Early Stages of Learning to Keg

Been watching videos the last few nights picking up the basics. For the most part I understand what's going on. One thing hasn't been answered clearly. Do you have to have CO2 hooked up the keg "the entire time" in order draft beer from the line out? Or can you just hook it up for a few days, let it carb and the keg is good to go to be unhooked from it?

Would like to eventually build my own kegerator but that's a ways off. Every video looks like they have multiple cylinders of CO2 running.

A carbed keg can serve some beer before the headspace pressure drops to where it can't push beer. How much depends on the pressure and the amount of headspace. Then when the keg rebalances headspace pressure will return (albeit at a slightly lower level). Serving only this way will eventually result in flat beer.

The standard way is to carb to whatever you want then maintain at some serving pressure, i.e., 10-12 psi perhaps.

If you disconnect a carbed keg, it will maintain that carbonation similarly to how it works in a bottle. That CO2 isn't going anywhere.

Someone who has multiple cylinders of CO2 running is using it for either different serving pressures or using one to force carbonate a keg or two while the other is used to maintain serving pressure on the other kegs.


You can accomplish the same thing with a single tank of CO2 using either a regulator w/ multiple gauges and outputs and/or directing to a distribution manifold. Or one tank sent to a distribution manifold w/ secondary regulators. Just so you can't say all the pics and videos you've seen show more than one CO2 tank, here's mine:

Ah okay, that makes sense. Will the CO2 cylinders be fine sitting in a fridge along with the keg? Might invest in the equipment around the holiday season but converting a chest freezer to a kegerator is a ways off, like I said.

MyCarHasAbs said:

Ah okay, that makes sense. Will the CO2 cylinders be fine sitting in a fridge along with the keg? Might invest in the equipment around the holiday season but converting a chest freezer to a kegerator is a ways off, like I said.

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They will be fine that way. That's how mine was originally but I wanted the space for a keg, and I like seeing the gauges without having to open the lid to the keezer.

Here's another showing a different setup I use, depending on circumstances. Served using a picnic tap. No problem w/ the CO2 cylinder in the fridge, though the gauge showing how much CO2 is left will read lower. BTW, the black wire is the temperature probe from an Inkbird controller:



Pics showing the rest of the keezer:

Looks good! Me thinks I know what I'm doing for xmas How much PSI do you start out with for FC and what do you drop it down to for the days after you start drafting beer?

All depends on what carb level you want, and the temp you're at. There's a million carbonation charts out there. Here's one:
http://www.kegerators.com/carbonation-table.php

Basically the easiest way to go about it is to throw the keg in your fridge at the temp you plan on serving it at (normally 36-40F), then use that chart to find the PSI level. Find the temp on the left, then run across the row until you're at the CO2 level you want, and use the PSI number at the top. Hook up CO2 at that pressure and leave it for at least a week. Rock the keg occasionally to speed things up if you wish. If you're sticking in that temp range and normal CO2 levels you'll find you're at the 10-12PSI pressure anyway and shouldn't have to adjust down for serving.


There are other ways to force carb faster, like leaving it at ~30psi for a short term, but I've never personally used those methods. It's always been easier for me to just let the kegs sit for a week.

wow, very cool! And leaving it the cylinder on the whole time (weeks/couple months) at 10-12 psi won't bleed/waste co2? I only drink on the weekends so in theory I would imagine you could shut it off during the week and turn it on a day or two prior to serving again for the weekend. Would that assessment be accurate?

As said above, you can successfully carb a beer in a keg, disconnect the gas line and the beer remains just fine inside the keg provided all is sealed correctly. Beers coming from commercial breweries are examples since they are shipped and distributed with no gas line attached.

BUT, carbonating a beer and pushing the beer thru your lines are different things. The beer may be nicely carbed in the keg, but w/o CO2 pressure pushing the beer, there will be little or no flow.

Spray a bit of Starsan around your seals, posts and disconnects. Look for small bubbles and if you see none, you are golden. It is not a waste of gas to leave it hooked up provided there are no leaks, so checking as discussed is very important. Always use "keg lube" on all O rings and check and double check all your fittings on a regular basis. No leaks....no gas loss....no waste, then you can leave it hooked up.

