Finally Kegged After 10 Years

I've been brewing for 10 years, but change has come slowly for me.

My first 3 years I did nothing but extracts and partial mashes... I wanted to try going AG, but was timid to start. I think it has something to do with being a visual learner. Watching, I learn quickly. Reading or listening, not so much. I had no one to watch, so I waited until DIY videos started showing up online. Now I only brew AG, and I'm pretty comfortable with the process.

Three years ago I found a CO2 tank and three ball lock corny kegs at a garage sale for $60, so I bought them. They sat and they sat and they sat until I finally destroyed the kegs by filling with sanitizing solution and left them for a week... during the coldest snap of the year. They froze and it split the tops, believe it or not.

Well last week I bought a used corny at my LHBS, watched a video or two, and kegged for the very time. It's an Irish Red I brewed a few weeks ago and it's been in secondary for 10 days. I cleaned and sanitized, racked the beer, purged with CO2 and topped with 10lbs, cooled the keg to 38, and cranked up the pressure to 25lbs... then it sat for about 36 hours. I lowered the pressure to 10psi, relieved the excess pressure, and let it sit for another 3 days. At first, the carbonation was a little light, so I only drank one. The next day was better, so I drank two more. Today it's been 5 days, and it's good. Really good. I'm three deep so far and will likely have more.

This appears to have caused a few new problems.

- I appear to be drinking more now than when I bottled. I may need to find a way to meter my drinking better than this.

- I just ordered a small freezer online. $131 AR for a 7.1 cubic foot model. A keezer is in my future.

- I've been telling myself I need to brew a LOT more as I'll go through beer too fast at this rate. I was already brewing 50-60 gallons a year.

Friends told me I would never go back after kegging. I may still bottle (I like the ease of transporting and gifting beer in bottles) but I will *definitely* be kegging from now on, too.

This hobby just got a little more expensive, i think.

all I can say is, CHEERS!

Yeah it is really easy to pour the extra pint. My self-delusion is to pour myself a half or quarter mug, and end up doing that four or five times. Hey! This keg is going fast!

We have a kegerator with six on tap. I do have some self control, I do have some self control, I do have some self control. I do have some self control, I do have some self control, I do have some self control. We never bottled but do gift by filling bottles from the keg.

Just curious, what freezer did you find for $131?

I am in the same boat. An extract/pm brewer for 10 years during grad school and the first few years of my job. Just got a keg setup in June and just brewed my first AG batch last week. This hobby is awesome! Now I just need a reliable fermentation chamber [eyes mini fridge] ………… kegging was the spark that has led me to step it up a bit and start brewing more often! Thinking about 10gal batches.

Congrats!

Drink up! Never look back!

Kegging has its own demons, but to be able to take a session beer from grain to glass inside of 2 weeks or less is unbeatable (proper pitch, o2, diacetyl rest etc).

And then keg hopping! Your hoppy beers just got better too. My .02 anyway

^freaking totally agree about keg hopping. Just scored a 44 w/my last keg hopped IPA.

dnye said:

Just curious, what freezer did you find for $131?

Click to expand...

It was the Kenmore White 7.1 cf model. It was $181 out the door (no tax in Oregon) and the State offers a $50 cash rebate on this one (18702, I think) for being an energy efficient model. :rockin:

Update on my first kegging experience:
After a week, my beer was coming out as pure foam. I spent a couple weeks dorking around with the pressure, down to 6, up to 12, back down again to 9. tweaking around there by a pound at a time. At times it got better, but either it was foam, or improperly carbonated (too low). Finally, I found a beer line length calculator linked on a thread here on this site and determined I needed longer lines. My LHBS folks said that shouldn't be the case (they also originally sold me the 4 ft. line I was using) and suggested I try all the previously mentioned psi tweaks. Today I spliced together two lines and made a single 11' line. At 10psi, it pours slowly and foam-free! It leaves all the carbonation in the beer, tops my glass with a 3/4" head and takes about 15 secs for a pint. Yeah, baby! I'm back to loving my kegged beer!