First Kegging

Wow... I mean WOW... Why in the world I did not start kegging before tonight I HAVE NO IDEA.

First two kegs, 5 gallons of stout, 5 gallons of amber:



Whilst kegging said beers, a nice glass of blonde ale:



Next came a keg of blonde ale, this one has a bit of a story to it hence the reason it's in an ale pail as opposed to a carboy but I won't get into that just now:



Here's the amber I enjoyed during the latter portion of the kegging:

Finally, a shot of the keg fridge:



3 beers, 15 gallons in total, kegged and carbing in under 2 hours. I say again, why in THE WORLD, did I bottle as long as I did.

For now I just have picnic taps but I've dropped the hint to the wife that our LHBS has stainless steel faucets with shanks for $43 and 3 of them would make an awfully nice Christmas present.

Do you have a special CO2 tank with a modified pickup tube? A normal co2 tank should not be used in any other position than standing straight up.

Thanks for the heads up Chello. I never thought to check and see if you could or could not lay a CO2 tank on it's side. I assumed CO2 tank = "tank of gas" so laying on it's side would be fine. After reading your post I did some research and learned that CO2 tanks have both CO2 gas and CO2 liquid in them and if the tank lays on its side that liquid can leak into the regulator. Many of the sites I came across stated that if you're only using low pressures, < 15psi, laying the tank on it's side is "probably" ok but still not recommended. I rearranged the fridge so that the CO2 tank is now upright. Unfortunately, in order to stand it upright I had to pull one of the kegs out of the fridge so now I have just 2 kegs on tap. But, that's far better than a ruined regulator.

You can also put the Co2 tank on the outside of the fridge. That's what I do. Just make a hole big enough to run your air in and you're golden.

I might do that eventually. I just need to figure out where I can punch a hole on this fridge and not damage anything important.

If your fridge has a freezer on top you should be able to just drill through the side (I did) since the cooling comes from the freezer directing air down into the fridge compartment. I did drill a small hole first and feel around in there though.

If your fridge is like mine you can fit 6 cornies in there, or 5 and the co2 tank. You may need to modify the door (I didn't) and add a board to level out the bottom of the fridge.

Need some help really quickly. After Chello's comment I rearranged the keg fridge so that I had two kegs and the CO2 bottle standing upright. The system had sat with 3 kegs and the CO2 tank sidewise for perhaps 3 hours. Today, almost a week later, I was working in the keg fridge to install a shelf since half the bottom is slanted. I was pulling the kegs and what not from the fridge when I noticed a yellowish liquid in the GAS line going from the CO2 tank to the 3-way splitter. I disconnected everything and blew gas through the line to clear it. The liquid is definitely the blonde I had kegged in a pin-lock keg. I have the gas connected to the 2-pin post and the liquid to the 3-pin which from what I've read is correct. I have everything sitting outside in front of the fridge because I'm afraid of reconnecting it at the moment for fear of during further damage to my regulator. My main questions are:

What could have gone wrong?
Is the keg just junk?
Is my regulator ruined or how would I tell?

Any responses would be GREATLY appreciated as I would like to hook this all back up ASAP.

You can take the reg apart to see if any beer made it in. The part that the adjusting bolt screw into also unscrews. You'll find a spring and diaphram inside. See if any beer got that far.

Although you have the gas hooked up to the correct post (two pins), you MAY have the long dip tube installed under that post. Make sure you don't. Also, some kegs have an oddly long gas dip tube, like 3 inches. It's totally useless. You can cut it down to 1/2" with no problem, it just need to be there for the Oring.

Even with a short gas dip tube, you can overcarb the beer and then release too much of the pressure causing a huge head of foam to form in the headspace. It may not be your problem, but it's a possibility.

Thanks for the quick reply Bobby. Regulator looks fine. The dip tube is on the correct post, 3-pin, but the gas dip tube is submerged, should it be? For now I've disconnected that keg and I'm only carbing the one until I have a chance to sort out what's wrong with the keg and/or get a new keg and pitch this one. Thanks again for responding so quickly.

The gas tube shouldn't be submerged. If it's really short, you've overfilled a bit. If it's longer than 1", I'd remove it and cut it to 1/2" long.

IDK how much liquid is in a 5# tank, but it's not totally filled up with liquid. I'd say that if you just inclined the valve side of your tank up, you would be fine.

Mike

Drained off a bit of the beer from the keg that was filled to high, hooked everything back up the way it was and 24 hours later all was well. So, I commenced to building a shelf for the keg fridge so that I can fit all three kegs and the CO2 tank inside. The end result:



Now I just need three faucets and I'll really be all set...at least for now...although I could use a second burner...grr.

EDIT: The third keg is in the far back left corner. I took a shot where you could see all three but it didn't come out as well as this one.