Jump to content
Coopers Community

It's Kegging Time 2019


Titan

Recommended Posts

Whatever you pour it into you'll lose carbonation unless you have a counter pressure filler. I poured a growler straight from the tap to take next door to a party once and while it was nice it still wasn't as carbonated as it would have been just pouring a glass. If you pour it just before you leave and drink it all same day it should go ok though. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

48 minutes ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

Whatever you pour it into you'll lose carbonation unless you have a counter pressure filler. I poured a growler straight from the tap to take next door to a party once and while it was nice it still wasn't as carbonated as it would have been just pouring a glass. If you pour it just before you leave and drink it all same day it should go ok though. 

Alrighty! I'll leave the pour until I leave. Thanks Otto! 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a pale ale due for kegging on the weekend, either tomorrow or Sunday depending on our plans. I will be keg hopping this one with 10g of each of the hops used in it, picked up the smaller tea strainers from the olds today. 

My conundrum of sorts is when to add these hops. The keg will be sitting for a few weeks before being tapped, as there is a pilsner going into the fermenter next. I don't really want to risk grassy tones from leaving the hops in there all that time, so I was thinking of just filling, purging and pressurising the keg as I normally do, then adding the keg hops a day or two before it goes into the fridge to be carbonated and tapped (followed by another purge and pressurising of course). I would think the infection risk would be pretty low. Thoughts? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

34 minutes ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

so I was thinking of just filling, purging and pressurising the keg as I normally do, then adding the keg hops a day or two before it goes into the fridge to be carbonated and tapped

Thats what I would do.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Busy day in the garage yesterday. 3 brews i had to package. Used every bottle i had as the plan was to bottle 10 of each then keg the rest. 1st one up was the American IPA. 10 tallies bottled and the remaining 10l ito my mini keg. This was the one i used Pekko hops as my main and dry hops. This is a powerful beer. Hops come through very nicely and for first time use im impressed. This is a brew i did specifically for my club IPA competition. Will enter it as American IPA but though taste is great im sure the balance is not on point. There is a malty sweetness, caramel kinda flavour. Hoping this will improve in the bottle. Anyways its going in and i will learn from the feedback. 2nd up was v3 of my smoked baltic porter. This is the one i did in the mash tun and was way off the predicated numbers. 10 points off OG. Again i bottled 10 of these for aging and potential comp entry the rest went into a keg and was tapped yesterday. This is great beer image attached. Smoke flavours are realy prominent, but alchohol hit is just not quite there. 3rd was the v2 smoked baltic. Done in the GF and was 2 points above my OG, came in at 1080. Again bottled 8 tallies as i ran out of bottles. Had to use swing tops for this also and i dont trust them. The intention was to blend this and v3 together in one keg. But because both beers realy stand well on there own i decided to keg them separately. Now back to v3 which i poured a sample this morning.  Im loving it. Im supposing you could class as a session baltic, but this is still a 6% avb beer. Clarity is spot on, rich colour malty sweetness balanced by hops and the smokey flavour. 

20190311_084453.jpg

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Forgot to mention that pale ale was kegged yesterday. A little bit bitter but that should mellow in the few weeks it'll sit before going on tap. Clarity was quite good so I expect it will improve as the yeast drops out further. 

I went to pour a pint of lager yesterday and it dribbled out, opened up the flow control and got spluttering so that one is gone too. 4 weeks or so until beer is on tap again as the next batch is another lager, being pitched tomorrow. 

  • Sad 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Morning All,

Two beers to keg this weekend, its sure has been a busy new year, I've left me Saison and IPA for almost 40 days, Saison is looking pretty dam clear, IPA will be keg hopping, hope I haven't left them too long, IPA has been sitting around 21-22 under TC in the shed fridge, Saison has been sitting in the Fermentersaurus with the pressure kit.

Hopefully will kick off a Pale just in time to watch the Dockers loose.

Tristan

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Went to craftbrewer this morning for some supplies, 25kg bag of sodium percarbonate, and a new PRV and lid seal for the little bastard keg among other stuff. Those are now in place in its lid and the gas leaks are gone, so I can start doing my blended beers again. This will alleviate the running dry a little bit. 

The Mrs wants to buy a new kitchen fridge soon, which is a good idea since the freezer frosts up after a while and doesn't chill properly, so whenever that happens I'll take that current one as my second ferment fridge. The fridge part works fine so at least I don't have to take a chance on something else.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've used a method in the past that still allowed me to drink the beer while it's being degassed. I made it up myself because I didn't want to wait days to drink it. It works best with a manifold.

