Rootbeer in keg

I'm just getting into kegging and getting my kit in the next few days. I don't even have any beer fermenting at the moment, so it'll be several weeks before I can keg my first batch. I was thinking about doing some homemade rootbeer in the keg for the kids in the meantime, but wondering if I need to be concerned about "dirtying up" what eventually will be my beer keg? I've read comments about people having to replace orings, etc..to get out the soda smell from old kegs. Will I need to be concerned about that? Or assuming I give it a good cleaning after it's use is there any concern about using what will be my beer keg for rootbeer?

Also, is the concepts of "force carbing" and "set and forget" apply to rootbeer as well?

Give it a nice long soak in oxyclean and replace everything that comes in contact with the root beer. All the connectors, lines, o rings, etc.

I had the exact same thought when I got my setup and i cleaned the keg really really well, but didnt replace the o rings, lines, or quick connects, and had a terrible birch beer flavor in my porter

Rootbeer is like pickle, you'll never clean it out of the plastic/rubber.

Don't know how old your kids are, but if they are at the easily amused stage, do this:

Get a 7-10 lb bag of ice
Mix the sugar, extract and some water.
Add ice, mix and more water to the keg
Put the lid on
Connect to CO2 at 40 psi
Lay the keg across a 2x2, so the kids can rock it back and forth.
When the regulator stops squeaking, serve.

You'll need about 20' of 3/16ths.

With 20 plus cornies I actually have 2 dedicated soda kegs.

With that I also keep dedicated tubing and a cobra tap.

This way I don't have to worry about changing out tubing or o-rings once they smell like root beer.

Too easy...:rockin:

Good point 99, cornies are cheap. I have a dedicated blackberry cider keg and two dedicated to soda water (one online, one carbonating).

david_42 said:

Good point 99, cornies are cheap. I have a dedicated blackberry cider keg and two dedicated to soda water (one online, one carbonating).

Click to expand...

How about a copy of the blackberry cider recipe? Sounds good about now.

I'm drinking one of my Lemonade Meads right now...11.4%ABV...I need to critique it for a HBT member on another thread...

I like making the simple extract root beer with my greatgrand kids, aged 9, 8, and 7. They think they're doing something soooo cool. It's the first thing they ask for when they come over. It's a hoot.

I let them do just about all the work and they get to name it. The last one was called "Libby's Root Beer and Matt's 3 Shakes". Libby is the sole greatgranddaughter. Apparently, Matt didn't want to rock the keg at carbonation time, but got some kind of Honorable Mention.

Those two are great together. Matt is a year younger, but when they went to school he told the teacher that he and Libby were twins so the teacher put him up one grade. She found out about 2 weeks later and they put him back in his real grade. HA HA!!! Kids...