Considering making the jump to Kegging....

I am contemplating making the switch to kegging. I always see chest freezers on Craigslist for really cheap. My buddy has a 10lb co2 tank and regulator that I'm sure I could steal from him. I know a guy that would sell me a bunch of 3 gallon cornies for a decent (or better than decent) price.

Would it work with 3 gallon cornies? I figure a 5 gallon batch, split it between two cornies. I would have to switch out cornies a little more often, but would it work? Are all the fittings the same?

Plus it would be convenient to have them all in 3 gallon cornies conditioning in the kegerator. If something came up unexpectedly I could pack one in an ice chest and take it with me to an outing.

Am I overlooking anything here?

I'm new to kegging, so tell me anything I might not be thinking about.

thanks!

Do It....and Do it quickly! it will change your life If there are any more of those 3 gallon corney's at a "decent price" you should let me know

Cheers

The only down side is 3 gal. cornie's are outragously expensive as compaired to 5 gal. cornies. And if you can get them at a good price no down side at all. I would have loved to go with 3 gal. but just could not justify the added expense.

If you can get the 3 gallons cornies cheap, grab them. You can mix 3 & 5's if they are all ball lock or pin lock.

I'm going to make the jump soon as well, but will likely still have to bottle some batches. I'm going to start out small with a Sanyo 4912 conversion and 2 kegs at first, but I brew way more than that so bottling will be an unfortunate necessity.

Here's a questions for all of you that keg. Once I rack from secondary to a keg (regardless of whether or not I force carb or carb with priming sugar), would my brew be ok sitting in a keg at 63-67 degrees for possibly a month or longer until the two that I would have in the Sanyo are kicked? Silly question I know, because there's no way that 2 kegs would every last a month in my house - but I'd like to know the answer just the same.

Eventually I'd get a chest freezer to keep them nice and cool until they're ready to be tapped, but I'm not made of money so I'm going to be easing into kegging a bit.

ohiobrewtus said:

Here's a questions for all of you that keg. Once I rack from secondary to a keg (regardless of whether or not I force carb or carb with priming sugar), would my brew be ok sitting in a keg at 63-67 degrees for possibly a month or longer until the two that I would have in the Sanyo are kicked?

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That's my SOP.

Originally posted by ohiobrewtus
Here's a questions for all of you that keg. Once I rack from secondary to a keg (regardless of whether or not I force carb or carb with priming sugar), would my brew be ok sitting in a keg at 63-67 degrees for possibly a month or longer until the two that I would have in the Sanyo are kicked? Silly question I know, because there's no way that 2 kegs would every last a month in my house - but I'd like to know the answer just the same.

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That shouldn't be a problem ob. Or you can do like I do and just toss all the food in your house to make room for your backup kegs in your kitchen fridge. :rockin:

Brewtopia said:

That shouldn't be a problem ob. Or you can do like I do and just toss all the food in your house to make room for your backup kegs in your kitchen fridge. :rockin:
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I'd have to buy my own fridge for that. I have too many kids to feed to toss out all the food.

Trick is to get all the air out of the kegs once you racked over. Unless your really into clarity, just rack from the primary after two weeks or so. The kegs have a down tube that goes all the way to the bottom of the keg. Once you let the keg sit and the brew to condition for 4 weeks or so, just pour out the first quarter glass of brew, and the rest will be good to go.

ohiobrewtus said:

I'd have to buy my own fridge for that. I have too many kids to feed to toss out all the food.

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Sell the Kids