thinking about kegging...

I'm still some what of a newbie, at only 7 batches....but cleaning bottles is getting old quickly!! I tried doing a little research on kegs, checking out the sticky's, and my aunt use to be an editor for BYO magazine. After hearing that I started brewing she sent me ALL of the issues (about 200+) she had to edit so I have been reading all the keg related issues but still can't seem to find a CLEAR answer.

The main question I am trying to figure out at this point is do I have to keep the kegs refrigerated?? will beer last in a keg that's sitting (say at basement temp 68-72) as long as CO2 is used to purge the oxygen/force carbonate??? is there a rough time frame as to how long a home brew will last in a corny keg at 68-72?? me and my buds can have it gone in one night ha ha but say I wanted to go camping and bring my set up will the keg have to sit in a ice chest through out the weekend?? (I would use dark hose to block UV rays/sun at that point).

I see that to artificially carbonate the beer, the beer should be colder for quicker absorption of the CO2, but I know there are the other options of letting it sit longer at warmer temps for forced carbonation, and letting it sit longer using priming sugar for natural carbonation (both lending a hand to conditioning/aging of the beer).

I am not worried about getting the beer to a lower temperature before pouring it into a glass as I will more than likely build a jockey box.

and I haven't made the leap yet of purchasing keg equipment but i like to research as much as possible for doing anything thanks in advance - Shawn

Keg! You won't regret it. You can carbonate with sugar at room temp with no issues. A keg will last a long time and needs no refrigeration until serving time. If you serve with co2 you won't run into oxydation issues so you won't need to finish the keg in one sitting.

For your question about cold kegging, you're right that cold brew absorbs CO2 faster than room temp. As long as you keep it under pressure, the likelihood of something nasty getting into your beer is fairly slim (unless you're a complete slob and don't clean/sanitize your beer lines between kegs...but that's another story ).

Regarding O2 purging, you only need to bleed it 4-5 times for about a second each time over a few minutes. I'm currently running my first keg (with my own beer, mind) as we speak, and I'm doing the au naturale carb method at 12 PSI for 2 weeks.

Keeping your kegged beer at 68-72 is definitely not an ideal situation. Co2 will dissolve into solution, and remain in solution much quicker at colder temps. To get a beer carbonated at 68 degrees you are going to have to keep somewhere around 30 psi on it to get the co2 into the beer.
Now in order to serve, you could as you said use a jockey box, but that will quickly become a pain in the butt every time you want to drink some beer. If you just tap the beer out at the room temperature, the co2 is going to want to come out of solution at the higher temperature via heavy foaming. Keep an eye out on the classifieds for a second hand kegerator, or even an old fridge. You won't pay much more for either than you would to set up a jockey box, and you'll be much happier with the maintenance required to tap a beer.

Also, beer will age a bit quicker at higher temperatures, and quicker still if the temperature is constantly changing by several degrees. It won't go bad in a week or anything like that, but you are cutting it's drinkable life down by some amount.

thanks everyone!!! and Zen Brew exactly what I was looking for...I have a mini fridge sitting at a buddy's house but I don't think it has enough clearance for a corny keg. I'll take some measurements next time I am over there but I will keep an eye out for something on craigslist....so if I go camping I should probably have a cooler dedicated to the keg itself??

Well for camping you could bottle from the keg. That being said, if you really wanted to take the keg camping you could use a jockey box as you mentioned earlier, or a cooler. The igloo cube cooler is taller than it is long and might work for you better than other designs. It is still not tall enough for a 5 gallon keg, however the lid easily comes off and you could probably build up a collar and lid from some 1" thick Styrofoam insulation. You'd probably need to build it up maybe 10-12". You could poke a couple holes in it to run picnic taps out for your taps.

There is more than one size of igloo cube cooler. I think the bigger one is a 60 qt (going from memory) that is a bit taller with a deeper lid. This cooler actually will fit (2) 3 gallon kegs and a small co2 bottle inside of it with the native lid. I have used mine this way once or twice to take beer to parties. It's nice as it is on wheels also. Of course the downside is 3 gallon cornys are pricy.

didn't think about bottling from a keg hmm got to look into that...

if I was to run it through just through a jockey box, and not have a cooler for the keg would it still foam then?? optimally you would want a jockey box and a cooler for the keg in an outdoor situation I am assuming ???

I frequently carb my kegs with sugar. At least ones that will sit for a while before tapping. That way they're ready for the kegorator when I need.

As for camping, This past summer I took a keg for a long camping weekend at the local Nascar race. My setup consisted of: the keg, paintball co2 tank, picnic tap, foam board insulation, duct tape and ice. I basically cut the insllation sheet into panels that when duct taped form a box for the keg to sit in. I made the box big enough to hold some ice. I lined the foam box with a heavy trash bag to hold the water better. I also cut a small hole at the bottom and pulled some of the bag through. I cut a hole in the bag and used a chip clip to seal it when I'm not draining off the melted ice. Last was a foam top with a hole poked through for the picnic tap.
This worked awesome. I assembled on site making it really easy to transport since everything was flat. Keg kicked in less than 24 hours but there was still a ton of solid ice when finished. The box never made it home cause some fool fell on it and cracked the foam. Into the fire it went. Gonna do it again next year.