Anyone else happy when a keg is kicked?!

My wife comes up from the bar last night and says "Honey, I am sorry, but the Blonde Ale keg is kicked". She thought I would be pissed, but instead I was ecstatic!

I am finally at the point my pipeline that I am excited to kick a keg, since that means that I can rack a new beer into the pipeline. This time, half of my 10 gallon batch of Dunkel will be go in the keg previously occupied by the Blonde and will prime and condition in the cellar for a while. The second 5 gallons of Kolsch will join its brother, along with a pale ale and wit in the kegerator.

I know this has been said on here a hundred times, but it really does wonders having an adequate pipeline. It really allows you to be patient and not drink your beer too early (taste tests are okay every once in a while!).

So who else is happy when a keg kicks? Or does this just mean I need more kegs?!?:rockin:

As a follow up, how does everyone keep track of their pipeline? I know Beersmith has a calender function, I have been trying to keep that up to date. But I always end up punching all my beers, brewdates, and gravity readings into a Notes program on my Palm Pre. Nice and simple, and I always have it on hand when people ask me "What's brewin?"

you need more kegs. i need to upgrade my equiptment so i can start brewing 10 gallon batches of my recipes that i really like.

Right now i've got a keg of delicious alt that's about to die. I'll be almost glad it's done, so i can get the hoppy amber in it's place while it's still nice and fresh, but at the same time, that alt is really nice.

SHMBO set up a spreed sheet on Excel for fermenters (have 6) and for Kegs (14) I have a six tap tower and keggerater set up for Stouts, keeping track start dates finshed dates, FG. OG. and temps. Use a numbering system for what, and where works great plus lets me keep track of all. my .02

I'm excited for my keg to kick, and I just tapped it.

Not to happy with it's flavor profile!

I ferment and serve in corny kegs. I have 18 kegs and can only fit 5 at a time in my 7.0 cu foot freezer. Building a pipeline is the way to go!

my pipeline is too short.. I need more corneys and... more than that.. more time to brew.. maybe I need to mix in an extract batch here and there to catch my pipeline up with my consumption.

Yea I need more kegs, and more space for kegs. I just "kicked" another. Had a little over half a keg of Kolsch left and wanted to bottle a sixer to take to a concert last night. Well I got my BM counter pressure bottle filler set up and started cranking out bottles, ended up with a case plus 4-5 bombers. I figured it was easier to find space for bottles than take up an additional spot in my kegerator for a couple gallons of beer. Plus I wanted to get my Dunkel on chill/carb.

While I also get excited at the prospect of putting a new beer on tap, I also die a little bit inside at the loss of one of my delicious children.

guess it depends on what's kicked. if it's a beer I'm not particularly fond of or that didn't turn out how I wanted, then I'm ecstatic to get something new in there. If it's something that I've really been enjoying then it's a little sad, but there's still that sense of excitement to try a fresh new beer.

I have 9 kegs, 4 taps, 2 6.5 gallon primaries + 3 or 4 buckets and about 6 5-gallon carboys. I'm not hurting for pipeline space, I could maybe get another keg or two - but I don't see much need unless I were to throw out my 4 tap keezer and change it to a 8 or something. I think a good rule of thumb is twice as many kegs as you can put on tap is about all you need - unless you start fermenting in them or using them to store RO water or sanitizer.

I get excited, because it means I get to put another one of my kegs on tap and it also means I get to brew again!

I made myself a nice little chart on the puter. I keep it in a folder with all my recipes and notes. Every time there's a question, I just look it up and I'm good to go!

nefarious_1_ said:

I made myself a nice little chart on the puter. I keep it in a folder with all my recipes and notes. Every time there's a question, I just look it up and I'm good to go!

Click to expand...

Yeah I made a nice detailed spreadsheet in Google Docs before I got Beersmith. The problem with it is that its a bit too complicated. When I want to check and see what was brewed 3 weeks ago, I don't care that the 15 minute hop addition was 1.25 ounces of Centennial. Thats why I started keeping track in the Notepad app on my phone. Beer name, Brew Date, OG, Keg/Bottle Date, FG is all I need.

I'm thinking that the combination of the Notepad app and Beersmith will be good enough for my tracking.

The first Trappist-style Ale I did I damned near cried when it was over and done with. I had no real expectations for it and it turned out awesome.

But after five gallons of a slightly-altered Rasputin clone I was ready for it to be over and done with. That's alot of very heavy beer to have on hand for quite a long while.

Skarekrough said:

But after five gallons of a slightly-altered Rasputin clone I was ready for it to be over and done with. That's alot of very heavy beer to have on hand for quite a long while.

Click to expand...

This is where the benefits of the BM counter pressure bottle filler comes to play!

I like when they kick. Frees up the spot for the next (and hopefully better) keg.

Skarekrough said:

But after five gallons of a slightly-altered Rasputin clone I was ready for it to be over and done with. That's alot of very heavy beer to have on hand for quite a long while.

Click to expand...

This is the issue I'm having with my keg of a yeti clone. I don't think I'll keg another beer over 8% abv, just because its so much harder to finish it off.

I'm trying my hardest to kick my keg of a session CDA but all it seems to be doing is getting me slightly lit up 3 pints at a time.... but its been fun.

kpr121 said:

My wife comes up from the bar last night and says Blonde Ale keg is kicked". :

Click to expand...

And your thought was ......this was a good thing to hear from the wife?

I'm looking forward to when my keg is kicked actually I'm trying very hard to empty it! I have 10 gallons ready to keg and 5 gallons I need to bottle with only 20 empty bottles. So I am trying really hard to both empty these bottles of barleywine and drain at least 1 keg. Wish me luck. My friend was over the other night and we finished off a keg of SNPA clone. He told me like he had done something wrong I told him it was ok I was glad it had went foamy my new SNPA clone was ready to keg and I still had another full keg to go so RDWHAHB! I haven't established a pipeline I work 3 days a week so I brew every week, I just drink as much as I can and what I can't keg or bottle gets to age longer :rockin:

How timely! Just kicked a rather generic porter and can't wait to start carbing a bourbon barrel porter as a replacement- it's been conditioning for several months and I'm hoping it is going to be incredible.
cI'm USUALLY psyched to kick a keg, because that means the next one in the pipeline is going in to carb. I keep 5 kegs in a keezer....with just three perlicks. So I've got three on tap, one carbing....and one "secret" keg on a picnic tap (sometimes, other times it is just carbing). Sometimes I love that secret keg so much that I just can't bare to see it go.

iaefebs said:

And your thought was ......this was a good thing to hear from the wife?

Click to expand...

The fact that she was able to pull the empty out of the fridge, swap out the beer lines onto the new keg of kolsch, and bring up a pitcher each of both for us to drink the rest of the night, I'd say I was pretty happy.

hillhousesawdustco said:

Sometimes I love that secret keg so much that I just can't bare to see it go.

Click to expand...

Ha! I think everyone needs a secret keg on picnic tap! I def have one all the time when I can (usually its just the next beer carbing to be ready to be connected to the tower taps-I don't mind low carbonation taste tests)!