I completely bleed the pressure, then give it a half second hit of gas (serving pressure), then pour a glass*, giving it another small hit if required during the pour. It comes out looking like post mix soft drink but gives me a full glass with a normal sized head. I just keep doing that each glass until the carbonation level drops a little below what it would normally be, then the keg just goes back on serving pressure gas. Of course it only works with beers that can still be enjoyed even if the carbonation is a bit high.

Another way is to bleed pressure periodically over a few days, which is similar to my method really, just without the drinking part.

On another note I bought some soda stream cola flavour syrup the other day. Works brilliantly with the soda water I have on tap, and only requires a small amount per glass. Certainly a cheaper way to get Coke than buying boxes of cans or whatever. 

*If you have flow control taps, open up the FC fully. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 minutes ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

I've used a method in the past that still allowed me to drink the beer while it's being degassed. I made it up myself because I didn't want to wait days to drink it. It works best with a manifold.

I completely bleed the pressure, then give it a half second hit of gas (serving pressure), then pour a glass*, giving it another small hit if required during the pour. It comes out looking like post mix soft drink but gives me a full glass with a normal sized head. I just keep doing that each glass until the carbonation level drops a little below what it would normally be, then the keg just goes back on serving pressure gas. Of course it only works with beers that can still be enjoyed even if the carbonation is a bit high.

Another way is to bleed pressure periodically over a few days, which is similar to my method really, just without the drinking part.

On another note I bought some soda stream cola flavour syrup the other day. Works brilliantly with the soda water I have on tap, and only requires a small amount per glass. Certainly a cheaper way to get Coke than buying boxes of cans or whatever. 

*If you have flow control taps, open up the FC fully. 

Thanks mate. Will try your method and see how it goes. If not then will just wait it out i guess and bleed it every couple of days for a week or so.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another method I found on the net and it worked is to connect the gas to the beer out post and set to serving pressure (e.g. 12psi). Then pull the PRV every so often. Got it back to proper carbonation within a day or so.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I put the keg hops into my pale ale earlier. About 10-12g each of Cascade, Vic Secret and Rakau. All in individual strainers hanging from the underside of the keg lid. Tomorrow I'm putting it in the fridge to chill down and carbonate ready for Saturday's beer b que I'm doing. Looking forward to seeing how it goes. 

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well the professor is done with his trip so I will keg this batch, 10 days in the fermenter, I did a half arse cold crash...2 days and then skipped the rest of the cycle because it is tonight or Friday, I rather have carbonated beer that I can clear in the keg, if I choose, than clear beer that is not carbonated, opportunity cost.

It tasted nice, so now to hide it from the in-laws so I can drink some!

Edited by Norris!
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kegging my Bohemian pilsner today. Just poured a glass from the fermenter and it's tasting pretty good for a flat beer. It'll go on serving pressure and I'll get drinking it when the pale ale runs out. 

I'd forgotten to clean the keg and line after the last one emptied so had to do that first, so I've taken the pale ale off the tap momentarily. It'll go back on when the pilsner keg is in, so it won't warm up too much but I decided to stick a couple of bottles in the freezer to have while everything returns to normal in the keg fridge. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

Somewhat big kegging day today. I have the two kegs that were last on tap to clean up, then kegging the red ale, some of which will go into the little bastard keg to be blended with the pale ale going in next when it's ready. The main 19L keg will go straight into the kegerator and gas up. I'll also be putting my big stout in, and dad will be over for lunch tomorrow with mum of course, so I might gas the kegs up on high pressure overnight so we can try the stout. 

Somewhere in all that I'll be doing the finishing clean of my urn, as well as dismantling the ball valve and removing the sight gauge to soak them in percarbonate. 

The brew fridge will be empty for a few days as I still need to make a starter for the pale ale but the temp probe wires haven't arrived yet so I'll leave the starter for the time being, don't really want it sitting around for an unknown amount of time before it's pitched. At least it'll give the fridge a chance to air out. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

All done just in time for the Lions game. Stout keg in the back because it will probably take me 2 or 3 months to get through it. Soda water also refilled and all three kegs on about 45psi until tomorrow. Also reattached the gas manifold to the side of the kegerator. I have plans to replace the gas lines with longer ones so I can screw the manifold to the edge of the lower bar shelf for easier access to it, but I'll do that when I go to Craftbrewer next when I'll pick up some line.

Looking forward to trying the stout. Got a sneak peek when I purged it from the aroma. From that, I think it'll be really nice. 

Cheers

Kelsey

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wife asks me this morning at 10:22, why are the beer taps not working hun???

first thought, that’s my girl.

Second thought, that bloody gas connection again. I’m seriously over this sh!t

Got to make a run to Perth on my time off now to get it sorted. So so over it

  • Haha 2
  • Sad 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...