Force carbonation

Force carbonation is the process of carbonating a beverage (e.g. beer) using a CO2 tank. For me, this is one of the main benefits of kegging over bottling, as it can be much faster than natural carbonation, the method used for carbonating bottled beer.

From what I can tell, everyone has his/her own method to force carbonate beer. But at the end of the day, they all involve applying some CO2 pressure to the keg and some amount of shaking (a lot to none) to speed up the process. Ultimately, you want the batch to achieve equilibrium with some CO2 pressure level (according to the CO2 table) without over carbonating, so in theory, any method can work as long as you are careful not to over carbonate.

The method I've tried and found to work well is the following.

1. After filling the keg and purging the air in the head space, place in fridge to chill over night. Hook up the CO2 if you want, it can only help speed up the process.
2. Next day, with the CO2 attached and set to the desired pressure according to the CO2 table, roll the keg back and forth. As you roll, keep the CO2 line on the bottom, so you can hear the bubbling inside the keg. After 15-20 minutes, the bubbling will stop no matter how much more you roll.  The beer is now carbonated, but it is rather foamy.
3. Allow the beer to settle for a few hours and enjoy.

I like this method because the shaking (or rolling) takes place at the target pressure, so you can't over carbonate the beer. It also doesn't take much more time than what it takes to chill the beer. Many other methods call for carbonating at a high pressure (30-60 PSI) to speed up the carbonation process. That might save you a few minutes (or not), but you run the risk of over carbonating.