What to do with my kegerator now that I'm off alcohol

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mortal888

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So I've had to cut back my alcohol consumption for health reasons and I'll no longer be drinking enough beer to warrant the two 5 gallon kegs for my kegerator. I was about to list it when I realized I might have another use for it. My wife drinks Martinelli bottles like water and I don't mind them myself. As far as I can tell, it's just carbonated apple juice.
Could there be any foreseeable problems in using my setup to start carbonating juices? How long would unfermented apple juice last in a keg before going bad? What about say lemonade?

Would there be any difference in kegging methods from beer to juice? Pressures?

Thanks
 
You can do that. It should stay good for a long time, as it will be in a sanitized keg in the fridge.

You can also make soda, seltzer water, carbonated flavored water, etc. Usually, the carbonation is higher in things like soda so I use 30 psi for soda. The only change may be that if you want a highly carbonated drink, you will need longer serving lines. Plan on 1 foot of 3/16" line for every 1 psi on the regulator, and you should be all set.
 
1) Realize the err of your ways and start drinking again...in fact, you should probably double your consumption.
2) Cut it back to one keg of beer, one keg of not beer.
3) Two kegs of not beer.
4) No kegs of anything. Use it for secondary cold storage (Garage, game room, kids dorm, etc.)
5) Sell it.
6) Give it away, but claim a charitable contribution.

....Come to think of it....you can do 1 - 5 and still do the last part of six.

....furthermore, no matter what you do with it I'm going to claim that deduction for myself. Thanks, man! I love this site!
 
For me, when I don't drink alcohol, I am drinking seltzer as try to stay away from soda. So you could do legs of carbonated flavored water.
 
JoeSpartaNJ said:
For me, when I don't drink alcohol, I am drinking seltzer as try to stay away from soda. So you could do legs of carbonated flavored water.
Click to expand...

If you're going to do legs of carbonated flavored water, you should spring for the soda top as well...

Pop_Can_Table_by_CyanideAndCake.jpg
 
mortal888 said:
Wow, a thirty foot line?
Click to expand...

I serve carbonated water on one of my taps occasionally. Instead of going with a 30 foot line, I kept the 10 feet I use for serving beer but I place 2 pieces of the inside of an epoxy mixing nozzle into to the dip tube of the keg. This creates enough resistance to slow down the pour for 30psi serving pressure.

I think these are the ones I bought. The inside comes out easy with a needle nose pliers.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BM3H2YQ/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
 
Last edited by a moderator:
@FloppyKnockers - your antics go unnoticed and/or unappreciated in this thread. But I chuckled!

OP, sad you have to quit drinking. Is there ever a chance of you picking it back up in the future? You could just hang on to it when your health gets back to a suitable level.
 
you could always start making kombucha. it's a good choice for health reasons, too...lots of good gut bugs
 
passedpawn said:
Cheese cave. Cheesemaking is a blast, very similar to brewing, and definitely requires temp control.

If you like cheese, check out our cheese forum here, as well as cheeseforum.com. I'm a regular cheese maker myself.
Click to expand...

This gets my vote as well. There are a lot of parallels between cheese making and brewing. Sanitation, careful temp control, aging, etc.

Much of the brewing equipment can also be used. And don't overlook charcuterie. I was surprised to learn that a lot of my favorite charcuterie products are fermented. Once you have the cheese cave, it's natural to branch out.
 
Thanks for the help guys. I went on vacation to south america and put this off a bit.

I put the apple juice in the first keg and it carbonated fine and is actually a bigger hit with my various guests than the beer was. It is indeed foaming way too much when I pour it though.
I'm going to go with the long serving line method and see how that goes before I go on to lemonade. :) I just need to make sure I can figure out how to connect it up the tap tower. I've never dismantled it before.

Or can I carb it at 30 psi and then lower it to the usual 12-15? Will the carbonation stay strong or will it reduce? For my beer, I had always just put it on 12 and left it there.

Thanks!
 
mortal888 said:
Thanks for the help guys. I went on vacation to south america and put this off a bit.

I put the apple juice in the first keg and it carbonated fine and is actually a bigger hit with my various guests than the beer was. It is indeed foaming way too much when I pour it though.
I'm going to go with the long serving line method and see how that goes before I go on to lemonade. :) I just need to make sure I can figure out how to connect it up the tap tower. I've never dismantled it before.

Or can I carb it at 30 psi and then lower it to the usual 12-15? Will the carbonation stay strong or will it reduce? For my beer, I had always just put it on 12 and left it there.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
I carb and serve soda on a 5 ft line without too much trouble. The flavors I make that use fruit juice tend to come out with a heavy amount of foam due to pulp and high sugar content no matter what I do. Carbonated water or sodas sweetened with splenda or stevia tend to pour better.

You can carb to 30psi, then turn down to 10 or so to serve, but if you don't purge, it takes a while for the pressure to come down enough to slow the flow. Sometimes when I'm bottling something from a keg, I'll just turn the gas off and the foam gets better as I bottle, then I give it short bursts when it gets too slow.

If you do turn down during serving, make sure you turn it back up for storage purposes so it doesn't get flat over time.
 
MrFoodScientist said:
I carb and serve soda on a 5 ft line without too much trouble. The flavors I make that use fruit juice tend to come out with a heavy amount of foam due to pulp and high sugar content no matter what I do. Carbonated water or sodas sweetened with splenda or stevia tend to pour better.

You can carb to 30psi, then turn down to 10 or so to serve, but if you don't purge, it takes a while for the pressure to come down enough to slow the flow. Sometimes when I'm bottling something from a keg, I'll just turn the gas off and the foam gets better as I bottle, then I give it short bursts when it gets too slow.

If you do turn down during serving, make sure you turn it back up for storage purposes so it doesn't get flat over time.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a pain. Why not just use the epoxy stir sticks in your soda kegs and serve at 30psi? Works great for me.
 

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