
Quote from: johnrm on January 29, 2015, 08:33:34 AM
Would nucleation points be a factor in this?
Does yeast in suspension serve as an additional nucleation point when pouring?
Sorcerers Apprentice - I would be interested in your thoughts on this.
I did both and found the beer to be a bit crisper and cleaner tasting with force carbing,  the natural carbing definitely leaves yeast cells in suspension,  giving a cloudy beer which probably accounts for the mouthful.  I changed to 50/50 nitro mix and think I'm getting the best of both worlds now
Title: Re: natural carbonation V forced
Post by: Sorcerers Apprentice on January 29, 2015, 09:53:48 AM
Natural carbonation is better for extended shelf life due to reduced DO levels, if you're kegging and drinking straight away it shouldn't make much difference, I'd steer away from shaking the keg to speed up carbonation. John the yeast particles would be too small for neucleonic points, issues we had in the past were around calcium oxalate causing gushing that's why we added gypsum, it was more evident in foreign export due to the greater time lapse between bottling and drinking in foreign markets where we had complaints of glass particles in the beer, it turned out to be Calcium. Gushing in homebrew beer is more likely to be connected with infection due to sanitation issues.
Lots of beers have suspended yeast in their final product without gushing issues.
Title: Re: natural carbonation V forced
Post by: Beerbuddha on January 29, 2015, 11:28:41 AM
Natural carb can cause issues as in its an extra step in process so more chance of infection.
Also force carbonation you obviously skip this and can get beer cooler so as to lower chance of bugs growing.
Lower the chance of aerobic micro-organisms taking hold also.

Intarested in actually comparing a force carbonation beer and natural from same batch. Mouth feel I'm guessing will be better with natural going by the comments.
Title: Re: natural carbonation V forced
Post by: Hop Bomb on January 29, 2015, 11:05:23 PM
I think most people who keg their beers treat their kegs as if they were bright beer tanks. Its the last step in clearing & carbing your beer. Having a secondary fermentation in the keg defeats this purpose for me anyway. You'd have haze & a lot more sediment to deal with in the keg. Its much easier just transfer over beer to keg & stick it in the kegerator with the gas on it for a few days til carbed. Then just pour the first half pint away & you have chilled clear & carbonated beer. Like all things homebrew though its personal preference on how you skin your cat  :)
Title: Re: natural carbonation V forced
Post by: Beerbuddha on January 31, 2015, 07:04:10 PM
I agree totally. I only adding isinglass to the keg as I want beer sparkling so secondary fermentation.....
For me just wrong.
Title: Re: natural carbonation V forced
Post by: UpsidedownA (Andrew) on January 31, 2015, 09:21:17 PM
Natural: cheap
Forced: not so cheap.
Title: Re: natural carbonation V forced
Post by: Dr Horrible on January 31, 2015, 09:37:49 PM
More of a question than a comment, but do those that keg notice an advantage of being able to drink a beer earlier when dealing with hop forward beers?  A  few times now when I've tasted a beer when bottling, a lot of the hop flavours I pick up are gone after the 4 or 5 weeks I need to carbonate properly
Title: Re: natural carbonation V forced
Post by: Beerbuddha on February 01, 2015, 12:14:00 PM
I love extreme hoppy beers.
I last made punk ipa and auroma does disappear as time goes by so the beautiful thing about keggin is you can add more hops if you feel it's needed or not......I just lash it in.... :D