Need advice on kegging setup

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

ChuckS1

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 23, 2014
Messages
100
Reaction score
38
I need some advice on how to design my keezer setup. What I want is to have three kegs on tap and one carbonating. One of the kegs will have a Belgian or hefeweizen and the other two with IPA and pale ale. I'd also like to be able to carb a fourth keg while serving the other three. What's the best way to do this? From what I've read, it seems like I need a dual body regulator and some other hardware. Or, do I need a dual gauge regulator and a 3 way secondary regulator? Or, do I need something else in a different configuration? What size CO2 tank would I need for this? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
 
Doing the math, the minimalist solution would be a dual-body/three-gauge primary regulator set and a 1:3 manifold.
You'd run the more sprightly brew like your hefe on one regulator, the other regulator would have the manifold that would feed the other two kegs on tap plus the carbonating keg.

There'd obviously be some limitations - you wouldn't be able to serve two hefes at the same time, and the fourth keg would carb up at the typical ale level (say, 2.5 volumes) as the second and third kegs being dispensed. But that doesn't seem too onerous for someone just starting out.

[edit] As for a CO2 tank, go with at least a 5 pounder, or up to a 20 if you have the space. The larger the cylinder the cheaper the CO2 cost per volume.

But unless you can positively identify a refill site with competitive prices, do not buy a fancy new cylinder, as you'll be waving Good Bye to it the first time you need a refill (or worse - the first fill! :eek:) Either pick up a used cylinder or get one from some place like AirGas...

Cheers!
 
If you want to get real fancy, you can string multiple "bodies" together on a regulator called "add a body". I bought my gear from Keg Connection and they can help you do this albeit an expensive solution. The good point is you'll have four pressures available. As nice as this sounds, I've never felt a need to have this available.

I run three kegs at a time, and I have a dual body regulator with a wye valve splitter off one of the bodies. Basically I can run one keg at a specialty pressure, but the other two kegs must be the same psi. If I was running four kegs, like Day Trippr said, you'll need to go with a manifold. Or with a dual body and both bodies have a wye valve splitter, you can run two kegs off one and the other two off the second body.

If you have room, a 20# cyl is your best bet running all those kegs. I picked one up on Craigs List at a good price. It looked rough but so what.....AirGas trades them in and I never would ever buy a new one for that reason.
 
This should give you what you want:

Primary Double Gauge CO2 Gas Beer Regulator

Four Product Secondary Co2 Regulator

This would give you four different serving pressures.

This is exactly what I have on mine. I only have 2 taps right now (until I get some more money to invest) and It works great. You can dispense your 3 kegs, each at a different serving pressure and use the 4th for carbing to any pressure. I typically use a carbing body to quick carb so I dial it up to 30 for a few days, flip the valve closed, bleed it, set to actual serving pressure and then open the valve again and let it sit for like 5 days or so. then I can swap out kegs as needed. Plus gives you the ability to scale up to 4 taps if you want.
 
Dual-gauge regulator (which actually has 3 gauges) and a 1:3 manifold. Note that the higher-pressure output has to be the one closer to the tank; i.e., the 1:3 manifold has to be attached to the regulator body furthest from the tank.
 
Dual-gauge regulator (which actually has 3 gauges) and a 1:3 manifold. Note that the higher-pressure output has to be the one closer to the tank; i.e., the 1:3 manifold has to be attached to the regulator body furthest from the tank.

No, it doesn't. Both primary regulators receive tank pressure - they are not daisy-chained from output to input...

Cheers!
 
No, it doesn't. Both primary regulators receive tank pressure - they are not daisy-chained from output to input...

I'm sure I read that somewhere, but I can't seem to find it online now. Taprite's website is terrible and doesn't seem to offer any PDF instructions. I might have read it on the sheet that came with my regulator, but I have no idea where that has disappeared to. But I distinctly remember being told that the higher-pressure setting needs to be on the gauge closer to the tank. Can anyone cite anything authoritative confirming or disproving this notion?
 
This is exactly what I have on mine. I only have 2 taps right now (until I get some more money to invest) and It works great. You can dispense your 3 kegs, each at a different serving pressure and use the 4th for carbing to any pressure. I typically use a carbing body to quick carb so I dial it up to 30 for a few days, flip the valve closed, bleed it, set to actual serving pressure and then open the valve again and let it sit for like 5 days or so. then I can swap out kegs as needed. Plus gives you the ability to scale up to 4 taps if you want.

I had the same question a few weeks ago as I'll have 4 kegs. This is the setup that gave me what I want, so I just ordered it. I'll be using all 4 secondary regulators to run kegs, and have a shut off valve on the end (would be the 5th secondary regulator) that will be at what ever primary pressure I have set. This will be used for force carbing.
 
But I distinctly remember being told that the higher-pressure setting needs to be on the gauge closer to the tank. Can anyone cite anything authoritative confirming or disproving this notion?

You can see this on your own regulator - assuming you meant you have a dual-body primary. The far left gauge is the high pressure gauge which sees the tank pressure, showing that high pressure CO2 flows straight through both bodies. I don't know about taprite instructions but Micromatic has a warning about this - that the left hand port is a high pressure port. If you don't believe all that play around with adjusting pressures, you'll that you can achieve a higher pressure on the left hand body than you have set on the right hand body.
 
