made the jump to kegging... I know nothing about it. please help.

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basilchef

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I bought a 3 gallon kegging system from rebel brewer. it doesnt have a co2 tank or regulator. i plan on naturally carbing it for the first few brews untill i can buy the co2 set up. i dont know anything about this and the info i have read is a little confusing. will i need to purge? how do i calculate priming sugar (i know its not the same as bottles)? what should i know before attempting this? sorry for the irritating questions and thanks for your advice.
 
You will need a CO2 setup to serve/dispense your beers, even if you keg-carb with sugar.

...Ah, I looked up the kit and it dispenses with paintball cartridges. Okay.

Rule of thumb is you'd only need half of the priming sugar you'd use for bottles for a 5-gal keg; for a 3-gal I'm not sure whether to go with 2/3 the bottle-carb amount or if a different rule applies.

Be sure you have a fridge that you can fit the keg into once it's carbed, before serving. Just like bottles, you want the temperature down so all the CO2 doesn't geyser out when you start dispensing your warm beer.

-Rich
 
You will need a CO2 setup to serve/dispense your beers, even if you keg-carb with sugar.

...Ah, I looked up the kit and it dispenses with paintball cartridges. Okay.

Rule of thumb is you'd only need half of the priming sugar you'd use for bottles for a 5-gal keg; for a 3-gal I'm not sure whether to go with 2/3 the bottle-carb amount or if a different rule applies.

Be sure you have a fridge that you can fit the keg into once it's carbed, before serving. Just like bottles, you want the temperature down so all the CO2 doesn't geyser out when you start dispensing your warm beer.

-Rich

thanks for the response, i have a fermentation chamber i will drop the temp once needed. what should i do about purging and checking the seal when i only have co2 cartridges?
 
First off, let me say welcome to the jump to kegging! You won't regret it. Let me start by asking what you are serving from? Kegerator with actual taps? Fridge with a picnic tap? Bucket of ice? Secondly, priming sugar will work for carbonating your beer to your desired level but you're still going to need Co2 to actually push the beer out of the keg at a steady pace, and not lose carbonation over time and wind up with flat beer. Personally, I have never used priming sugar in my kegs, but it seems as though the general opinion here is to add the desired amount of sugar, then use pure Co2 to seat the lid to the keg, and to purge it a couple of times to get rid of the oxygen in the headspace. Unhook from Co2, and stick it in a room-temp place for the yeast/sugar to do its job. Correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I've read on here, that seems to be the general practice.
 
First off, let me say welcome to the jump to kegging! You won't regret it. Let me start by asking what you are serving from? Kegerator with actual taps? Fridge with a picnic tap? Bucket of ice? Secondly, priming sugar will work for carbonating your beer to your desired level but you're still going to need Co2 to actually push the beer out of the keg at a steady pace, and not lose carbonation over time and wind up with flat beer. Personally, I have never used priming sugar in my kegs, but it seems as though the general opinion here is to add the desired amount of sugar, then use pure Co2 to seat the lid to the keg, and to purge it a couple of times to get rid of the oxygen in the headspace. Unhook from Co2, and stick it in a room-temp place for the yeast/sugar to do its job. Correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I've read on here, that seems to be the general practice.

thats what i read too. it will be in the fridge with picnic tap. i am confused as to the perging process with the small co2 carteidges.
 
thats what i read too. it will be in the fridge with picnic tap. i am confused as to the perging process with the small co2 carteidges.

I don't know what to do with them either. If a single cart is expected to last for one 3-gal keg, I don't know whether using it for purging is part of that estimate or not.

Anyway, to purge: put on the keg's lid, connect the CO2, then pull the keg's pressure-relief valve briefly to release the oxygen-rich air that will settle above the heavier CO2. Repeat 3 or 4 times, then let keg sit.

-Rich
 
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