Finally going to start kegging

jmcnamara

jmcnamara

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Just bought a kegerator and 2 corny kegs. Still not sure exactly how things all hook up, but super excited.
Hopefully it gets here in time for the 10 gallons I need to package this weekend
 
cool, thanks! i figured it'd be a little more complex than the picnic tap handles from my college days

does that site also have info about carbing process? ive gathered a little bit from here, but it's not really a coherent bigger picture look. i've got some books at home to look at, so if it's in palmer or mosher, i'll find it
 
I saw lots of entries on force carbing when I was looking. I have a 6 Tap, 8 keg keezer. 2 kegs would be conditioning. I didn't leave myself enough height to leave a gas line connected. I hit my new kegs with 30 lbs of CO2 until the gas stops flowing. Twice a day for 1-2 weeks and it's carbed enough to drink.

Make sure you look at a force carbonation chart. Easy to find by googling.
 
I don't think so, be very careful force carbing, those gages are not the greatest and mine leaks after 25 pounds but you cant hear it, its just empty over night, not worth the 12 bucks for me

what I do is hook the co2 up let it set for 5 then purge the air out by pulling the relief valve on the keg, do that 3 times then set it for 12 and let it carb slow over a week, treat each keg the same

if the co2 tank is in the cold sometimes it reads erratic
 
sounds like brewing.

some good general advice then endless fiddling with my own setup

thanks for all the good info
 
Purging the headspace of air and displacing it with CO2 as OMB stated seems to be universal advice.

That said, I'll tell you never ever to roll a keg just to make someone else say you absolutely must roll the keg as you gas it up.

My method works great for me, as I have 2 untapped kegs conditioning. OMB's method works great for him.
 
First of many questions. Can I keep a keg carbed up but off the tap so to speak? Like, I can only keep one keg in the thing, but can I just unhook, carb up a bit,and rehook to the first one?
 
That's more or less what I do. Once it's carbed up, I let it sit until it's tapped.

Think of the commercial kegs you buy. They sit until tapped, and they're carbed just fine.
 
one thing to note, if already carbed and you set it outside the kegerator, the warmer the keg the more the co2 will expand giving twice the pressure and sometimes its hard to release a full keg with too much pressure, it foams too much
 
It came today!!!

Things are pretty much all together, minus the kegs

There weren't too many instructions on the website, and I was wondering what the heck this piece is. Thought it was a tap plug, but it's not thick enough. It's about an inch long and plastic
 
also found out my fermenter can fit into the kegerator. not at the same time as the keg, but now i have lagering capability :twisted:
 
Lager or drink? Tough decision! I bet you work that one out!
 
haha, that's why i'm still keeping some bottles around.

it'll be rough at first to get things scheduled, but i'll make it work somehow.

side note, i was really surprised by how little i had to put together. i'm sure that'll be different when i go to clean the thing though
 
jeffpn said:
That said, I'll tell you never ever to roll a keg just to make someone else say you absolutely must roll the keg as you gas it up.
Click to expand...

You MUST roll the keg. j/k

What I do is purge the headspace a few times (4 actually, but that's arbitrary) at about 10psi (arbitrary, again) and then lay the keg on its side (air side up) and crank it up to 30psi. I often will hear the cover seal with a bit of an click. I then roll the keg a few times to force some CO2 into solution. I do try to keep the air intake side up, because (I think) the pressure in the keg and hose should be roughly equalized and liquid may flow into it, but that's debatable.

I then disconnect and put the keg into storage. With keg lube, which I highly recommend you use to coat your gaskets, I have managed to keep pressure (seal) for more than 3 months without having to zap it again.

One thing I question, because it hasn't happened, is if the keg becomes cooler during storage will I lose seal simply because the liquid will absorb the CO2 in the headspace?

Anyway, my $.02.
 
My experience is extremely limited, because I've carbed exactly 2 kegs.
I didn't want to roll or shake the "speed" lager I did because I wanted it to stay clear so we could drink it 4 days from kegging. I just racked very cold beer to the keg, hit it with 30 lbs pressure every time I thought about it for the first 2 1/2 days and let it sit (in the keezer). The day before serving, I lowered the pressure (mostly through sampling ;) ) and on day 4 hooked it up at serving pressure. It was totally great.
The other one is a hefe that I just kegged a couple of weeks ago. It didn't matter how quickly that one carbed, but I did about the same thing with it - 30 lbs every now and then for a couple of days and then 20 lbs whenever I thought about it. It was fully carbed and quite drinkable in about 3-4 days and obviously had better suspension after a week.
I guess super-quick carbing would be aided by rolling, though.
 
J A said:
I guess super-quick carbing would be aided by rolling, though.
Click to expand...

I don't roll for serving purposes, just to get some CO2 into solution for storage and to keep the keg sealed. Now, I have rolled for serving when I first started to keg (had fewer kegs, shorter lag between brews) and that works if you clear with gelatin (leave it alone for a day or two and everything will drop out even if you rolled it to carbonate a few days earlier), but the taste and mouthfeel is not the same imo.

I usually use the set it and forget it approach where I set my regulator to serving psi (depends on your hose length and serving temp) (generally 11psi @35F) and let it sit for a few days.
 
And the kegs came!

One minor oversight is that the coupler is Sankey but the kegs are the ball locks. I'll have to Jerry rig a thing or 2 but I should be able to get that.

However, the Sankey had a control valve to prevent backflow. But with my kegs, I'd be hooking the regulator directly to the keg (more or less). My point is, I think the rocking and shaking shouldn't be done unless there's a control valve in there somewhere. But how can I tell if my regulat or has one?
 
I've read stories about beer getting into the regulator. My manifold has back valves in it. Shouldn't happen to me!
 
I just have a single tap. A manifold is kind of like a prism in that it splits out the gas line into multiple lines?
 
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