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Kegging video tutorials for beginners.


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1 hour ago, Classic Brewing Co said:

I was wondering how long some of you give your beer in the keg before pouring, ( this is a k & k Real Ale ) obviously my first keg has only been in the fridge for 24 hours, the gas is set on 12psi. 

I was told about a week but I get the feeling the urge to try my first tap beer is going to become greater so I will try & be strong. 💪

My first attempt at adding CO2 Phil, was the same route you're going and it took at least 7 days with a volume of 19 liters in the keg to carbonate - even then for my tastes it was underwhelming. But that's just me.  Second time round I went 35psi for 48 hours - it was perfect - at least for my taste. I also hear that 40psi for about 18 hours will do the trick. Of course each time I completed the force carb I'd turn the pressure back down to serving temp which in my case is 14 psi.

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37 minutes ago, Mickep said:

My first attempt at adding CO2 Phil, was the same route you're going and it took at least 7 days with a volume of 19 liters in the keg to carbonate - even then for my tastes it was underwhelming. But that's just me.  Second time round I went 35psi for 48 hours - it was perfect - at least for my taste. I also hear that 40psi for about 18 hours will do the trick. Of course each time I completed the force carb I'd turn the pressure back down to serving temp which in my case is 14 psi.

OK Cheers Mick, I suppose for the moment I will follow Hoppy's advice as clearly I know nothing about it & never used it before, I will give it until next Friday & if I feel it needs to carb up a bit more I can make adjustments.

Does it get more carbonation the longer you leave it ?

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18 minutes ago, Classic Brewing Co said:

Does it get more carbonation the longer you leave it ?

You ask all the tough ones Phil. I think it's just that the liquid inside the keg would be on it's journey to becoming carbonated to the pressure that it is set to. My view would be that once it reaches the pressure set by the regulator and the beer has fully absorbed the CO2 it would just maintain that  pressure until otherwise adjusted. But hey, I know nothing about the science of CO2.  I'll let others here come to my rescue on this as I stand to be corrected.

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10 minutes ago, Mickep said:

You ask all the tough ones Phil. I think it's just that the liquid inside the keg would be on it's journey to becoming carbonated to the pressure that it is set to. My view would be that once it reaches the pressure set by the regulator and the beer has fully absorbed the CO2 it would just maintain that  pressure until otherwise adjusted. But hey, I know nothing about the science of CO2.  I'll let others here come to my rescue on this as I stand to be corrected.

Yeah that makes sense, I guess adjusting/raising the psi would increase the intensity. Look's like Learner Plates for a bit longer.

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13 hours ago, Classic Brewing Co said:

I was wondering how long some of you give your beer in the keg before pouring, ( this is a k & k Real Ale ) obviously my first keg has only been in the fridge for 24 hours, the gas is set on 12psi. 

I was told about a week but I get the feeling the urge to try my first tap beer is going to become greater so I will try & be strong. 💪

I have used that same method, 12psi for 1 week, but I am usually feeling that the beer is undercarbonated after 1 week. That may be due to having a manifold on the gas side and that apparently drops the delivery pressure to the keg by 2 psi. I have had better success using 40psi for 18-24 hours and then backing it off to serving pressure, that seems to give a better result.

Another thing that I have found that has an effect on carbonation is the head space in the keg. When I first started kegging I used to try and get as much beer into the keg as possible, even a couple of times overfilling it on a closed transfer and having beer coming out the line on the gas post so that I had to remove some beer from the keg. Lately I have cut down the volume transferred to the keg, I kegged a stout yesterday and filled it to 18.3 l, which I verify with scales during a closed transfer much the same as the @Shamus O'Sean method, I seem to get much better carbonation results doing that rather than trying to get too much beer into the keg.

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17 hours ago, Classic Brewing Co said:

I was wondering how long some of you give your beer in the keg before pouring, ( this is a k & k Real Ale ) obviously my first keg has only been in the fridge for 24 hours, the gas is set on 12psi. 

I was told about a week but I get the feeling the urge to try my first tap beer is going to become greater so I will try & be strong. 💪

As soon as it’s carbonated IMO but I’m impatient like a kid on Christmas Eve!

