It's Kegging Time!

[Gag Halfrunt]

Good evening gents,

 

Am thinking of kegging in the not distant future and was wondering where co2 is available and can cylinders be refilled or do they lock you in to some sort of exchange program.

 

Cheers,

 

Don

[Waylon]

Exchange them at your local home brew store

[Otto Von Blotto]

Yeah, I got mine from a Brewers Choice. I bought the initial cylinder, and while they can obviously be refilled, it's a lot quicker and easier to just swap n' go which is what I do now. I bought a 6.8kg cylinder for $350, and unfortunately had a leak in my system somewhere and lost a lot of it pretty quickly. Just went back when it emptied and exchanged it for another one for $50 I think it was. No leaks this time though so this should only really be about a once a year exchange.

[Gag Halfrunt]

Strewth! One cylinder lasts a year?

That seems cheap.

 

 

Or am I missing something

[Otto Von Blotto]

Well, it depends how many kegs you go through. It also depends on the size of your cylinder. The 6.8kg ones apparently will do about 30 kegs. For my brewing and consumption rate, that's about a year. A 2.3kg cylinder obviously won't do as many kegs, but they are cheaper to buy initially and swap when empty. I only went the 6.8kg one because I figured I'd rather swap them less frequently.

[Otto Von Blotto]

Quick little mention here, those two kegs are still overcarbonated, so I decided to try a different approach to pouring them yesterday. I bled them of all pressure, then turned the gas on for a second or so just to get a bit of pressure in them, gas off again, opened the flow control right up on the taps, and poured. Much much better than trying to pour them at normal pressure with the FC turned down.

 

The third keg which has just been sitting at serving pressure the whole time is fine, though.

[Otto Von Blotto]

I kegged my stout batch yesterday morning, so it's currently sitting next to the brew fridge conditioning until such time as the next two batches are kegged and ready to go into the kegerator, at which time all three will go in together. I tried a different approach with the pre-carbing this time. I set the regulator to 40 PSI, hooked the spare gas line up to the beer out post and just let it sit there while I had a durrie. Then took it downstairs, so minimal shaking and hopefully this will see a little carbonation in it but not over the top like those other two kegs from the last lot were.

 

The Centennial/MO SMASH keg blew dry, likely last night but I didn't notice until today when I went to pour one and all I got was CO2 and foam. That keg/line/tap were duly cleaned out and then I filled it with water so I can have a soda water tap in the meantime while these next two batches are fermented. Not sure what's left in the Cascade pale keg, but the bastard pilsner should have plenty still as it never experienced wastage due to foaming and I haven't had many from it either.

 

I daresay I'll still run out of home brew before the next three kegs are ready though, due to the wastage from foaming on the two ale kegs. But at least I've worked out a way to prevent that in future now.

 

Cheers

 

Kelsey

 

[Magnaman]

just let it sit there while I had a durrie. ( Oh no Otto dude your smoking again dude!) As your avatar suggests.

 

I daresay I'll still run out of home brew before the next three kegs are ready though' date=' due to the wastage from foaming on the two ale kegs. ( This isn't code for drinking more is it.)

 

No need to enter a plea.

 

Cheers.

[Otto Von Blotto]

I am although that pic is over 2 years old. It was taken on my 2014 Sydney adventure.

 

Having a couple of short work weeks due to Sabbath and Maiden shows plus the public holidays has seen the consumption rise a little more than on a normal week, however, the overcarbonation in those kegs did indeed cause a lot of foaming and it was only when I decided to try pouring with the flow controls fully open on minimal pressure that it stopped it. I probably lost about a third of each keg due to that. But at least now I know how to fix it in future.

[Waylon]

Iron maiden I saw back in fear of the dark tour,,,,

 

Wholly moley flash backs...

 

Hey Kelsey have you tried Bruce dickinsons ESB brew?

 

I thought it was a great brew and a great bootle to keep too!

[Otto Von Blotto]

That would have been a great show... anyway, no I didn't get one. They'd run out by the time the show finished, and I wasn't mucking around lining up beforehand because I had front "row" tickets and wanted to get in there and get my spot. I was in there about half an hour before the support band started.

 

I would like to try that beer though if I could ever find it anywhere.

[Waylon]

My local got a heap in of iron maiden ale in,

But don't stock it anymore

[Otto Von Blotto]

Dang. I might do a bit of a search around at some point..

[Waylon]

Well if you like your ESBs you would love it...

 

I made sure mine where cellar temp around 8-12 degrees when I drank Mine...

 

Im hanging for the IRON MAIDEN STOUT with eddy in the dakness!

[Hairy]

Has anyone on here tried one of their fresh wort kits before? This is a first for me.

 

Hey Hairy

I have been so tempted the last three times I've been to my LHBS' date=' who has recently started stocking them. They seem to call your name when you're looking for a keg filler. I will be interested to hear how it goes. Maybe one day I'll do one [img']bandit[/img]

 

Cheers & Beers

Scottie

Valley Brew

Scottie

 

The fresh wort kit was pretty good. It was a Sierra Nevada style beer (APA hopped with Cascade) and is quite drinkable.

