Kegging and Keggerator Questions - First time

Hello All,

I have been home brewing for about 8 months now. Just signed up on here about a week ago, and this is my first post!

I am gonna transfer a 5 gal batch of my Pumpkin Ale to the secondary tomorrow, and when it finishes there, I want to keg it. It will by my first time kegging.

I am in the process of setting up my keggerator. Gonna be sweet - it is one of those wine fridges with the glass door and light inside. I will have room for two corny kegs eventually, but as of now will only use one. (have to buy some more stuff to make it two) Anyway, this leads me to my first question. Can I leave the the CO2 tank inside the fridge with the kegs? This would eliminate drilling another hole for the gas line, as well as hiding the CO2 tank, instead of having it on the floor beside the keggerator, it would be hidden behind the kegs.

Next question is about carbonating the kegs. After much reading on this site and in the homebrew mags, it seems like the easiest (best?) way to carbonate the kegs is to put'em in the keggerator and turn the pressure up to around 13 psi for about a week.

I am not sold on the force carbonation...and don't really need to have it carbonized instantly, as I like to condition the beer anyway for awhile.

And I don't see the point of using priming sugar to do it when I can just use the gas.

Opinions???

Thanks a lot!

I have also just started kegging but I think I can answer your questions. I'm sure someone will jump in if I'm off base.

First, you can leave your CO2 tank in the fridge with no problems other than it taking up space. Mine has been in there for a month with no issues.

Second, I have had good luck putting my filled kegs in the fridge around 40' F, setting the regulator at 12 lbs and leaving it for about a week. No need to use priming sugar with the CO2.

sleepystevenson said:

Can I leave the the CO2 tank inside the fridge with the kegs?

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Yes, there is no problem putting the CO2 tank in the fridge. Just remember, this will cause the pressure in the tank to change (not the amount of gas in the tank) since pressure is related to temperature. This means that the tank pressure gauge may drop - it is nothing to worry about.

sleepystevenson said:

It seems like the easiest (best?) way to carbonate the kegs is to put'em in the keggerator and turn the pressure up to around 13 psi for about a week.

Click to expand...

Yes, this is the best way to carbonate your kegs. It will result in predictable carbonation and you should be able to balance your system for serving with 5' of beverage tubing.

sleepystevenson said:

I am not sold on the force carbonation

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Just an FYI, the term force carbonation refers to using CO2 from a tank to carbonate (including the 13 psi method discussed above), not the shake method. In both cases you are forcing CO2 into the beer rather than carbing is naturally with priming sugar.

sleepystevenson said:

Hello All,
Anyway, this leads me to my first question. Can I leave the the CO2 tank inside the fridge with the kegs? This would eliminate drilling another hole for the gas line, as well as hiding the CO2 tank, instead of having it on the floor beside the keggerator, it would be hidden behind the kegs.

Click to expand...

You can and probably should leave the CO2 inside the fridge specifically because every time you drill a hole in the side or top of your fridge you run the chance of ruining it. I don't know how many people know this, but inside the walls of every refridgerator and freezer are coolant lines that are all connected to the fridge motor and compressor. If you puncture or drill through one of these lines, you have essentially broken your refridgerator, the repair guys won't be able to fix it.

Usually, the doors of fridges don't have these coolant lines, and are a better place to drill through and place your taps, however the doors of your fridge are apparently going to be made of glass, so no drilling through those. I reccomend picking a different type of fridge or looking into putting a "Collar" on your fridge so you can safely drill through it. I don't know if you have thought this whole project through, but some planning goes a long way towards not ruining a perfectly good fridge.

sleepystevenson said:

Next question is about carbonating the kegs. After much reading on this site and in the homebrew mags, it seems like the easiest (best?) way to carbonate the kegs is to put'em in the keggerator and turn the pressure up to around 13 psi for about a week.

Thanks a lot!

Click to expand...

With regards to carbonating using CO2 vs natural carbonation, I have done both and I have found that the easiest way to carbonate is CO2. When you carbonate naturally yeast settles to the bottom of the keg and gets sucked up through the dip tube for the first 2 to 3 pints. I have found a way around this is to drain off a few pints and subsequently transfer the carbonated beer to a serving keg after natural carbonation. This is a tedious process, and requires that you have more than one keg.

Good luck in your construction

Thanks for the info, all.

I have two wine fridges already in stock, so one of them was destined to become the keg fridge! I have been considering just using the ole' cobra head dispenser instead of the mounted taps to eliminate drilling holes in the fridge.... but it sure takes something out the experience (not to mention coolness factor) to have have to open the door every time you wanna beer... and pouring it outta the cobra vs. a really nice tap...

But, it would allow me to sell the wine fridge in the future.... (sans holes...)!

Thanks again, I will keep you updated...

Gonna transfer the pumpkin ale to the secondary tonight, so I do have some time to get the keggerator set.... all I need to make it happen is the necessary gas/beer tubing.

One more question: When it comes time to refill my CO2 tank, is it a problem to not have the gas hooked up for a couple days to the keg?

sleepystevenson said:

One more question: When it comes time to refill my CO2 tank, is it a problem to not have the gas hooked up for a couple days to the keg?

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Nope, shouldn't be an issue at all, the keg should remain pressurized. You will lose some pressure as you dispense (since you'll have more head-space) but you can always hit it with the CO2 when you get the tank back.