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5 hours ago, RDT2 said:

As soon as it’s carbonated IMO but I’m impatient like a kid on Christmas Eve!

Out of the corner of my left eye I can see the glint of a nice new NukaTap just waiting for for me to get up & pull the lever down & let the beer in the shiny new keg flow into a waiting glass & maybe let the foamy head spill onto the shiny new drip tray.

The urge to get up & do it is unbearable, I was wondering if this means I am getting impatient too 🤔

Of course I know it wouldn't be carbonated - it only went in on Friday morning.

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9 hours ago, kmar92 said:

I have used that same method, 12psi for 1 week, but I am usually feeling that the beer is undercarbonated after 1 week. That may be due to having a manifold on the gas side and that apparently drops the delivery pressure to the keg by 2 psi. I have had better success using 40psi for 18-24 hours and then backing it off to serving pressure, that seems to give a better result.

Another thing that I have found that has an effect on carbonation is the head space in the keg. When I first started kegging I used to try and get as much beer into the keg as possible, even a couple of times overfilling it on a closed transfer and having beer coming out the line on the gas post so that I had to remove some beer from the keg. Lately I have cut down the volume transferred to the keg, I kegged a stout yesterday and filled it to 18.3 l, which I verify with scales during a closed transfer much the same as the @Shamus O'Sean method, I seem to get much better carbonation results doing that rather than trying to get too much beer into the keg.

Definitely makes sense @kmar92 in a similar way to overfilling bottles. I guess the main thing to consider is your total volume of brew as to whether you want to target around 19l just for the keg & have a gutsier beer or have a few bottle as well if you go 22-23l. 

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On 5/7/2022 at 7:23 AM, Classic Brewing Co said:

I was wondering how long some of you give your beer in the keg before pouring, ( this is a k & k Real Ale ) obviously my first keg has only been in the fridge for 24 hours, the gas is set on 12psi. 

I was told about a week but I get the feeling the urge to try my first tap beer is going to become greater so I will try & be strong. 💪

I'm still having a degree of frustration with going to kegs. This is mainly due to only having enough equipment to carbonate and/or pour one keg at a time.
I'm holding off placing an order for said equipment until I can place a decent sized order to save on shipping.
In the interim I'm mostly kegging darker beers and priming the 8l kegs with 40g sugar. This gets me to a point where I can serve on tap almost immediately and not have the gas line tied up for a week at a time. It defeats my intention of getting kegs for clearer beers but until I get the extra gear I'll just have to tolerate it.
I found 12psi is a good serving pressure but painfully slow for carbonating. So I up the pressure to 20-30psi and then drop it back for serving.

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12 minutes ago, MUZZY said:

I'm still having a degree of frustration with going to kegs. This is mainly due to only having enough equipment to carbonate and/or pour one keg at a time.
I'm holding off placing an order for said equipment until I can place a decent sized order to save on shipping.
In the interim I'm mostly kegging darker beers and priming the 8l kegs with 40g sugar. This gets me to a point where I can serve on tap almost immediately and not have the gas line tied up for a week at a time. It defeats my intention of getting kegs for clearer beers but until I get the extra gear I'll just have to tolerate it.
I found 12psi is a good serving pressure but painfully slow for carbonating. So I up the pressure to 20-30psi and then drop it back for serving.

Hi Muzzy, I find it frustrating as everyone you talk to tells you something different, not for a minute am I criticsising any comments from any members on this forum but each individual will have their own way of doing things. For the better part of the week I am happy to let it sit at around 12psi but I need to get the process right to increase the pressure so that I could try it on Friday night.

I am definitely going to order another keg/tap set-up as eventually I want 4 taps & maybe 1-2 extra kegs.

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11 minutes ago, Classic Brewing Co said:

Hi Muzzy, I find it frustrating as everyone you talk to tells you something different, not for a minute am I criticsising any comments from any members on this forum but each individual will have their own way of doing things. For the better part of the week I am happy to let it sit at around 12psi but I need to get the process right to increase the pressure so that I could try it on Friday night.