 

I had to buy another fresh wort kit on the weekend to start filling some kegs, this time an English amber ale.

 

I am booked out for the next few weekends and just won't get around to brewing. The kits are $46 (including yeast) and I get to have 19 litres of beer on tap. It isn't as satisfying as drinking your own beer but a lot cheaper than decent commercial beer. It is also compares well in price to the Recipe of the Month packs.

[Otto Von Blotto]

I kegged my home grown lager yesterday, i.e. the German style lager brewed with 40g of my home grown Hallertau hops thrown in to the boil @ 10 mins. Since my Pommy Bastard Pilsner keg blew dry on Friday night I had no beer on tap at all, so I decided to fast carb it up and put it straight on tap. It tasted pretty bloody decent already, definitely got the flavours I was looking for in the recipe, which was probably aided by the use of the proper lager yeast. I'll probably leave it alone in there for the next couple of weeks while the red ale ferments though, so I can have 2 full kegs and one almost full keg all on tap at once and also give it some more conditioning time. And then the cycle of filling more starts again.

 

I rarely use that fast carbing method these days, but it worked well on this occasion. I daresay the kegs need a longer time than is often suggested to settle properly though as the first pour after about 3 or 4 hours of it sitting in the fridge was pretty much all foam. This was after bleeding the pressure and then giving it just a hit of gas to push the beer out of the tap. The second glass had less foam though. The beer was pretty much at the perfect carbonation level too which was good. It's just sitting in there at serving pressure now.

 

Cheers

 

Kelsey

[Otto Von Blotto]

So this arrived today, which will be obviously used for stout kegs when I brew them. I now have two pale ale handles, Spaten Pils, Pilsner Urquell, Newcastle Werewolf and this one. Might need a bigger storage case...

 

 

Cheers

 

Kelsey

[Otto Von Blotto]

Kegged my Red Ale just now, and had a little sample taste from one of the waste glasses I poured from the FV before transferring to the keg. It's looking promising for another excellent batch of this recipe. Clearing up nicely already too. I think having new seals on the fridge, and re-calibrating the STC which allowed it to actually sit at 0C instead of 3 or 4 has helped with that.

 

It's currently in the kegerator hooked up to the gas at about 45 PSI, beer out line is not attached yet though. I'll leave it until tomorrow morning before removing the disconnect and letting it absorb properly. I don't expect this to fully carbonate it, but it should give it a nice head start. Once the disconnect is removed I'll reduce the pressure back to its normal 13-14PSI and turn it back on to the other two kegs and the red ale keg will be hooked up later on the arvo.

 

So I now have my German lager with home grown Hallertau hops, a foreign extra stout and this red ale on tap. Nice bit of variety there.

 

Cheers

 

Kelsey

[Otto Von Blotto]

Well the sitting for a day at ~45PSI and then leaving for about 5-6 hours to absorb has worked quite well. I poured a couple of glasses of the red ale yesterday and it was nicely carbed up. I think this might be the way to go for carbonating kegs in future if I want them carbed quicker than a week or two.

[wazznotwazz]

Howdy Guys,

 

Well that was some read .

 

After learning about yeast harvests, extract brews, hop schedules, brew software and much more, I am about to start on the slippery slope of kegging this week.

 

Due to my 'beer fridge' being partially taken over by my loving partner I am starting with a small set up of just 2 x 9.5 litre kegs, purchased recently through a bulk buy on the other site. I know they are nowhere near as economical as the 19 litre ones and I am happy to make a start and even if/when I move to the 19 litre kegs, I think the 9.5 litre ones will be great to take to a mate's place or even just bring out into the sunroom with a small disposable gas cartridge to dispense.

 

So as well as the 2 small kegs, I've got a Harris C02 regulator, a 4.5 C02 bottle, heaps of gas/beer line, disconnects, clamps, pluto hand gun and some other bits and pieces to play around with.

 

Aiming to get this set up this weekend and throw almost half of the Coopers Celebration Ale into one of the kegs. As I missed the dry hop window with this brew, I will use the little 'Hob Bomb' that hooks onto the inside of top of the keg lid, probably load that up with some more Cascade and Nelson Sauvin.

 

Pretty soon I will get a manifold so I can hook up the second keg and also use the spare taps to make carbonated water and other drinks. Well that's the idea anyway, maybe I will just reclaim my beer fridge completely and get more kegs .

 

So until about the last page of this thread, I was thinking to just try the set and forget method of carbonation and put the keg on at a low pressure for a week or so and see how that turned out.

 

I don't cold crash or really even have an accurate method of temperature control (basement seems to sit comfortably around 18 degrees this time of year) so the beer will be going in at approx that temp.

 

I don't think I can be bothered with the 'rushed' carbonation method of shaking kegs around.

