[kgs]

I have everything ready for kegging tomorrow afternoon. I cleaned and sanitized the keg and its parts, put it back together, stuck the lid in loosely, and put a paper bag over it. I double-checked that the QDs for the gas and beer lines worked. I took the Taprite regulator out of its box and looked at it for a long time, and realized a) it has a check valve so I didn't need to buy one (confirmed when I looked it up), and b) it arrived set fully open at the shutoff valve and at the red center knob -- something good to have realized. I set it to fully closed.

I put the fermenter in my auxiliary (landlord-gave-us-an-old) fridge, set to 42 degrees; the beer had been ca. 60 degrees, and though I wasn't sure about this, it seemed right to get the beer to serving temp and then carbonate at that level rather than keg warmer and cool down. (It's an oatmeal stout so it's pretty happy at a wide range of degrees.)

So tomorrow afternoon I will connect the CO2 tank to the in valve, let it run for 5 or 10 sec, turn off the regulator (at both the shutoff valve and red knob?), rack the beer into the keg, lock the cover, set the regulator to 5 psi, open the shutoff valve, fill the keg's headspace with CO2, then reset the regulator to somewhere between 6.6 and 7.7 psi and listen for the CO2 to stop flowing. I could hasten carbonation by agitating the keg for up to 15 minutes (it's a 2.5 gal keg, so perhaps less time?), or I could be conservative and use carbonation over time.

Here's a really basic question I'm almost embarrassed to ask. The 1995 Zymurgy article says "so I set the keg back upright and disconnect it. After a few hours the beer settles and is ready to serve." Later on the keg is reconnected with the CO2 canister. Then "when you are done serving" it is disconnected. At what point in the process is the CO2 canister connected/disconnected? I had assumed it stayed connected the whole time.

[gsellers]

Click here for a good visual http://youtu.be/LJ_YGcJEcOc

I like to set my pressure to 30psi for 24hrs do some quick purges then set at serving pressure and it's usually carbed in a week or so. But like anything with beer it's best to set at serving pressure and forget it.

Once it's fully carbed I keep the co2 line connected at all times. Some don't due to leaks can empty your keg but it's never happened to me. Once the pressure in the beer equals the pressure coming into the keg technically you do not need to keep it connected, but after a while you will have to reconnect and add more co2 to keep pressure to push the beer out. Hope this is what you are asking.

[narcout]

So tomorrow afternoon I will connect the CO2 tank to the in valve, let it run for 5 or 10 sec, turn off the regulator (at both the shutoff valve and red knob?)

You can just close the shutoff valve.  No need to also turn down the knob.

set the regulator to 5 psi, open the shutoff valve, fill the keg's headspace with CO2, then reset the regulator to somewhere between 6.6 and 7.7 psi and listen for the CO2 to stop flowing.

No need to fill the headspace at 5 psi and then turn up to your carb/serving pressure.  You can just start at your carb/serving pressure and leave it alone.  I like to purge the headspace after filling the keg.

I had assumed it stayed connected the whole time.

You can leave the gas connected and on the whole time.  It will not cause an issue unless you have a leak somewhere in the system.

Make sure the disconnects are fully seated on the keg posts.  I had trouble with that when I first started.  On the disconnect, you want to pull the ring up and really push it down onto the post.

[kgs]

Thanks, both posts are very helpful.