Getting ready...

In about 2 and half weeks, I will be kegging three batches of beer for my wedding. What I have right now are:

3 ball-lock 5 gallon cornies
1 5lb. CO2 cylinder and necessary tubing/hook-ups
1 CO2 regulator
1 cobra-style tap

1 chest freezer

I will be buying tubing, hook-ups and taps for the other two cornies, a temp regulator for the chest freezer and I have access to two more CO2 tanks.

I have either Iodophor or star-san to use as a sanitizer. My big question is, what else do I need to sanitize/clean the kegs and keg the beer? I've read stuff about pressure changing in the kegs if you keep them chilled and switch the CO2 to another keg to force carbonate. So I guess I need to know what I else I need and the big ideas of the process. I can't mess this up!!!

Thanks! and BREW ON

1) Use Iodophor to sanitize.
2) If you're force carbing, and you have a few weeks before the event, bring the corny's up to serving temp and pressurize to serving pressure (10-12) and let it be.
3) If you ever need to change pressure, disconnect anything you don't want at that pressure and adjust the regulator. Disconnect that, set the regulator back and connect everything else.

4) That was confusing. Essentially the Corny's hold pressure and you can use the release valve at anytime to pugre. Hook stuff up without your beer and give it a test run.

For the event...
I would just add that if you know another HB'er get a back up of key componants, specifically the CO2. When ever my HB buddy has an event we always have backup CO2 in case there is a leak or mishap (like an idiot in-law trying to use your tank to fill balloons.)

A small leak can drain your tank in no time. I always turn off the gas once everything is up to pressure just in case.

You will not be able to fill a CO2 on a Saturday.

If nothing else it will be one less thing to worry about.

Congrats BTW. I wasn't a prolific enough HB'er to do the beer at my wedding, but we did have Guiness and Fat Tire. I'm sure that we ticked off the Bud Lite crowd, but my wife and I have been doing that for years anyway.

How much gas do you actually use to keg. I want to keg but worried because i only have one co2 tank. I have a beermeister but im worried about letting my gas all go by bye then i dont have any to keep my beermeister running. Should i buy another tank or can i use the one i have.

Eric

You don't need 2.
I was only suggesting a back up for his wedding event. I used a 5 for years operating 2 tapped beers. I recently upgraded to a 20 now that I have the capability to tap 4 beers.

If you have no leaks in your system, you use suprisingly little gas.

In a worst case scenario, If I drained my CO2 tank on a Friday, and had a totally depressurized corny in the fridge, I wouldn't panic if I did'nt get around to getting gas on Monday night.

Beer should stay preserved in the fridge and if it got flat, you can re-carb it.

olllllo said:

You don't need 2.
I was only suggesting a back up for his wedding event. I used a 5 for years operating 2 tapped beers. I recently upgraded to a 20 now that I have the capability to tap 4 beers.

If you have no leaks in your system, you use suprisingly little gas.

In a worst case scenario, If I drained my CO2 tank on a Friday, and had a totally depressurized corny in the fridge, I wouldn't panic if I did'nt get around to getting gas on Monday night.

Beer should stay preserved in the fridge and if it got flat, you can re-carb it.

Click to expand...

So i should not be worried about that as a problem for me then? I dont believe i have any leaks...So far so good with my beer.

What about storing the kegs? Do i have to store them in the fridge when they are done. For instance i just got done a belgian white (hoegaarden clone) they want 80 bucks for a 1/6 keg and i could do my own for about 40 bucks? But i only have one fridge and wouldnt be able to chill the beer till about 3 days before i was about to tap it? My question being can i keep the beer in room temp in the keg for months before i put it in the fridge and carb it. If so im buying keg stuff this weekend...

olllllo said:

I was only suggesting a back up for his wedding event.

Click to expand...

I also think it is so cool to make the beer for your own wedding! At this point though I also want to suggest a back up, but from a different angle. Be absolutly certain that you train someone else in all the ins and outs of your system. Remember, this is your wedding. Your going to be nervous. Your going to have things to do. Your going to have people to see and places to go. You know what I mean.... hell I would train a few and let them be in charge of it. Outside of drinking and taking compliments, the beer will hopefully be the last thing on your mind. You'll be married and will be making sure that your SWMBO is happy

Flucky07 said:

So i should not be worried about that as a problem for me then? I dont believe i have any leaks...So far so good with my beer.

What about storing the kegs? Do i have to store them in the fridge when they are done. For instance i just got done a belgian white (hoegaarden clone) they want 80 bucks for a 1/6 keg and i could do my own for about 40 bucks? But i only have one fridge and wouldnt be able to chill the beer till about 3 days before i was about to tap it? My question being can i keep the beer in room temp in the keg for months before i put it in the fridge and carb it. If so im buying keg stuff this weekend...

Click to expand...

There's a lot of good information in the post and elsewhere in the forum about kegging in general.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showpost.php?p=99404&postcount=6

The short answer is you can store at room temp. Your procedure will depend on if you are naturally or force carbing.

