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sudsey

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Ok, just bought 4 corny kegs fridge with inbuilt door tap and co2 tank with reg. New to kegging. Am I best to do secondary ferment in kegs or force carbonate? How long before I can drink? I have a couple of brews ready in primary fermenters. Is cleaning the corney keg just a matter of swishing some sanitation agent around the keg?

Thanks, can't wait to drink that first pour.
 
Your first cleaning of the keg should be rather thorough, complete disassembly soak and scrub. Inspect o-rings if they aren't new with your kegs for damage, replace when necessary. If you don't have it, you'll need keg lube for your o-rings.

You can secondary in a corny, but then you'll want to transfer to another corny which is simple enough with a couple of beer out Disconnnects and a piece of beer line, you can transfer with gas for a no oxygen transfer.

If you wanna rush your first kegged beer to carbonation, hook it up to your gas at your target psi +1, and rock back and forth for about 10 minutes. Some people say 30 psi for 2-3 days, but it is much too easy to overshoot, overcarb, and have nothing but foamy beer.

Otherwise, set it and forget it. Hook up your keg to the gas at your target psi, and leave it alone for two weeks.
 
Ferment as you normally would. Fill the keg instead of bottles. Put the keg on gas. Wait. Drink.

If you want to do the set and forget method, set the gas at about 12psi and leave it for at least a week -- if not 2. If you're impatient like me, set it at 30psi for at least 3 days. Actually, even when I'm not feeling impatient, I set at 30 for about 3 days, then back it down to around 12 until I'm ready to drink. Depending on the style, some taste better fresh, and some take a bit to come into their own.

Have fun. I love having beer on tap!!!
 
Yes, set and forget sounds good. Just needs to be ready for Christmas. So fill keg, put in fridge, set to target psi (what should I go for with a simple
Pale ale?), wait close to two weeks and drink. Sounds good.
 
sudsey said:
Yes, set and forget sounds good. Just needs to be ready for Christmas. So fill keg, put in fridge, set to target psi (what should I go for with a simple
Pale ale?), wait close to two weeks and drink. Sounds good.

Carb anywhere between 12-15 psi depending on style.

Your psi all depends on your beer line length, and temperature after carbonation. Here is a great PDF file(http://www.draughtquality.org/w/page/18182201/FrontPage)on draft beer, I suggest reading it. It makes the mechanics of line balancing simple to understand, and it will improve your draft pours tremendously if you have your beer lines properly balanced.
 
Thanks and what about secondary fermentation in the keg. If you carb that way is it merely a matter of chilling the keg and setting pressure at 10psi and drauphting as soon as cold?
 
Secondary fermentation in a keg? Do you mean for clarifying?
Or do you mean allowing the fermentation (priming the keg) to carbonate the beer rather than force carbonating?

If you are priming your keg, your carbonation will depend on the amount of priming sugar you add. You should need only enough psi to pour.
 
Schnitzengiggle said:
Secondary fermentation in a keg? Do you mean for clarifying?
Or do you mean allowing the fermentation (priming the keg) to carbonate the beer rather than force carbonating?

If you are priming your keg, your carbonation will depend on the amount of priming sugar you add. You should need only enough psi to pour.

Yeah that's what I mean; priming. So if I prime my keg how much headspace do you need to leave and do you have to keep purging gas from the keg or can you just leave it?

Also, what is a general psi for pouring?

Thanks mate
 
sudsey said:
Yeah that's what I mean; priming. So if I prime my keg how much headspace do you need to leave and do you have to keep purging gas from the keg or can you just leave it?

Also, what is a general psi for pouring?

Thanks mate

Priming a keg is similar to carbonating a bottle, your beer will be carbonated properly, but as you drink it the volumes of co2 will diminish, so putting it on gas around 6psi or so, just to serve should be sufficient.
 
Also, what is a general psi for pouring?

i carb and serve between 10-12 psi.. really never need to change it. you won't overcarb it if you leave it at the set and forget psi..

i also never like to do the fast carb method as with most beers, if you give it a little more age they always tend to be a bit better.. that is why most people will say the last couple pints from their keg taste better than the first couple pints because it is no longer so "green" tasting
 
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