It's Kegging Time 2019

[Beerlust]

Hi guys.

I cleaned & sanitised a couple of kegs this morning & kegged a current Pale Ale I've had cold conditioning all week. The Citra & Nelson smells great, but taste-wise there was/is something I didn't quite like. Can't be truly sure whether it is hop or yeast related. I almost didn't keg it. I poured a few samples to make sure it wasn't full of hop matter etc. & the taste did seem to improve some. The yeast was 2nd gen WLP001 pitched from a decent starter that seemed a little slow to get going. There was a heap of yeast pitched too, so sorta scratching my head there.

I'm hoping my palate just wasn't ready for hoppy, green beer at 8.00am this morning.

Cheers & good brewing,

Lusty.

[Shamus O'Sean]

Does a lot of yeast lead to bland flavours? 

[Otto Von Blotto]

It can, but it depends on the yeast and the beer.

[Pezzza]

@Beerlust Lusty as I progress into the AG and real beer thing the more I realise the complexity (after having done KnK basics for years) and recent experience - I fear for home propagation of yeast... is that your issue?  That is one thought anyway. @Shamus O'Sean I think that overdosing may attenuate extremely but if one is not concerned overly with Ale body... maybe that is fine.. so for example if it is ten packs of US-05 or WB34/70 I cannot think you would get baaad things happening... maybe more atenutation and thinner body than usual... but more ABV and an interesting new profile... hmmm or maybe too much yeast flavour?

 But as @Otto Von Blotto Kelsey points out it will depend upon Beer style, associated Wort and temp and water and flavour profile being aimed at.... 

[Greenyinthewestofsydney]

5 hours ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

Does a lot of yeast lead to bland flavours? 

Ales yes. Lagers no.

Simple as that.

[Greenyinthewestofsydney]

14 minutes ago, Bearded Burbler said:

@Shamus O'Sean I think that overdosing may attenuate extremely but if one is not concerned overly with Ale body... maybe that is fine.. so for example if it is ten packs of US-05 or WB34/70 I cannot think you would get baaad things happening... maybe more atenutation and thinner body than usual... but more ABV and an interesting new profile... hmmm or maybe too much yeast flavour?

 

Have not found a difference with attenuation. From a massive overpitch. Pace of fermentation yes. Blander flavour for ales yes and slower floculation yes.

For lagers i thoroughly recommend going overs on the pitch. It finishes quicker with no difference to flavour.

[Otto Von Blotto]

Theoretically you shouldn't be getting more attenuation from an overpitch compared to an ideal pitch. On the other hand, an underpitch may lead to under attenuation, among other problems. 

I'm not sure Lusty's issue is really an issue, only by my own experience but beer out of the fermenter never tastes as good as it does after a week or two conditioning in the keg or a bit longer in the bottle. It's likely just green. 

Edited August 16, 2019 by Otto Von Blotto

[Pezzza]

Well played @Greeny1525229549 and @Otto Von Blotto…. good stuff.... thanks Greeny and Kelsey!

Greeny yer gunna hafta do a name change or drop a pic in or summat as yer Greeny username thing draws up a thousand other Greeny contributors...

not trying to be a paaaain in the hhhhhaarse but just cos your input is highly valued !!!  Just a thought... mate cos I highly value your input and then when I try find you another twenty Greenies turn up ; )

[Worthog]

After brewing my 96th batch, and going through, kits, kits'n'bits, partials, and for the last 30 batches  All Grain, I am now taking the next step to;

(Some) Kegging!

Bottling will still be the major effort, mixed with kegging.

I just procured, and in the process of cleaning and re-sealing a 19L keg. The rest of the bits will follow over next month or so.

I am looking forward to producing a well hopped Pale Ale as my first effort.

Cheers

 

 

[Pezzza]

2 hours ago, Worthog said:

After brewing my 96th batch, and going through, kits, kits'n'bits, partials, and for the last 30 batches  All Grain, I am now taking the next step to;

(Some) Kegging!

Bottling will still be the major effort, mixed with kegging.

I just procured, and in the process of cleaning and re-sealing a 19L keg. The rest of the bits will follow over next month or so.

I am looking forward to producing a well hopped Pale Ale as my first effort.

Cheers

Interested to hear how you get on with the move to Kegging Hoggler!

So what is your Century brew going to be?

[Otto Von Blotto]

I'm tipping the ratio of bottling to kegging will quickly reverse once you see how much easier kegs are

[Worthog]

8 hours ago, Bearded Burbler said:

Interested to hear how you get on with the move to Kegging Hoggler!

So what is your Century brew going to be?

I'll probably do a Mangalitza Mosaic Pale for my century batch.

ChOink

[Smash]

On 7/28/2019 at 11:42 AM, Bearded Burbler said:

Maybe Smash we need a blend with my slightly OVER-burbled brew and it would be just perfect !? 

   ???

 

Hahaha only slightly overcarbed there! Could be a good mixture!

On a side note, my beer hasn't recovered much so I might pull apart the pluto to find out if there's any turbulence causing overcarbonadtion once poured. Beer in the lines seems great, so I'm thinking something is causing the beer to froth up therefore losing carbonation once poured, coming out foamy but flat

[Otto Von Blotto]

Could well be in the tap/gun thing if that's happening and the pressure/temperature and beer lines are all in order. 

[ChristinaS1]

On 7/23/2019 at 5:59 AM, Bearded Burbler said:

From the perspective @Beer Baron that it is a wonderful unfortunate outcome... like Coops Sparking at 5.8 ABV I think that is correct?

