Kegging schedule for 4 kegs, 2 carboys, drinking 2 kegs/month

Hi, I am totally new to kegging and wondering about how many kegs to buy and what would the schedule be.
When bottling smaller beer, I do 1, 1, 4 schedule instead of common 1, 2, 3. What would a good schedule for 4 kegs, 2 carboys be, while drinking lets say 2 kegs a month (not necessarily 2 whole kegs, 1 whole and 2 halves is equally fine) and brewing 1 or 2 keg batch every second weekend? I can do at most 2 weeks primary as I ferment in my kettle.
Please do not tell me to buy many more kegs or carboys, i do not have that much room and money, I could possibly survive 8 containers in any composition max, but I would be happy with just 4 and 2.
I would like the beer to be equally mature as with my 1, 1, 4 schedule.

For general low/medium grav beers I'd do a 2,2 schedule: 2 weeks in primary, then 2 weeks in the keg to cold crash and slowly carbonate.

Many people will use a keg as a secondary, you can top it with CO2 and let it sit for however long you want and not have to worry about oxidation or other bad things. Without getting the timing too tight, I would think that 2 boys and 4 kegs is plenty. If you're doing the set and forget method, carbonating will generally take 2 weeks-ish, but if you're in a hurry setting to a high pressure and shaking can get you there a lot faster.

I would think that a 2;2 would be fine. The should give you, once the line is full, 2 kegs drinking, 1 keg carbonating, 1 keg in secondary or just waiting, and 1 in your kettle. If you get backed up, you will have the two carboys to hold extra if your kegs haven't kicked yet.


You didn't really mention your kegging setup though. How many taps do you pour at a time. Do you have a manifold, how many kegs can be on pressure at once?

In fact, I have no working setup yet, I am just putting things together and wondering what is necessary to buy. I forgot to mention, there will be two taps, ideally both of them busy all the time .
Isnt it too green beer if I do just 2 weeks primary and two secondary?
Those brews will be sub 1.060 OG, mostly hops oriented.
What about no pressure, full time secondary in a carboy, then kegging and force carbonating shaking method? Is that possible? Is the beer drinkable immediately or does it have to recondition? It would be ideal as the corny would be busy only when on tap (at least in keg tight situations).

Either way, thank you for your thoughts, I am gonna have a nice evening calculating the schedule.

I just made this schedule.
The time period of it is 4 weeks, devided into two 2-week periods.
The picture above the period is a situation at the beginning of those two weeks.
2W and 0W stands for 2 and 0 weeks already at the position (TAP, SECONDARY or PRIMARY) respectively.
The number in the keg/kettle stands for a batch number.
The numbers below the line are specific numbers of my kegs, so that you can see how they travel between the positions in time.
Everything OK? I like it because I get 2 weeks primary and 4 weeks secondary so the guys are not so green. In case of a beer stuck or too slow at tap, I can rack a batch or two from a primary into my carboy, so I get a batch or two as a backup for those faster drinking months.
I also like the idea of one full and one half empty keg on my tap, so I have one change on tap every two weeks instead of two changes every four weeks.
I want to start with just one gas tank with one regulator, so priming sugar till I get one more.

Good luck I have made schedule after schedule....and after about 6 weeks they all get blown up by life
I have three taps, four fermentation chambers, one freezer to keep 4 kegs conditioning, 8 kegs and 6 carboys and 2 buckets...... and Friday I bottled 92 bottles of Barleywine......

and it never seems that I have the beer I want ...... because my schedule got blowed up

I'm the type of guy who likes to complicate simple things, but I like to brew when I empty a keg. Ideally I'd have enough foresight to be ready to rack when that keg kicks, but I can't predict the future.

**obviously this wouldn't hold true for lagers or oktoberfests or things like that.

I have 2 taps and 4 kegs. Unless I'm donating for a function, charity, etc... I usually have a keg waiting to go when one is kicked. One thing I did was buy a second CO2 tank and cheap regulator. If my kegerator is full when racking a beer to a keg I carb it warm. I set it to 30psi and let it sit for a week then pull it off the gas. When a spot opens in my kegerator, I simply swap kegs, release pressure, hook it up to the gas at about 10psi, and let it chill overnight. Within a day or so I'm drinking carbed beer.

