Starting to Keg

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Don

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 26, 2006
Messages
137
Reaction score
1
Location
Dark Side of the Moon!
I just scored a #20 aluminum CO2 and a Tap-Rite dual gauge regulator from Craigslists for $100.. The tank is only 1 year old and still has CO2 in it. Regulator looks new.
I need to replace my regulator gage (discharge) it's 0-160#. I'm going to pick up a 0-30# gage tomorrow.

I bought 4 Pepsi BallLock corneys from Ebay for $12 each 6 month ago.

Ordered 4 O-rings & seal kits, 1 Ball disconnect and a tubing connector, 10 feet of tubing, a Foam-Free Tubing Faucet Kit (just for starters) and a copule of seals.

I plan on using PBW to clean the corneys and StarSan to sterilize.

I have a New Old Ale in its secondary and hope to have be kegging it this weekend.

I'm still not real sure of the procedure for kegging.
Got a lot to learn this week.

What have I missed?
 
not much.

kegging is like bottling, except you don't prime with anything.

also, make sure you sanitize the out-side dip tube. easiest way is to fill with 1 gallon star-san, seal, and pressurize to seal (use 10psi for just a few seconds, then shut off the gas).

shake to sanitize inside of keg, then carefully poke the poppet down on the out-side connection. put a towel over it first, as it'll squirt star-san straight up. then let it sit a minute.

depressurize, remove lid, then press the valve again to empty the star san.
 
OK.. today I got my tank filled (20# CO2 $27)
Got all my o-rings and fttings.

After replacing all the O-Rings I filled the corney with @1 gal water with PBW and rolled it around for a while cleaning the inside. I added 10# of CO2 and purged out the discharge tube then flushed out the corney with water.

I will sanitize it right before I fill it.

Waiting till Saturday when my New Old Ale will be ready to rack out of the secondary.

Still not sure how much pressure to add to the corney while I leave it in the cooler to condition.
 
Don said:
OK.. today I got my tank filled (20# CO2 $27)
Got all my o-rings and fttings.

After replacing all the O-Rings I filled the corney with @1 gal water with PBW and rolled it around for a while cleaning the inside. I added 10# of CO2 and purged out the discharge tube then flushed out the corney with water.

I will sanitize it right before I fill it.

Waiting till Saturday when my New Old Ale will be ready to rack out of the secondary.

Still not sure how much pressure to add to the corney while I leave it in the cooler to condition.

Seeing how those are used kegs I would pull them apart and get a dip tube brush and scrub the tubes out, and a keg brush is IMHO worth the money. My arms are to big to fit into the kegs to really get them clean. But that's just me. To mess up a batch right there at the end would suck.
 
malkore said:
shake to sanitize inside of keg, then carefully poke the poppet down on the out-side connection. put a towel over it first, as it'll squirt star-san straight up. then let it sit a minute.

depressurize, remove lid, then press the valve again to empty the star san.

Just an observation and by no means am i an expert but couldn't you avoid the whole squirting of star-san all over by just hooking up to your tap line and running a couple of pints through it that way. Also you would be sanitizing your taps and lines at the same time. Just my opinion though. And after you sanitize the inside and remove the lid i like to take them and turn them upside down in a bucket. then let them soak so the entire top of the keg is cleaned and sanitized.

Nice Score BTW Don, also where are you at in southern Indiana? I am in Bloomington.

Cheers
 
I'm in Newburgh (by Evansville)

Upland beer is from Bloomington isn't it?
I've had a lot of their beer.. It's one of the brews that got me into home brewing.

Their Bad Elmer knocks my socks off.
 
Way down on the river huh? any good brews down your way? I have never been down there to Evansville. only lived in Indiana for 3 years now.

Upland is here in Bloomington. if you are ever up here you should stop by there they have a great tap room and beer garden. and usually have a few good seasonals on tap, plus the brewers are pretty cool and very approachable. always willing to give a tour and BS about beer.

Cheers
 
Ok,, so after 3 weeks in secondary (usually I only leave for two weeks but have been really busy) I racked my New Old Ale into a cleaned and sterilized corney.
Cleaned with BPW and Sanitized with Star San.

I pressurized to 30# and put in 50deg. Cooler. (plan on dropping temp to 46 tomorrow)

Every couple of hours I shack up the corney.

After 24 hours I plan on releaving the pressure and setting it to12#which should give me a volume @2.1.

How long before I can drink from my keg?

I usually leave this brew in the bottles for three weeks before drinking.
Do I follow the same time frame with kegging?
 
Back
Top