I am definitely going to order another keg/tap set-up as eventually I want 4 taps & maybe 1-2 extra kegs.

have to agree   carbing is an individual thing    what works for me may night work for others

  dont be afraid to have a small butcher glass or schooner on the 5th day   as there will be carbonation, maybe not fully carbonated but  this will give you a sign wether it will be close to  7 days carbing or needs a bit longer then the 7 days or you will need bumping up.  but having only 1 tap at present 12 psi will be good for you i think depending on what your fridge temp is

 

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8 minutes ago, ozdevil said:

have to agree   carbing is an individual thing    what works for me may night work for others

  dont be afraid to have a small butcher glass or schooner on the 5th day   as there will be carbonation, maybe not fully carbonated but  this will give you a sign wether it will be close to  7 days carbing or needs a bit longer then the 7 days or you will need bumping up.  but having only 1 tap at present 12 psi will be good for you i think depending on what your fridge temp is

 

OK Cheers for that. The fridge is pretty cold as there is not much in it.

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How many of you have the Nitro Tap ?  I reckon they are a great idea for Stout & it seems the only option is to buy a box of 4 cylinders & of course the Inert Regulator.

I am pretty sure I am going to get one drilled into my new (old) keg fridge. They certainly look smart & from what I have seen you get a pretty good result with them, I think they can be used with CO2 as well for Ales & such.

Also fancy Tap Handles, I have googled it to death & only really came up with just a few suppliers but I am still not convinced about the wooden type with a blackboard.

KL have their own range on there website also.

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4 hours ago, Classic Brewing Co said:

How many of you have the Nitro Tap ?  I reckon they are a great idea for Stout & it seems the only option is to buy a box of 4 cylinders & of course the Inert Regulator.

I am pretty sure I am going to get one drilled into my new (old) keg fridge. They certainly look smart & from what I have seen you get a pretty good result with them, I think they can be used with CO2 as well for Ales & such.

Also fancy Tap Handles, I have googled it to death & only really came up with just a few suppliers but I am still not convinced about the wooden type with a blackboard.

KL have their own range on there website also.

I have used a stout spout or stout tap before.  For under $10, it is well worth it.  See some photos of a pour here.  I think you get a better result than just pouring through the normal tap.  Maybe not as good as a Nitro gas, but pretty good all the same.  Next time I keg a stout, I will be using the stout spout again.

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7 hours ago, Classic Brewing Co said:

How many of you have the Nitro Tap ?  I reckon they are a great idea for Stout & it seems the only option is to buy a box of 4 cylinders & of course the Inert Regulator.

I am pretty sure I am going to get one drilled into my new (old) keg fridge. They certainly look smart & from what I have seen you get a pretty good result with them, I think they can be used with CO2 as well for Ales & such.

Also fancy Tap Handles, I have googled it to death & only really came up with just a few suppliers but I am still not convinced about the wooden type with a blackboard.

KL have their own range on there website also.

I have Nitro with the stout attachment on the Nukatap. It’s bloody awesome! This is just a simple Dry Irish Stout with S04 bloody nice 😊 Tossing up whether to do a smoked Porter or the hazelnut Porter next time or maybe both! Just waiting for a couple of kegs to blow!

87A603D0-A841-4DEF-BD39-FB999B4E14B6.jpeg

89B80F4D-38C6-45C4-9DF9-873AA0BB75A8.jpeg

Edited by RDT2
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7 hours ago, RDT2 said:

I have Nitro with the stout attachment on the Nukatap. It’s bloody awesome! This is just a simple Dry Irish Stout with S04 bloody nice 😊 Tossing up whether to do a smoked Porter or the hazelnut Porter next time or maybe both! Just waiting for a couple of kegs to blow!

Yes that looks awesome, very smooth, Cheers. 🍻

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QUESTION RE:    STORING BEER IN A KEG WITHOUT CONNECTING TO THE CO2.

If I was to keg a k & k Stout & place it in the fridge without connecting it to the gas bottle, how long would it be safe to do so, or should it be stored at room temperature ?

The reason would be ATM I have only 1 keg/tap but I can get hold of another keg, I would rather do this than bottle the Stout but if this is not advisable I would go ahead & bottle.

Any ideas @Shamus O'Sean  or @Red devil 44 or any experienced keggers.

TIA Phil 🍻

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28 minutes ago, Classic Brewing Co said:

QUESTION RE:    STORING BEER IN A KEG WITHOUT CONNECTING TO THE CO2.

