I friggin' love keggin!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry total newb comment, but I finally get it.

I tested with a Root Beer for the kids, better to blow a $10 soda than a $40 beer. But everything went exactly as planned. I will qualify that by saying I read a lot before jumping into something new. The sticky's, particularly Bobby M's, are excellent. Took a bit of time to read all 22 pages but at least 50% was worth it.

If you are on the fence like I was for a long time, pull a Nike and "Just Do It"! Took me shearing off the spigot on the counter with 5 gallons in the bucket to take the plunge. I now have 2.5-3 gallons stout and it is still sticky between the slats of the hardwood flooirng where the other half fell.

Can't wait to build my kegerator and get everything. Got the mini fridge yesterday. Ice cold! (literally)

Just remember to toss out all the rubber pieces and hoses used with the root beer. You'll never get the smell and taste out, and your beer will taste like root beer.

I LOVE my kegerator! It completed my life the first time I pulled the handle and beer flowed out cool,crisp, and carbed. That day falls right behind the day my daughter was born in level of importance. So it is day number two in the best days of my life. Well tied for number two. The day my divorce was final is up there as well. Screw it. It was a great flipping day, you know what I am trying to say.

kegging WAS my first- and only-born

Wait until you get your first leak that drains the entire CO2 tank, or when you have 4 kegs waiting to be cleaned all at once, or when you realize there are numerous different styles of kegs and parts don't match or mix between them....etc etc.

Wow, you just made me sad Soper.

Soperbrew said:

Wait until....etc etc.

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thank you Dr. Buzzkill for that PSA. the infinite reduction in labor is worth the trade-offs, no??

Kegging is a godsend and I definitely could never survive without it now.

yes, kegging rocks. home brew on tap,no bottles to mess with. best thing I ever did.

Soperbrew said:

Wait until you get your first leak that drains the entire CO2 tank, or when you have 4 kegs waiting to be cleaned all at once, or when you realize there are numerous different styles of kegs and parts don't match or mix between them....etc etc.

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Yeah because cleaning 4 kegs at once is much worse than cleaning the equivalent 200 bottles

You keg has a brand and model on it, look it up and order spare parts for each variation you have. Then keep them in a baggie with the name written on it. Not too hard

But beware, your beer will disappear very quickly!

IrregularPulse said:

But beware, your beer will disappear very quickly!

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I can see that danger.

Sorry, kegging has made me lazy. So when I look at 4 dirty kegs I try to put off cleaning them as long as possible. I've even considered just racking one beer on top of a just emptied one.

I've been into and out of brewing a bunch of times over the years. Every time I came to the same conclusion; "this is fun but I hate cleaning bottles."

A few weeks ago I took the plunge; got a chest freezer, bought a single tank setup from a LHBS with a party tap.

Even with the learning curve it took me less than an hour to have it done, the usual time it takes me to just get the bottles cleaned and dried.

I friggin love kegging too...I know how you feel

I can't wait to get home and hit my kegerator...and hit it hard.

I just poured my first beer from a corney keg that's mine last weekend. Best beer investment I have made to date!!

Soperbrew said:

Sorry, kegging has made me lazy. So when I look at 4 dirty kegs I try to put off cleaning them as long as possible. I've even considered just racking one beer on top of a just emptied one.

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Ditto. I have a christmas ale waiting to be kegged and an empty keg waiting to be cleaned for it

I think this is untrue, all my kegs came to me smelling of soda and some still had soda in them. And overnight soak of everything in Oxyclean Free and no more smell. Far as that goes the kegs I've used for Apfelwein smelled a lot more strongly than soda and Oxy gets rid of that smell too.

Make sure you take it apart and soak all the pieces too.

TheCarnie said:

Just remember to toss out all the rubber pieces and hoses used with the root beer. You'll never get the smell and taste out, and your beer will taste like root beer.

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Me too. Since when I first cleaned my kegs I took them all apart and they are sealed when empty and full of CO2 I figure they can't be too dirty. My last two when I was ready to fill a keg I have just opened them, sprayed out the inside, then filled with a gallon of star san/water solution and shake the sh@t out of it. Then hook it up to the CO2 and my picnic tap, run some star san/water out of it. Then right before I fill I lube the posts I take the lid off stick it in a bucket and dump all the starsan out of the keg into said bucket. Fill the keg like normal, pull the lid out of the star san filled bucket and put it in and then onto getting hooked up to the CO2, all done.

