holes in my kegs

So I used to be really into beer back in college . .. then that tapered down to being an occasional/casual drinker. I swear I had six packs that had been sitting in my fridge for over a year. Then in November we finished a basement remodel, which included a kegerator and dual faucet corny setup. First keg - dry in 8 days. Second and third - 2 weeks each. And I'm drinking these mostly by myself. I finally brewed my own right after Christmas. It was ready to drink on January 17 or so. Dry by Feb 1st! Sheesh.

Except for a few late night basement painting sessions where I got hammered while painting (which went surprisingly well) and a little new years party we hosted, I really haven't gotten drunk. So where does it all go? I barely go through bottled beer in between kegs. I swear I must drink 10 times as much drinking draught beer than bottled beer and not realize it.

That's the dark side of kegs I guess - not only do they make storing beer so much easier than bottles, they make drinking it so much easier, too. On Sunday the 1st, I remember thinking to myself "good thing I have like 3.5 gallons left in my corney" just as it went dry. Unbelievable.

That or there are holes in the bottoms of all of my kegs!

Same think happen to me with my first witbier i made. I swore I had half a keg left. Then I come home an nothing. My keezer is on outside back patio. I swear my neighbors kid must have been stealing some..

It's definitely the holes. But, they aren't at the bottom.

They are labelled gas-in and gas-out.

I find it so much easier to put back a few pints when I don't have to watch a dwindling supply of bottles. On top of that, if I don't have to go to the store for every 6/12 pack it's just that much easier. All of that combined with delicious homebrew is a recipe for me to drink more than I did before home brewing took over. On the upside, I'm getting more Vitamin B in my diet and saving the planet by not using bottles!

I thought the same thing with my kegs, and then did the math. 40 pints in a corny keg and average 3 pints a night, gone in under two weeks.

No matter how I add it up, the math still sucks.

It really goes fast for noobs like me, trying to figure out carbonation levels, line length, proper temp, psi. A little here a little there..poof its gone.

TwoHeadsBrewing said:

I find it so much easier to put back a few pints when I don't have to watch a dwindling supply of bottles.

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This is the kicker for me as well. I finished my first two kegs in 2 weeks each. No bottles to count, poof it's gone. FWIW they were very low abv's though. I'm about to keg 10 gallons in about a week or two in the mid to high 5% range. Maybe those will last longer.

MSUConrad said:

I thought the same thing with my kegs, and then did the math. 40 pints in a corny keg and average 3 pints a night, gone in under two weeks.

No matter how I add it up, the math still sucks.

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Then factor in the fact that I like to drink from 19 oz or 22 oz pilsner glasses and the math just gets worse and worse.

TwoHeadsBrewing said:

I find it so much easier to put back a few pints when I don't have to watch a dwindling supply of bottles. On top of that, if I don't have to go to the store for every 6/12 pack it's just that much easier. All of that combined with delicious homebrew is a recipe for me to drink more than I did before home brewing took over. On the upside, I'm getting more Vitamin B in my diet and saving the planet by not using bottles!

Click to expand...

Same here. I used to get a case or 2 on the weekends and have a few left over, I'd pace myself during the week from how many I had left over. Now with the keg it's an easy 2-3 a night unless I have friends over or I'm working on something in the basement then it's more..

I think the solution is just to brew more so the pipe line is always full.. yeah.. seems like a plan..

My kegerator is in the basement where my dog sleeps. I figured Wiggles developed a taste for beer. She is old and blind so if she wants to be drunk I figure I will let her.

But now I have to look at my kegs for holes.

With Party Kitty kegs go way too fast.

Glad to read it's not just me. I have discovered that all tasks associated with my new CO2 setup turn out so much better if I can sample while I work. I've been using a picnic tap on my new setup because it's been way to cold here in Michigan to cut into my garage fridge/venison meat locker to make it into a kegerator. Supposed to get above freezing this weekend though. Tools, tap parts and brew ready for the task.

Ironically for me, there's also a direct correlation between my kegging activity and my pants shrinking.

I noticed the pants thing too. Often times if I've left a pair of pants in the closet for 6+ months they seem to have shrunk, must be a humidity thing.

Okay so the night after I posted my previous post I went home and my x stout was empty. I figured that i drank the 2 gallons (or so) of beer over the week and gave it no more thought.

but it turns out i actually had a hole. well actually a leak in the faucet.