If I was to keg a k & k Stout & place it in the fridge without connecting it to the gas bottle, how long would it be safe to do so, or should it be stored at room temperature ?

The reason would be ATM I have only 1 keg/tap but I can get hold of another keg, I would rather do this than bottle the Stout but if this is not advisable I would go ahead & bottle.

Any ideas @Shamus O'Sean  or @Red devil 44 or any experienced keggers.

TIA Phil 🍻

I don't know how long it will last but have you considered using just a small amount of priming sugar to create CO2 and remove oxygen in the keg? Then it won't need to be refrigerated or on gas.

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7 minutes ago, MUZZY said:

I don't know how long it will last but have you considered using just a small amount of priming sugar to create CO2 and remove oxygen in the keg? Then it won't need to be refrigerated or on gas.

Hi Muzzy, I didn't include that in my question however good point but of course I would also need to get the ratio right otherwise I would be shooting in the dark. 🔦

Cheers

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40 minutes ago, Classic Brewing Co said:

QUESTION RE:    STORING BEER IN A KEG WITHOUT CONNECTING TO THE CO2.

If I was to keg a k & k Stout & place it in the fridge without connecting it to the gas bottle, how long would it be safe to do so, or should it be stored at room temperature ?

The reason would be ATM I have only 1 keg/tap but I can get hold of another keg, I would rather do this than bottle the Stout but if this is not advisable I would go ahead & bottle.

Any ideas @Shamus O'Sean  or @Red devil 44 or any experienced keggers.

TIA Phil 🍻

If you was to keg this stout    and storing at room temp

I would be treating this as if you was to bottle,  so think of the keg as a 19litre bottle  and think how much priming sugar you will need  for room temp as a 19 litre bottle

which i think works out to be 109.3g of Table sugar   for 19l  @20°c  for 2.3 volumes of co2, my maths might not be the best

the only issue here is that you will have sediment in the keg that will be in your 1st couple of pours when ready to tap, we can all live with that specially with a stout 


once you have filled the keg   chuck some gas into it and purge the oxygen out of the keg and fill the headspace of co2
this is a great advantage you have  when kegging over bottling   

you could keep  the stout in for 6 months if you want too  no issues    

all your keg is , is an oversized bottle     

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25 minutes ago, MUZZY said:

I don't know how long it will last but have you considered using just a small amount of priming sugar to create CO2 and remove oxygen in the keg? Then it won't need to be refrigerated or on gas.

i get your thoughts  with a smaller amount but i would treating the 19l as a bottle  and would carbonate  with sugar to your desired level  at room temp.

your really wasting time  using a small amount of sugar  just  to remove oxygen  , its just easier with co2  from the start and your not wasting that much by doing so to be honest

using your thoughts you have to wait until  that sugar converts to co2    before removing it and that could take a good couple of days and in the mean time you have created an oxygenated beer (not that i think you would)  and you have to remember  in a few days to purge that oxygen out as it wont happen straight away

co2  straight in purge  and place a blanket of co2 in headspace job done in a 1 minutes flat from putting lid on the keg.


Prime the keg to carbonate by priming sugar by all means  

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5 minutes ago, ozdevil said:

If you was to keg this stout    and storing at room temp

I would be treating this as if you was to bottle,  so think of the keg as a 19litre bottle  and think how much priming sugar you will need  for room temp as a 19 litre bottle

which i think works out to be 109.3g of Table sugar   for 19l  @20°c  for 2.3 volumes of co2, my maths might not be the best

the only issue here is that you will have sediment in the keg that will be in your 1st couple of pours when ready to tap, we can all live with that specially with a stout 


once you have filled the keg   chuck some gas into it and purge the oxygen out of the keg and fill the headspace of co2
this is a great advantage you have  when kegging over bottling   

you could keep  the stout in for 6 months if you want too  no issues    

all your keg is , is an oversized bottle     

I appreciate your reply, the only issue is, I have 1 x keg, 1 x gas bottle & I have got a brew already in the keg & connected to the gas.

I didn't want to be disconnecting & reconnecting gas bottles.

For that reason it would seem simpler to bottle it.

Cheers.

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