And thanks NOT to Coops website policy that you cannot edit stuff five minutes later am really not happy with that @PB2

As I am in remote area - and wanted to add stuff to above post and it was NO NO NO go away

I don't like that they changed that either. What I do now when I want to edit a post is copy it to my clipboard, delete the original post, then make a new one with the edited text. Only works if someone hasn't already posted after you. In my case, being in a different time zone, that usually isn't a problem. You guys are usually sleeping when I am online. 

It is a bit of inconsistency on Cooper's part: they don't let you edit a post, but they let you delete it. Anyway, I am happy to hear that the next upgrade to the site will once again allow editing. When is that happening PB2? Is another upgrade in the offing? 

Cheers,

Christina.

[MitchellScott]

2 hours ago, ChristinaS1 said:

I don't like that they changed that either. What I do now when I want to edit a post is copy it to my clipboard, delete the original post, then make a new one with the edited text. Only works if someone hasn't already posted after you. In my case, being in a different time zone, that usually isn't a problem. You guys are usually sleeping when I am online. 

It is a bit of inconsistency on Cooper's part: they don't let you edit a post, but they let you delete it. Anyway, I am happy to hear that the next upgrade to the site will once again allow editing. When is that happening PB2? Is another upgrade in the offing? 

Cheers,

Christina.

PB2 is on holidays for about another 3 months FYI. 

He said in his absense to tag @Coopers DIY Beer Team.

Mitch. 

[Worthog]

Basic setup complete. Just checked all the connections with sudsy water and will leave with 12psi of pressure o/night.

I will fill keg tomorrow with a brew I have coming out of cold crash.

Cheers

[Worthog]

What CO2 pressure should I use to carbonate the keg? I read 20psi but my LHBS guy says 40psi. I plan to carbonate for 3 days(?)

[The Captain!!]

Personally I believe serving pressure. Then wait about 5-6 days. 

If you can’t wait, turn it up to 45psi for 20 hours, degas the keg then put it back on serving pressure. Wait a few hours, enjoy. 

These days I don’t change my pressure at all, I just wait a week and it’s ready to go. 

[Otto Von Blotto]

It depends how long you want to wait. Use the 45 psi method if you want to try it sooner, use serving pressure if you are happy to wait a week or so. 

Serving pressure will also depend on the temperature the kegs are stored at. I've been trying to figure my keg temperature out recently, but I've given up and just set the regulator to a point that the carbonation suits my tastes. It's set to about 16/17psi minus a few psi from the check valves in the manifold, so somewhere around 12/13 is going into the kegs. 

Based on a glass of water sitting in the kegerator for days, they should be sitting around 2 degrees, but there's no real way to measure them other than opening them and putting the thermometer in the beer. A second pour into a glass that had been in the freezer even struggled to get below 5 degrees. It doesn't really affect my enjoyment of the beer but I don't like it when things don't do what they're meant to be doing. 

[Coopers DIY Beer Team]

Hey @ChristinaS1 & @MitchellScott,

Great feedback! We've updated the edit settings on posts, from a 5 minute window to now a 20 minute window.

Cheers,

Coopers DIY Beer Team

[MitchellScott]

6 hours ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

It depends how long you want to wait. Use the 45 psi method if you want to try it sooner, use serving pressure if you are happy to wait a week or so. 

Serving pressure will also depend on the temperature the kegs are stored at. I've been trying to figure my keg temperature out recently, but I've given up and just set the regulator to a point that the carbonation suits my tastes. It's set to about 16/17psi minus a few psi from the check valves in the manifold, so somewhere around 12/13 is going into the kegs. 

Based on a glass of water sitting in the kegerator for days, they should be sitting around 2 degrees, but there's no real way to measure them other than opening them and putting the thermometer in the beer. A second pour into a glass that had been in the freezer even struggled to get below 5 degrees. It doesn't really affect my enjoyment of the beer but I don't like it when things don't do what they're meant to be doing. 

Check valves should only drop about 2psi so you probably have about 14/15psi going into your kegs if you have 16/17psi on your reg. 

Thanks @Coopers DIY Beer Team that should make it much better!

I kegged my Centenarillo Ale tonight so all three kegs are in at the moment. Ahh nothing like a full beer fridge

[Beerlust]

9 hours ago, Worthog said:

What CO2 pressure should I use to carbonate the keg? I read 20psi but my LHBS guy says 40psi. I plan to carbonate for 3 days(?)

I had my first keg setup exactly like yours Worthog. IMHO there is no need to wait 3 days to drink carbonated beer. Elongating the process 2 days longer ain't gonna amount to squat taste-wise.

It's your call of course. I know you'll love the shift to kegging your beer. 

Cheers,

Lusty.

[Worthog]

Ok, what I  did was 40psi@48hrs. Burped keg and dropped to 12psi to drink on 4th day.

In morning 3L of beer on the fridge and shed floor,  due to beer post valve failure. Fixed it with new valve. That meant total depressurisation, 4 hours before party start.

Ran up to 12psi delivery pressure.

From then on 4hrs later, co2 in the delivery line, unfixable.

Everyone drank great carbonated beer, but the total all up losses of poured beer would have been 20% in the drip trays.

And the beer line (standard length) still has 10% co2 in it. I squeezed those useless ss line clamps, but don't know if that improved things.

I think I am looking for an expensive pluto/line/connection.

Please advice me your best solutions..

Cheers

 

[Otto Von Blotto]

Not leaving it on 40psi for 48 hours would be a good start, that would have way overcarbed it, hence the bubbles in the beer line. When I do the high pressure carbonation I don't connect the beer line to the keg, just in case. It only gets connected once the gas goes back on at serving pressure. The higher pressure is only on for 24 hours at the most. When it's turned off I leave the keg for a few hours before burping it and putting the gas back on at serving pressure