strahmhv

Recipes 

I want to start kegging my beer now that i've been bottling for a year. Do I need the co2 systems or will a hand pump tap + corny keg work?

Also is there a quality difference aside from the variation that comes with pumping vs regulated pressure?

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ShortSnoutBrewing

Recipes 

Unless you're going to consume the beer with in a day, two at most I would recommend against hand pumping. You're pushing in air to the keg. Air is the devil.

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The Pol

Recipes 

Yeah, air aint gunna werk unless you are havin a kegger.

ifishsum

Recipes 

To elaborate just a bit on the above posts, using air to push your beer out of the keg will cause oxidation of your beer pretty quickly and it will start to taste like wet cardboard unless you drink up the whole keg within a couple of days - it will also lose it's carbonation and go flat. I've taken hand pumped kegs home from parties and the beer generally goes south by the third day if there's any left. If you use CO2 it will last months.

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BarleyWater

Recipes 

At least........................

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david_42

Recipes 

Letting your beer be exposed to air is a central part of the Real Ale experience. This works fine in a Pub where the cask only lasts a few days, but not good for a homebrewer.

If you don't want to buy a complete CO2 setup, you can prime your kegs, let them naturally carbonate, then use a small CO2 charger to dispense. You can carbonate using a charger, but it take a bunch of cartridges.

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MoRoToRiUm

Recipes 

Really? for some reason mine haven't ever lasted that long... : ?

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The Pol

Recipes 

That is becuase you are drinking them! ha ha

adamjab19

Recipes 

In another thread it was mentioned for a cheap alternative to having a CO2 system is priming the keg with priming sugar and then using one of the little CO2 charger guns to dispense beer as needed.

MoRoToRiUm

Recipes 

That definitely works; Just expect your first pint or two to have a lot of sediment.

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