Also, if I don't have time to precarb warm, I use a 3 day carbing system. I start out at 30psi and hold for 24hrs. Release pressure, drop to 20psi and hold for 24hrs. Release pressure, drop to 10psi and hold for 24hrs. At this point I start tasting and see if it needs more or less pressure which may take another few days to dial in perfectly, but it's definitely ready to drink by the 3rd day.

chezhed said:

Good luck I have made schedule after schedule....and after about 6 weeks they all get blown up by life
I have three taps, four fermentation chambers, one freezer to keep 4 kegs conditioning, 8 kegs and 6 carboys and 2 buckets...... and Friday I bottled 92 bottles of Barleywine......

and it never seems that I have the beer I want ...... because my schedule got blowed up

Click to expand...

Hope it will work at least a bit. Only one beer on tap or a no brewing weekend here and then wont kill me.

Robko said:

I just made this schedule.
The time period of it is 4 weeks, devided into two 2-week periods.
The picture above the period is a situation at the beginning of those two weeks.
2W and 0W stands for 2 and 0 weeks already at the position (TAP, SECONDARY or PRIMARY) respectively.
The number in the keg/kettle stands for a batch number.
The numbers below the line are specific numbers of my kegs, so that you can see how they travel between the positions in time.
Everything OK? I like it because I get 2 weeks primary and 4 weeks secondary so the guys are not so green. In case of a beer stuck or too slow at tap, I can rack a batch or two from a primary into my carboy, so I get a batch or two as a backup for those faster drinking months.
I also like the idea of one full and one half empty keg on my tap, so I have one change on tap every two weeks instead of two changes every four weeks.
I want to start with just one gas tank with one regulator, so priming sugar till I get one more.

Click to expand...

Way too detailed for me. But, I think I can make some suggestions:
1) Don't worry so much about getting things out of a primary. Let it sit there a while (as long as you have a place to keep it moderately cool, e.g. a basement)
2) No need to secondary, unless it is something like a fruit beer.
3) You can keep stuff in a keg under Co2 without putting it under refrigeration. Again, as long as you have a moderately cool place to keep it. This leads into the "you can never have too many kegs discussion".
4) When I get tired of something, or can't wait any longer to get a new batch to a keg (cause I want to drink it), I bottle from the keg. This works great: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/we-no-need-no-stinking-beer-gun-24678/. This gives you the best of both worlds...bottles when you need them/want them or just to free up the keg.
5)There is no need to carbonate with Co2. While I have 3 Co2 canisters and regulators, I've found that I only use one at a time. I don't leave my kegs in the keezer with the Co2 attached. I've had slow leaks and one time lost 20# of Co2 (not nice). So, I just carb them up by attaching Co2 (first at 25#, then at closer to serving pressure) and detaching the Co2. Works great, and you can always attach the Co2 if you are having a party or something.

I know you said you want to keep the cost down, but think of the kegs as:
1) The place to carbonate and drink from
2) The place to condition
3) The place to cold crash
4) The place to keep a ready to go pressurized Star San.
5) The place to keep soda (cheap and very easy)
6) You can even use them as a primary (I haven't done this, see threads on this: https://byo.com/stories/issue/item/1763-ferment-in-a-cornelius-keg-projects)

As a type this, I have six kegs in a refrigerator, a keg with SNPA (clone) in the basement (conditioning/carbonating), and a keg with birch beer in the basement (carbonating). Once a day or so I go down and check the pressures and add Co2 as required.

I'd say having 3xs as many kegs as your tap capacity is a good estimate.

I do a lot of conditioning in my kegs. I'll let beers sit for months depending on the ABV and style.

I have 8 kegs and a 3-tap keezer. Sometimes they're all full, sometimes they're all almost empty. I haven't found a formula that works yet. My goal is to keep them all as full as I can.

copyright1997 said:

Way too detailed for me. But, I think I can make some suggestions:
.

Click to expand...

I did not mention one thing. What I call a secondary is nothing more than just a beer racked out of a yeast/trub. I do that for multiple reasons: clearing, dry hopping, conditioning, diacetyl rest or just to make my kettle free (I ferment in it).
However, I do that at close to primary temperature, depending on a goal (warmer house room for a diacetyl rest, cooler for clearing, dry hopping) as I have no refrigerator for that purpose (I am 19 and I still live with my parents ).
So in fact, I do not know if I can call it secondary, you tell me :cross:
As for a CO2 tank, I wanted to use it as you do and you just ensured me that one is really enough, thank you!