[zbrewer303]

Hi everyone,
I'm new here and new to kegging.  I just got a keg system, but don't have room in the fridge to keep it cold.  I'm excited to use it, so I'm thinking of kegging my beer and pouring some in a growler to have some cold enough to drink.  I also have a ton of priming sugar, so should I prime in the keg and save some CO2?  Or is this a bad idea and should I just bottle it until I have a kegerator?

[tommymorris]

Priming sugar works fine in kegs but the amount used is much less. I can't tell you exactly how much to use. Someone else here can.

Force carbing with co2 also works at room temp.

Not sure about trying to fill a growler at room temp. CO2 wants to escape the beer at room temp. So filling a growler would be problematic.

You should get a mini fridge for the keg.

[coolman26]

I personally would prime and carb at room temp. Rack into the priming sugar, then purge and seal with CO2.  Bottling warm would be a foaming nightmare. I would get the keg cold and shove a bottling wand into a cobra tap. Dump the first pint or two and rock on from there. You can bleed the pressure from the keg and turn your regulator down to fill w/o foaming up. Save some dollars and get a spare fridge. Can always use picnic taps until you piece it together. Others may have better ideas, this is what I used to do. I used the Brewers Friend  calculator and weighed the priming sugar.


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[Frankenbrew]

I've had pretty good results using three ounces of table sugar to five gallons of beer for two weeks at room temperature. If you are trying to pinpoint a particular volume of CO2, you can use on of the online calculators, but I like the carbonation I get with that amount. After carbonating with sugar, I set the CO2 regulator to pinpoint the carbonation at tapping/serving time.

[TeeDubb]

I had the same dilemma after moving to a smaller apartment and not wanting to give up kegging in my brewing process.  I found that my kitchen fridge is actually quite reconfigurable for shelf location. I was able to accommodate the smaller (less tall) corny kegs and just use a picnic tap that gets coiled up inside. It's not ideal, but a good compromise.  I also don't always keep the C02 tank in there either.  I make room for it during carbonation, but then leave it out and top off the pressure periodically as I dispense.  I honestly don't notice the carbonation level change that much after it converges and the need to top off pressure becomes less frequent as the liquid level drops and more headspace forms.

If you go this route, I would recommend placing a 1" thick board under the keg to distribute the load across the width of the bottom shelf, which can be glass on some refrigerators.