Can you daisy-chain corny kegs??

Tomorrow I'll be kegging my second batch of brown ale. Gonna have two 5 gallon cornys with about 4 gallons each in 'em. I've seen at some of the restaurants we service that they will daisy-chain two kegs on each serving line. Basically the CO2 goes into the first keg, forcing the beer from that keg into the second and that forces the beer from that keg into the serving line. I could build a beer-out to gas-in adapter with a couple fittings and some hose, thinking that I might do this so both kegs will serve from the same tap..... has anybody tried this? I can't think of a reason that it wouldn't work, but thought I'd ask the board here for any advice, ideas, flames.....ect

Thanks,
Allan

Don't see why not, but you'd likely have to have three of the long beer-out siphon tubes and just one gas-in tube. That way you'd always have liquid in contact with liquid rather than having one keg spray into the other. Theoretically I would think both kegs would kick at about the same time.

I was just thinking of some lesbian keg action.... thanks for that.

howlinowl said:

I've seen at some of the restaurants we service that they will daisy-chain two kegs on each serving line. Basically the CO2 goes into the first keg, forcing the beer from that keg into the second and that forces the beer from that keg into the serving line. I could build a beer-out to gas-in adapter with a couple fittings and some hose,

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Some twenty plus years ago, I was the beverage manager for a park that hosted company picnics. We served several thousand people a day, so to save time swapping premix soda kegs, we would daisy chain them together as you described, as deep as six kegs. Later we switched to a syrup and water carbonation system which made life easier, but we'd still chain three syrup kegs. We had dozens of liquid to gas jumpers, about two feet long.

I can't imagine it wouldn't work with homebrew as well.

Fingers said:

Don't see why not, but you'd likely have to have three of the long beer-out siphon tubes and just one gas-in tube. That way you'd always have liquid in contact with liquid rather than having one keg spray into the other. Theoretically I would think both kegs would kick at about the same time.

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Assuming all O2 is purged from the final output keg then the beer would not oxidize, but may overcarb if you are serving much beer in a short time due to lots of splashng. Agreeing with Fingers, I think 3 dip tubes with matching product connectors would be better. For clarification, the default would be 2 diptubes/product connectors and one gas connector/input nipple. Since the fittings are interchangable, you can switch a product for a gas.

You can certainly do this. I use a jumper when I'm cleaning. You would have to force carbonate both cornies before connecting, otherwise only the second cornie would be in contact with the CO2 and the first one would be flat.

The alternative would be to use Y-connectors for gas and liquid. But, then they would both blow at the same time.

I'd just Y the CO2 and swap the kegs when the first blows. Simpler and you'd know it's time to brew.

There won't be any significant splashing, as the second keg (closest to the faucet) will remain full until the first keg is empty. Once that happens, only Co2 will be entering the gas inlet of the second keg.

I don't really see the point though, unless you're serving huge crowds in a short period of time. You're also doubling the potential points of leakage, putting your gas supply at risk. One tiny leak can empty your tank overnight, so I prefer to keep things as simple as possible.

As David_42 points out, having a jumper or two is very handy for cleaning purposes.

olllllo said:

I was just thinking of some lesbian keg action.... thanks for that.

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First thing I thought of. You need at least 6, or they look like a square.