I need some advice on how to design my keezer setup. What I want is to have three kegs on tap and one carbonating. One of the kegs will have a Belgian or hefeweizen and the other two with IPA and pale ale. I'd also like to be able to carb a fourth keg while serving the other three. What's the best way to do this? From what I've read, it seems like I need a dual body regulator and some other hardware. Or, do I need a dual gauge regulator and a 3 way secondary regulator? Or, do I need something else in a different configuration? What size CO2 tank would I need for this? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

part of the question is how you would like to carb and how often you serve, and whether it's crucial for your hefe or other beers to be at different pressure /carbonation from other beers.

You could get away with a single regulator, feeding all 4 kegs, if you want to carb it at serving pressure and use the same pressure on all 4. Alternatively, you could disconnect other three kegs (or close the valves) and force carb at say 30 psi for 24 hours and then lower to serving pressure, say 8 psi, and open all valves for other kegs. Its only a little more hassle.

The sweet spot in my opinion is to have two different regulators (primary and secondary), providing you with two different pressures. You can force-carb using higher pressure while serving others, and then use the higher pressure for your hefe or other beers that may need higher pressure.

I have two secondary and primary in my own setup, allowing me to adjust my 10 lines to 3 different pressures. But for the most part, my secondaries spend almost all the time dialed to the same serving pressure. The split line from the primary is used for force-carbonation (especially useful for filling small PET bottles and force-carbing them with carbo-caps), for purging kegs, and as CO2 line for my beer gun. I think I would do just as fine with primary and a single secondary split to two 4x manifolds or something like that.
 
This is exactly what I have on mine. I only have 2 taps right now (until I get some more money to invest) and It works great. You can dispense your 3 kegs, each at a different serving pressure and use the 4th for carbing to any pressure. I typically use a carbing body to quick carb so I dial it up to 30 for a few days, flip the valve closed, bleed it, set to actual serving pressure and then open the valve again and let it sit for like 5 days or so. then I can swap out kegs as needed. Plus gives you the ability to scale up to 4 taps if you want.

Those Taprites are just exactly what I have, too. Though my primary has a wye (so I have a line at 30psi for purging and such) with check valves, and I got the 4-way secondary with check valves.

Running that just as the OP is asking about, serving three 5gal cornys from three taps, and carbing a fourth. All four 5gals on the floor, plus a 10# CO2 tank and a 2.5gal keg on the hump, in a 7.1 cuft GE chest freezer with a 3.5" collar.
 
I had the same question a few weeks ago as I'll have 4 kegs. This is the setup that gave me what I want, so I just ordered it. I'll be using all 4 secondary regulators to run kegs, and have a shut off valve on the end (would be the 5th secondary regulator) that will be at what ever primary pressure I have set. This will be used for force carbing.

This is exactly what I'm running. Works great for my needs and is expandable. One of the regulators is split before going into the fridge to give me my auxiliary gas line for purging and transfers. Check/shutoff valves after each regulator.

View attachment 1464795782049.jpg
 
Be sure to check the threads on primary and secondary regs,Some are left hand some right.Going from memory the tapright is opposite threads.Meaning it wont screw in your basic lefty loosy regulator.I bought a keg connection reg and screwed it into the high side of my primary.They told me It wont be affected if I force carb the primary at 30 psi.It does.If I crank up the primary the keg connection reg goes up by itself and needs to be adjusted...wasn't to happy about that
 
Be sure to check the threads on primary and secondary regs,Some are left hand some right.Going from memory the tapright is opposite threads.Meaning it wont screw in your basic lefty loosy regulator.I bought a keg connection reg and screwed it into the high side of my primary.They told me It wont be affected if I force carb the primary at 30 psi.It does.If I crank up the primary the keg connection reg goes up by itself and needs to be adjusted...wasn't to happy about that

You are correct, the taprite threads that link the regulators are backwards (lefty-tighty). Sounds like that keg connection regulator is not a pass through like the taprites. I had the same issue when I was trying to set up a manifold the cheap way. Never could get it right so I ordered the 4 regulator taprite setup already built and haven't had an issue yet.
 
You are correct, the taprite threads that link the regulators are backwards (lefty-tighty). Sounds like that keg connection regulator is not a pass through like the taprites. I had the same issue when I was trying to set up a manifold the cheap way. Never could get it right so I ordered the 4 regulator taprite setup already built and haven't had an issue yet.
Its not an add on reg.Its a 2 gauge regulator all in itself.Which is why I think there may be an issue with it,If its meant to be a primary regulator then why would adding it to the high side of an existing regulator be affected by the other regs pressure unless theres a slight leak in the internal diaphragm??
 
Its not an add on reg.Its a 2 gauge regulator all in itself.Which is why I think there may be an issue with it,If its meant to be a primary regulator then why would adding it to the high side of an existing regulator be affected by the other regs pressure unless theres a slight leak in the internal diaphragm??

Sounds like it could be a leaking diaphragm. Did you just take the tank gauge (high pressure) off one and add the second one to that port? I tried something similar to that on my spare carbonating tank/regulator and mine kept leaking out of the weep hole, so I went back to a single regulator and splitter since it's just for carbonating "on-deck" kegs.
 
Back
Top