Transporting full kegs

Every Christmas, my family travels to Nashville TN to see my inlaws. I would like to take a keg or two of home brew with me when I go this year. We only stay a week-week and a half. I have a pair of soda kegs and will bring my CO2 tap set up.

ITs a 625 mile trip, taken in a Chrysler minivan.

If I dont carb before I leave, I will not have enough time down there to carb the beer before I have to head home, so I want to force carb before I leave.

Any helpful hints on doing this and transporting the beer?

If it's force carbed already you should have no issues whatsoever. If you can leave it hooked up to the gas... even better. I may be wrong here... but I don't think the temperature change is going to affect your beer at all. Will you be able to cool the kegs once you're there?

I bought a fill for one of my cornys in Knoxville about 6 weeks ago. I picked it up from the brewery around 11am. It was in my trunk. I drove to Atlanta, went to a Braves game where I parked in direct sunlight, and then drove 3 more hours home before it was back on the gas and in a cool environment. It was somewhere around 2am when I got it into my keggerator. I had another glass of it today, and it tastes just like it did at the brewery. I don't think you have anything to worry about, especially during the winter.

It would be force carbed, and I think I could leave it hooked up to the tank/reg.

Its about 11 hours of driving. Usually at nite and in cooler temps.

I would probably cool it in a trash can with ice when I get there. Unless the temps in Murfreesboro are at 40-45 degrees outside.

I don't thinking keeping it on gas is necessary. Even if it gets bumped around, no gas will be escaping. If it is carbed, it should stay carbed.

Force carbonate before and it will stay carbonated without being on the gas. Let it settle for a day before serving.

I have never driven 625 miles, but I have driven kegs 30+ miles on rough roads. (Hawaii Hi-ways).
Just make certain you have a good seal and give it time to settle. I usually bring my homebrew to picnics etc and it takes at least 2 hours before it settles down. A day at low temp would be fantastic to let the sediment resettle etc.
Homebrew, never leave home without it.

Which brewery in Knoxville will do keg fills? I lived in Knoxville a few years ago, but I didn't realize any breweries would do fills that big.

gerbache said:

Which brewery in Knoxville will do keg fills? I lived in Knoxville a few years ago, but I didn't realize any breweries would do fills that big.

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Woodruff Brewery at Downtown Grill and Brewery. They were very nice about it as well. $40 for 1/6bbl of their very tasty IPA. They also have reeaallly good deals on Growler refills.

Knoxville's Downtown Grill & Brewery

We just got back from a road trip in our RV. I bought a Coleman Extreme cooler that the coney keg would fit into lying down. Put 20 pounds of CO2 on the keg, laid it in the cooler, and iced it down with two bag of ice. Wooooohoooo. No problems. I'd set up the keg in the cooler for 20 minutes or so before serving, drop the pressure and, ahhhhhh. I'd like to get one of those Kegloves to keep the keg cooler on hot days, but for traveling, the cooler was great. good luck.

david_42 said:

Force carbonate before and it will stay carbonated without being on the gas. Let it settle for a day before serving.

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+1 You shouldn't have to keep it on the gas. Just let it chill and settle for a day or 2 when you arrive.... Should be fine...(make that perfect!!)