Yup, That. Leaving it on all the time is perfectly fine, as long as you have no leaks. And if you have leaks, you'll want to fix them. Not common to have though. I've not had as single one yet. But I did take the time to check all my parts when assembling.

All sounds good! I'll be bookmarking this thread for reference in the coming months.

Thanks dudes!

Forgot to mention when you run a CO2 tank externally vs internally as mongoose33 provided a picture example of both. mongoose33 mentions this and to elaborate...

Lets say your tank's gauge at room temp reads 1,000 psi and is in the green band. Put that same tank in a cooler at 35F, and the next morning the gauge reads 500 psi and is in the red zone. Holy Cow....my tank is leaking!

Not the case. Under refrigeration the volume of gas in the tank is the same but the cold environment makes the gas condense. You still have a full tank although your gauge throws you a curve ball.

MyCarHasAbs said:

Looks good! Me thinks I know what I'm doing for xmas How much PSI do you start out with for FC and what do you drop it down to for the days after you start drafting beer?

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I take the lazy way out. 10-12psi let it sit till im happy with how carbonated it is... drink the piss out of it.

Totally keep mine inside too.

Smallest multi keg options?

frankdontsurf said:

Smallest multi keg options?

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I assume you're asking about how to provide CO2 to multiple kegs?

Smallest/cheapest is go buy a Y splitter like this one
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DIWYAKS/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Make sure you put a valve on each output (example link)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DIX5CRW/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20


This will let you split one regulator to two kegs. They will have the same pressure and no way to change that. If you want multiple kegs at different pressures you will need to buy a multiple regulator setup.

What I do to force-carb is I have my beer crashed down to about 32 degrees before I transfer it to the keg. Then I put it on the gas for 24 hours at 30 psi. Then it goes in the keezer at 10-12psi. I tend toward the 10psi level as I prefer beer that isn't as heavily carbonated.

I often use the refrigerator in the pics above for force-carbing. And yes, I have more than one tank. And regulator.

BTW, there's a way to force-carb in a keezer if you have only one regulator, such as in my keezer's setup. All you have to do is this: Turn up the regulator to 30psi; disconnect or turn off all except the keg you want to force carb, and let it go for 24 hours. Then turn down the pressure to serving pressure, reconnect or turn on the other kegs, and you're good to go.

I'm doing that tonite, in fact. I have a beer that's crashed and fined in my fridge. Ready to keg. I'll keg it tonite, then put in my keezer, connect gas to it, turn off or disconnect the other kegs, turn up the gas, and wait 24 hours.

Whatever residual pressure exists in the disconnected kegs will let me pull a beer or two if I need to. But that's also why some of my kegged beer is bottled.

[BTW, don't know if you've made this connection, but one big reason I went to kegged beer is so I could bottle beer w/o the time spent conditioning and carbing in the bottle. I also don't like that layer of yeast in the bottom of the bottle. Dispense carbed beer into a bottle, cap it, and voila! Easy peasy.]

Morrey said:

Not the case. Under refrigeration the volume of gas in the tank is the same but the cold environment makes the gas condense. You still have a full tank although your gauge throws you a curve ball.

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Kinda like how tire pressure drops in the winter?

mongoose33 said:

[BTW, don't know if you've made this connection, but one big reason I went to kegged beer is so I could bottle beer w/o the time spent conditioning and carbing in the bottle. I also don't like that layer of yeast in the bottom of the bottle. Dispense carbed beer into a bottle, cap it, and voila! Easy peasy.]

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So you're actually FC'ing and THEN bottling?! I guessed that would explode in the bottle. My suspicion from that is most growlers don't have the same level of "seal power" as capping a bottle. Therefore, you can get away with it and not worry about the container exploding.

MyCarHasAbs said:

So you're actually FC'ing and THEN bottling?! I guessed that would explode in the bottle. My suspicion from that is most growlers don't have the same level of "seal power" as capping a bottle. Therefore, you can get away with it and not worry about the container exploding.

