Renting Cornie keg setup?

Is it possible to rent a corney/CO2 tank setup? I want to start kegging, but haven't found a suitable fridge or freezer at a price that I'm happy with, so cold storage and 'on demand serving' is temporarily out of the question. I'm hoping to store two nearly finished brews (3 weeks in primary) in kegs for the SWMBO's birthday party at the end of September.

I'd say talk to your LBS. They may be able to Cold Store your beer for you.

OR you could just get the cornies, get one of those little C02 Travel Chargers just enough to seal up the keg....it'll be fine until you get the rest of your setup.
Option #3 is to use priming sugar... about half the usual amount...and naturally carb the beer in the kegs. Your first pint or 2 will shoot out all the yeast, then it'll be clear sailing.

I was thinking naturally carbing the beer would be the way to go, then use a portable system to keep it at serving temps for the party. Ideally, I'd like to find a cheap CL fridge to do a full kegerator conversion on, and might just wind up buying the kegging setup now.

Now, given that I don't have a means to force carb at cold temps, what kind of time would I need to force carb at 68 degrees, if I kegged these batches in the next week or so?

As far as time is concerned, it's the same no matter what temp. You just have to use much more pressure to force carb at higher temps.

Mike

I would agree with that. You can force carb warm beer but you're going to want to chill the kegs down at least 3-4 days before you plan on serving to give the beer a little polish. If you really want to do this without buying anything yet, you'll want to sugar prime the kegs and get some picnic faucets, a CO2 charger and about 15 twelve gram cartidges.

Looks like I spoke too soon! I just got a lead on an uber-cheap CL fridge here in town for $25 :rockin:

Looks like I'll be kegging and force-carbing cold sooner than I thought! I'll probably just stick with picnic taps for this one and take my time with doing the door conversion for Perlicks.

Rather than start a new thread, I'll continue on this one!

I've evaluating the costs of a two cornie system. I typically brew ales with a similar level of carbonation, so having two separate regulators isn't a priority (and I can always upgrade at some stage if my brewing habits change). On systems with check line valves, is it possible to, say, have one keg at serving pressure with the line closed and force carb another keg on the same regulator? Once keg #2 hits appropriate carb level, drop back down to serving pressure and open the second line? Or does this require a second regulator?

Just trying to get a sense of what I need for my intended application.

Yup, you can run do what you suggest. Even better, you set the regulator to say 12 psi and hook up all the kegs you have and let them all carb at equilibrium pressure.

Yup, you can run do what you suggest. Even better, you set the regulator to say 12 psi and hook up all the kegs you have and let them all carb at equilibrium pressure.

Click to expand...

Perfect, just what I wanted to hear! Now, to get the stuff ordered....

Yeah, your actually best off to force carb at serving pressure anyway. The main reason to up the pressure is to speed the force carb process.

Ok, so the fridge that I found was a monster and it wasn't going to make it down my basement steps (from either inside or outside)- so I had to pass on it. I'm still on the hunt for a smallish fridge to convert, but I'm getting a two keg set up and we'll take it from there. For those without converted setups (or available fridge space), how are your results?