Family Kegging

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SEDKJohnson

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I am an extreme newbie to kegging/brewing/soda making/ pretty much everything talked about on this forum. After casual reading on the soda and beer threads I want more. SodaStream isn't cutting it anymore and I want to expand into brewing beer. I do and have read MANY posts but I am still a little worried about taking the big leap into all of this. Family kegging in my mind consists of 4 kegs. 1 for carbinated water for variety with soadstream type syrups, 2 for favorite soda beverages, and 1 for BEER. The options and opinions for hose size/length and regulators seems to vary greatly and downright scares me, putting a hold on this build. In fact the more I read about anything related to kegging the more I hesitate. I don't mind learning as I go but for this type of setup I want to make sure I am buying the correct equipment from the get go. I don't want to regret a purchase later. Can I get a baseline of equipment for this build?
 
I know I am new and looking for guidance but that helped me zero.

What do you want? Me to spell it out for you? You said you've read so, you know what I mean by beer equipment, right?

Disconnects, Faucets, shanks, tailpieces, etc...

I have a tank reg and a tee split to serve 5 kegs. Off of the tank reg I push/serve tonic water. I use Torrani syrups in teh glass and top off with the Tonic. Boom! Soda!

The ONLY difference in equipment between the Soda faucet and the beer faucets is hose length from teh keg to the faucet. Balanced inthe same as any other Direct Draw kegging system.
 
Maybe I was a little harsh with my earlier statement. It looked like a post count push rather than a response. From your comments maybe I know even less than I thought.
 
Ahhhaaa. NOW we are getting somewhere.

For each faucet you need;

Wet side: Faucet, Faucet Handle, shank, tailpiece, beer nut, liquid hose, disconnect.
Dry side: Disconnect, hose, check valve.

From here the variables change depending on whether or not you want each faucet served by a different pressure from the tank. For Soda and Beer you can start with Two pressure and build from there. For this, you need a tank reg and an inline reg.
 
1. must have cold fridge/ freezer for kegs
2. must have kegs, can be ball lock or pin lock
3. must have faucets, (perlicks are your one stop shop)
4. must have co2 tank
5. must have regulator

now after you have all of the above you need to figure out what temp you want to serve at, what volumes of co2 you want, what your resistance is and then you can figure your line length out and have a balanced system.

-=Jason=-
 
1. must have cold fridge/ freezer for kegs
2. must have kegs, can be ball lock or pin lock
3. must have faucets, (perlicks are your one stop shop)
4. must have co2 tank
5. must have regulator

now after you have all of the above you need to figure out what temp you want to serve at, what volumes of co2 you want, what your resistance is and then you can figure your line length out and have a balanced system.

-=Jason=-

Thanks Flomaster..
1. Planning on a keezer that will hold 4 corneys.
2. Ball lock is a little shorter? Doesnt have a safety something or other release? Are all refurbished ok. How often do you replace rings and should I go ahead and buy rings with the kegs?
3. These I know nothing about. Kid proof maybe?
4. Is 5lb big enough for 4 kegs, how many uses? Stainless/aluminum?
5. Is there a four keg regulator that you can recommend?
Should I plan for a 5 keg regulator to carb the replacement keg whichever is out first? I think it takes 5 days to carb water, not sure about beer.
Is there a formula for carbed water vs carbed soda vs beer to determine line length?
 
Thanks Flomaster..
1. Planning on a keezer that will hold 4 corneys.
2. Ball lock is a little shorter? Doesnt have a safety something or other release? Are all refurbished ok. How often do you replace rings and should I go ahead and buy rings with the kegs?
if refurbished with new orings you should be ok, if not i'd replace the orings on each poppet and lid. also if serving soda in a keg you DO NOT want to put beer in that keg or faucet unless you want off flavors in your beer
3. These I know nothing about. Kid proof maybe?
depending on how you build your keezer the taps could be out of little hands, they do make faucet locks but they are rather expensive at $40 a lock. easiest thing is to just disconnect your gas and liquid couplings from the kegs
4. Is 5lb big enough for 4 kegs, how many uses? Stainless/aluminum?
plenty big enough to serve out of
5. Is there a four keg regulator that you can recommend?
Should I plan for a 5 keg regulator to carb the replacement keg whichever is out first? I think it takes 5 days to carb water, not sure about beer.
Is there a formula for carbed water vs carbed soda vs beer to determine line length?
I personally have only a high pressure regulator I plan on getting secondary regulators for each tap so that would be 4 more, but they are expensive so I am looking for deals online. I would get at least a secondary regulator for your water because you will want to carb it much higher than your beer. and yes there is a good thread on carbing beer on this forum. I don't have a link, but have read it several times.

is has to do with what size tubing you are using
what you rise is from the keg to faucet
what your temp is
and what co2 volumes you want to carb to

I would just do a little bit more searching on this forums, nearly all questions you might have, have already been answered or asked.

-=Jason=-
 
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