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No risk, unless you've carbed to crazy crazy levels. You're simply force carbing to the same levels you'd let it get to naturally, but skipping the waiting. In fact just about all production beer is done this way, they force carb in a brite tank, then fill and cap.

Oh wow, I figured it was all bottle conditioned. I had the chance to work in a brewery not too long ago but it wasn't going to work with my full time schedule. I partially regret not making it work. Point is, I would have learned all this within a couple weeks if not days.

ive totally bottled off my keg. #2 stopper + bottling wand jam the bottling wand into the end of a cobra picnic tap.

Cut pressure to keg, quick burp to bleed a tad of pressure. biermuncher bottle filler ACTIVATE.

works perfectly, but takes some practice.

I havnt figured out a constant pressure yet that works so I dont have to do the bleed pressure thingy.

cegan09 said:

No risk, unless you've carbed to crazy crazy levels. You're simply force carbing to the same levels you'd let it get to naturally, but skipping the waiting. In fact just about all production beer is done this way, they force carb in a brite tank, then fill and cap.

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Consider your keg a small, 5 gallon brite tank. Some use a beer gun to fill bottles from keg with fully carbed beer while others skip the bottling and drink straight from their mini-brite tank/keg.

MyCarHasAbs said:

So you're actually FC'ing and THEN bottling?! I guessed that would explode in the bottle. My suspicion from that is most growlers don't have the same level of "seal power" as capping a bottle. Therefore, you can get away with it and not worry about the container exploding.

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Here's what happens: when you force carb, the headspace of the keg is at whatever pressure you use (in my case 30psi). The beer itself will absorb that pressure slowly. If you left the keg at 30psi for, say, a week or more, THEN the beer would be carbed to 30psi, which would be....problematic. It takes time for the CO2 to dissolve into the beer.

But I'm only force carbing it long enough to get the BEER (not the headspace, the beer) to about 10-12psi. That's why I stop after 24 hours. Sometimes it's a bit shy of where I want it, and if so I'll either leave it at serving pressure until it catches up--so I don't have to remember to take it off 30psi --or if I'm in a hurry, give it another 4 hours at 30psi.

The beer ends up at 10-12psi, which is where I want it--and which will bottle just fine.

There's a chart somewhere showing how long it takes to carb up at varying pressures and temperatures. It's a function of pressure, temperature of the beer, and surface area of the beer exposed to the gas.

I'm kind of smiling here because I remember having exactly these kinds of questions.

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BTW, just to help further the understanding: you can force carb in a heckuva hurry if you attach the keg to the gas, and then rock it back and forth on your lap. Sloshing the beer inside the keg greatly increases its surface area between the headspace plus CO2 bubbles. You can actually hear the regulator groan as it keeps supplying gas, and can hear the gas bubbling from the IN dip tube. Someday I'll try to quantify just how fast and how much to do this, but for now, 30psi for 24 hours is about right for me.

cegan09 said:

All depends on what carb level you want, and the temp you're at. There's a million carbonation charts out there. Here's one:
http://www.kegerators.com/carbonation-table.php

There are other ways to force carb faster, like leaving it at ~30psi for a short term, but I've never personally used those methods. It's always been easier for me to just let the kegs sit for a week.

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That's the chart I have duct taped to the top of my Keezer. Of course I have NEVER even looked at it. I set the serving regulator to 12 PSI and leave it alone. I have 2 serving kegs and one "on deck" carbing, so I can usually let a keg sit for 30 days or more before I start drawing from it. If the carb level Is too low after 30 days, I could bump it up a couple pounds. remember also, as the keg is drawin down and head space increases, more co2 will be pushed into the beer. I have found head increasing in the glass as the keg level drops.

william_shakes_beer said:

[...]remember also, as the keg is drawin down and head space increases, more co2 will be pushed into the beer. I have found head increasing in the glass as the keg level drops.

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The rate of carbonation does not change with dropping level because the surface area of the beer/gas interface is unchanging.

You are simply seeing the result of time...

Cheers!