The nice thing about kegging is that you can (in an emergency) force carb in a matter of hours. My LHBS owner iced a batch down and overpressurized and got his beer drinkable (not ideal) in half a day.

Beer Snob said:

I also think it is so cool to make the beer for your own wedding! At this point though I also want to suggest a back up, but from a different angle. Be absolutly certain that you train someone else in all the ins and outs of your system. Remember, this is your wedding. Your going to be nervous. Your going to have things to do. Your going to have people to see and places to go. You know what I mean.... hell I would train a few and let them be in charge of it. Outside of drinking and taking compliments, the beer will hopefully be the last thing on your mind. You'll be married and will be making sure that your SWMBO is happy

Click to expand...

Thanks for the help on this Beer Snob , that's really the point I was trying to bring home for brackbrew. You will have no shortages of volunteers for this. If you had to do the political thing and have one of your in-laws in your wedding party at the expense of one of your buddies, THAT GUY is your man.

brackbrew said:

In about 2 and half weeks, I will be kegging three batches of beer for my wedding. What I have right now are:

3 ball-lock 5 gallon cornies
1 5lb. CO2 cylinder and necessary tubing/hook-ups
1 CO2 regulator
1 cobra-style tap

1 chest freezer

I will be buying tubing, hook-ups and taps for the other two cornies, a temp regulator for the chest freezer and I have access to two more CO2 tanks.

I have either Iodophor or star-san to use as a sanitizer. My big question is, what else do I need to sanitize/clean the kegs and keg the beer? I've read stuff about pressure changing in the kegs if you keep them chilled and switch the CO2 to another keg to force carbonate. So I guess I need to know what I else I need and the big ideas of the process. I can't mess this up!!!

Thanks! and BREW ON

Click to expand...

Maybbe you answered this in another thread, but what all did you end up brewing?

I am getting married in January, and SWMBO has already agreed to let me make all the beer (except for Bud Light, simply becuase people will be expecting it and I cannot make a light beer). It's cool that our reception site allows us to provide all of our own beer/wine/spirits, so we can save a metric @$$-load of money. Unfortunatly though, our site doesn't allow us to use kegs (I haven't begged my case yet though...), so I think I'll need to buy a counter pressure filler and go from there (oh boy wont that be fun!).

I'm trying to figure out a list of 4-5 varities that will impress people, and taste good to people used to drinking fizzy water (unfortunatly, that means no stouts ).

opqdan said:

I'm trying to figure out a list of 4-5 varities that will impress people, and taste good to people used to drinking fizzy water (unfortunatly, that means no stouts ).

Click to expand...

What do YOU want to drink on YOUR Wedding Day?
Do a Stout. You're going to have Bud for those that want it.

As I mentioned before, I had Guiness and Fat Tire. These beers were not as commonly available as they are now. I got the Guioness for me and my buddies. SWMBO loves Fat Tire.

Folks that came from east of the Mississippi had never heard of Fat Tire before. I can't tell you how many people raved about it. Since it wasn't available in WI at the time I has to recommend alternatives that they could try, once they got back home. Take Away: Belgian style went over big.

We had the wedding in our back yard. It was relatively small. The next afternoon there was just enough in both half barrels for some farewell entertaining.

When it comes down to it, people will appreciate whatever you make.

Well,

Since we're getting a keg of miller lite for the non-beer drinkers, I tried to be versatile with the other stuff. I was planning on making a slightly more hopped version of Papazian's Palilalia IPA, but I ran out of time, so the original recipe that's been conditioning for a few weeks is taking it's spot. I also brewed a brown ale (recipe courtesy of david_42) and the Franziskaner Hefe clone (although I forgot about the 2 oz. m-d).

I'm a little worried, because the brown ale had a blow over, but it kept fermenting vigorously afterwards...I just don't know how long the airlock was without water and exposed...everything seemed ok when I racked it.

BREW ON

brackbrew said:

Since we're getting a keg of miller lite for the non-beer drinkers

Click to expand...

That's funny!

olllllo said:

What do YOU want to drink on YOUR Wedding Day?
Do a Stout. You're going to have Bud for those that want it.

As I mentioned before, I had Guiness and Fat Tire. These beers were not as commonly available as they are now. I got the Guioness for me and my buddies. SWMBO loves Fat Tire.

Folks that came from east of the Mississippi had never heard of Fat Tire before. I can't tell you how many people raved about it. Since it wasn't available in WI at the time I has to recommend alternatives that they could try, once they got back home. Take Away: Belgian style went over big.

We had the wedding in our back yard. It was relatively small. The next afternoon there was just enough in both half barrels for some farewell entertaining.

When it comes down to it, people will appreciate whatever you make.

Click to expand...

Oh, I'll have it. I just meant that I won't be doing a batch specifically for the reception. Two cases of stout would be far too much for me to drink. I'll probably do a batch a lot earlier in the fall, and then just save some of the bottles.