Keg noob

[Onetime]

I have 3 brews under my belt and want to go to Kegging.
1st: i need good advice on a Frig conversion kit ( i want two taps) how big of a co2 bottle? Brands, types.

Ball valve vs. pin lock ( im thinking of going with ball valve)

Or any other advice about kegging is welcome.

Thanks


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[surffisher2a]

The size of the CO2 bottle doesn't really matter. pick one that will fit in the space you plan on putting it. The smaller bottle will just have to be filled more often than a big one.

I personally like the ball lock style kegs because they have an pressure relief on them. You just got to be careful not to mix up the gas and liquid connections.

As for brands, pretty much they are all the same for the inside parts. The only brand specific item I would suggest is getting Perlick Faucets.

Start with long 15 ft 3/16" beer lines and trim them down as needed till you get your required flow rate. If you use too short of hose you will get a lot of foam. You can search this site for balancing a kegorator and get a more precise calculation, but its usually easier to just start at a safe number like 15 ft since there are other variables in play. You will more than likely end up around 10 ft or so.

 

[Pie_Man]

Check out how you are going to fill your CO2 tank. Some places actually fill the tank while other places like Airgas and Praxair exchange tanks. With that said, if you are going to exchange tanks, try to find a cheap, used, tank on craigslist since it is only going to be exchanged anyway.

It sounds like you want to use a top-freezer fridge and drill two holes through the door of the fridge. You can buy or kit, or simply buy the pieces individually. You need a primary regulator which supplies gas to a splitter, manifold, or secondary regulator in order to split the gas line to each keg, then a shank which goes through the door, a faucet (commonly called a tap), and flanges. Plus your kegs and quick disconnects. Beverage factory has two tap kits for home brew setups and usually pretty good prices.

 

[k_mcarthur]

It seems to me that pin locks are cheaper and easier to find. If I didn't already have ball locks I would switch. Also my advice is to do set it and forget it method of carbing instead of shaking or setting at higher pressure for a day. I got much better results once I stopped being in such a hurry to drink.

 

[DrunkleJon]

If you are going for a 2 tap keg fridge and have room I would suggest upgrading to a 3 way rather than 2 way manifold and a spare keg. This way you can carbonate up a keg at the set and forget method while still dispensing the other two. It is really helpful to have that spare gas line.

I will second going for 10-12 foot 3/16 id lines.
If you are doing CO2 swaps, go cheap, and i have found by experience that 5, 10 and 20#ers are easily traded, where a 15# does not trade as well (jerks). On the other hand a 5# will last you a while

If you are using the CO2 only to dispense the beer, not to carbonate it, you may get as many as thirty 5 gallon Cornelius kegs out of one 5 lb. CO2 cylinder.
However, most homebrewers are also using CO2 to force carbonate their brew, so this brings it down to around ten 5 gallon Cornelius kegs out of one 5 lb. CO2 cylinder.

As for Ball/Pinlock, it is all preference. You could even mix them. Pin-locks are shorter and wider. The gas and beer disconnects are impossible to confuse, not to mention tend to be cheaper. Often you will find pinlocks that have been converted to ball lock.