Soperbrew said:

Sorry, kegging has made me lazy. So when I look at 4 dirty kegs I try to put off cleaning them as long as possible. I've even considered just racking one beer on top of a just emptied one.

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I think cleaning a freshly kicked keg then running starsan through it and leaving it pressurized is less work than dealing with bottles. As for the risk of blowing a CO2 tank or leaking out a batch of beer with maintenance and care that risk is minimal and being that it is all in a chest freezer the cleanup will be pretty easy so I consider it worth the risk.

All that said... viva la keg! I love it. Having soda and a couple beers on tap is awesome. I do end up drinking more though but that just means I get to brew more.

I've lost the 7lb co2 tank of gas to a leak already. It cost me $15 and it was my fault it leaked ( didn't have the plastic washer betweem the reg and tank).

If I lost $15 a month it would still be worth not having to bottle

I just bottled a batch of skeeter pee, getting bottles, delabeling, cleaning, sanitizing, filling, capping, bleh it sucked. If I didn't plan on giving the stuff out and using it for my big party and my 3 keg trashcan kegerator will already be full of beer kegs I would have kegged the stuff and been done with it.

When I got the fill locally (welding supply) I asked the guy about o-rings (thinking of a pure luck cheap source for corny replacement rings) and he assumed I was talking about the o-ring on the tanks out. He indicated the fiber washer that comes with most valves is an either/or deal with the o-ring if present. Makes sense the fiber and rubber wouldn't seal well. Akthor's comment made me think to ask if anyone else has heard this.

I'm just glad that I don't have to decide to make the leap to kegging, since one of the first things I ended up with was 14 pin locks from the regional Coca Cola bottler after they closed their local plant down. Now I just have to wait till Christmas for the rest of my kit so that I can start brewing.

I just started kegging about a month and a half ago. I still get a thrill every time I fill a pint.

^ ditto

I loves my kegs and keg fridge. Just got kegs four and five the other day, brewed up an uncomfortably strong version of Cream of Three Crops on Sunday and a Celebration Ale today to fill them in a few weeks. Had to get a couple more because we like to have cider and apfelwein on tap as well as beers, so I needed a couple more for slacking.

buzzkill said:

yes, kegging rocks. home brew on tap,no bottles to mess with. best thing I ever did.

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And in the event you run out of home brew, just swing by the brewpub and pick up a corny to get you by.

Getting a keg set up also opens the door to bigger batches. I never thought of doing 10 gallon batches when I had to deal with bottling.

I just kegged my first beer last night, a Kolsch. It still needs to sit for six more weeks before it is ready, but I ran out of primaries so I put a keg into service! It was a proud moment in the Smith house I tell you. Next week the first lager gets kegged so it can sit another six weeks or so and continue to lager. Two weeks later two more batches, a dunkleweizen and a hefeweizen get the keg treatment. They'll age six weeks. Just in time for New Years!

20 gallons of homebrew on tap for New Years - could there possibly be a better way to ring in the 2011? NOPE!

I second the notion that kegging opens up the door to not only more drinking (not that there is anything wrong with that) but larger and more varied batches. The most I ever had bottled at one time was two batches. What a PITA! Cleaning, capping, dribbling mess all over the floor. I feel the OP's pain on the loss of 2 gallons due to busting the spigot off the bottling bucket. That sucks dude. That alone would sell me on kegging!

Enjoy!

Dean

akthor said:

I think this is untrue, all my kegs came to me smelling of soda and some still had soda in them. And overnight soak of everything in Oxyclean Free and no more smell. Far as that goes the kegs I've used for Apfelwein smelled a lot more strongly than soda and Oxy gets rid of that smell too.

Make sure you take it apart and soak all the pieces too.

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Most soda can be cleaned out no problem, but for some reason root beer is an offender that will not part from the seals. There's just something about root beer.

dinokath said:

I feel the OP's pain on the loss of 2 gallons due to busting the spigot off the bottling bucket. That sucks dude. That alone would sell me on kegging!

Enjoy!

Dean

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I was at the HBS waiting for them to open the next morning!!!

Ahhh I think mine all had cola in them

brrman said:

Most soda can be cleaned out no problem, but for some reason root beer is an offender that will not part from the seals. There's just something about root beer.

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brrman said:

Most soda can be cleaned out no problem, but for some reason root beer is an offender that will not part from the seals. There's just something about root beer.

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3 days in oxy and I could still smell it.