 

So once I have filled the keg with about half of my FV contents, which will be about 18 degrees or less, should I refrigerate the keg overnight before connecting the C02? Liquid absorbs the C02 better when the liquid is cold, right?

 

So Kelsey, can you let me know how that 45 psi for 4-5 hours working out? Can you step that process out a bit more and let me know how long you let it sit after that 4 or so hours before trying to drink it?

 

Aiming to get some pics going as I set this up, not that it is going to be as fancy as a kegerator, but it will be beer on tap. Yeah!

 

Wazz

[Otto Von Blotto]

So once I have filled the keg with about half of my FV contents' date=' which will be about 18 degrees or less, should I refrigerate the keg overnight before connecting the C02? Liquid absorbs the C02 better when the liquid is cold, right?

 

So Kelsey, can you let me know how that 45 psi for 4-5 hours working out? Can you step that process out a bit more and let me know how long you let it sit after that 4 or so hours before trying to drink it?

 

Aiming to get some pics going as I set this up, not that it is going to be as fancy as a kegerator, but it will be beer on tap. Yeah!

 

Wazz[/quote']

 

What I'd do is purge the keg with CO2 before filling it with beer, then once filled, purge the headspace with CO2, then stick it in the fridge overnight to chill before trying to carbonate it. It's much easier to carbonate it cold than warm - and you use less gas.

 

I've only used the 45PSI technique once, on this latest keg. I actually left it more like about 20-22 hours at that pressure. I'm using 19 litre kegs; you won't need that long with a half size keg though.

 

Because I can crash chill my beers, they do get kegged cold. In the instance of this latest one, it went straight into the kegerator and on gas at 45PSI. I left it in there for the 20-22 hours, then took the gas disconnect off the gas-in post (and turned off that gas line on the manifold). The regulator was then returned to its normal serving pressure and the gas to the other two kegs turned back on. The new keg was then left to sit for about 5 or 6 hours. After that, I bled the pressure, hooked the gas back up at normal serving pressure, and poured a couple of glasses. It worked well, the beer was nicely carbed and it poured well too.

 

Cheers

 

Kelsey

[Gag Halfrunt]

Can anyone tell me if there is any advantage of ball lock over pin lock or vice versa?

 

IE: Dimensions of kegs,availability of fittings etc.

[Otto Von Blotto]

No idea although I think the ball lock parts are easier to come by. Ball locks possibly might be taller and skinnier than the pin lock ones but I'm not sure on that.

 

In recent times I've kegged another batch of Bohemian Pilsner and got some surplus bottles from it too, on Wednesday or Thursday I'm kegging a batch of ESB, and today I just bought 5 bottles of Bickfords lemon lime and bitters cordial and threw these into a keg with an extra half bottle I already had here and mixed it up with water to about 18.5/19 litres.

It is currently in the kegerator on gas at 45 PSI and chilling down. I'll take the gas off it tomorrow lunchtime and let it settle over my second half at work before bleeding the pressure and hooking it back up at normal pressure. This keg will stay in there until the other two beer kegs are emptied, by which time the next 3 beer kegs will be ready to go in and it can be removed until a spot opens up again. SWMBO likes to mix CC Whisky with it, but I enjoy it as a drink on its own on my lunch breaks too, so it's useful on both counts there.

[BeakedRiot]

I am currently rereading this thread (while I am in the process of sorting out my own keg setup) and am currently only about halfway so forgive me if I have got the details wrong here...

 

But from memory you have your keezer temp set pretty low (0-1C from memory) and you have your regulator set at around 10PSI... I also know you carbonate all your beers to the same level.

 

Isn't that pretty high? Calculators online are telling me that's 2.6 - 2.7 volumes which is supposedly outside of the normal range you would normally brew alot of beers at.

 

 

[Otto Von Blotto]

I am currently rereading this thread (while I am in the process of sorting out my own keg setup) and am currently only about halfway so forgive me if I have got the details wrong here...

 

But from memory you have your keezer temp set pretty low (0-1C from memory) and you have your regulator set at around 10PSI... I also know you carbonate all your beers to the same level.

 

Isn't that pretty high? Calculators online are telling me that's 2.6 - 2.7 volumes which is supposedly outside of the normal range you would normally brew alot of beers at.

 

It's actually set at about 15 PSI now' date=' because the check valves on the manifold seem to drop it slightly. Fridge ranges between -1 and 1C. The reason for it is because this is what works to get the beers how I like them in the glass. The beer loses some CO2 when it sits in the beer lines for a while because it warms up a bit, and also when it comes out of the relatively warmer tap when I pour one. I don't chill my glasses either.

 

So even though the numbers seem a bit extreme, when it's in the glass it's probably sitting more about 3-5 degrees (especially in summer) and the carbonation is on a more normal level than it sounds like it is.

 

One thing I have noticed though is that my 7% ABV stout that's currently on tap is sitting on the same pressure as the other lower ABV beers, but its carbonation is less, and actually bang on where I like it in a stout. So this makes life very easy. [img']biggrin[/img]