Kegging for the first time

[Sinnick]

I am just about to buy a Kegging kit. Is the beer forced carb? Should I wait the three weeks that I usually do when bottle conditioning? Should I age in the primary or in the keg? Do those little corny kegs really hold 5 gallons?
Thanks again, Nick

 

[avidhomebrewer]

Yes, the beer is forced carbonated. No, you don't need to wait really more than a day if you carbonate the beer properly, assuming the beer aged properly. You can age in either the primary or the keg; I usually age in the primary/secondary first, then rack to the keg and cool, carbonate. Yes, they hold 5 gallons. It doesn't look like they would but they do.

 

[SamuraiSquirrel]

forced carbed? yes ..........

should you wait three weeks? .......... probably, but the beer will be 90% carbed after about a week.

Should you age in primary or keg? For normal gravity beers I do 3 weeks in the primary and go straight to keg and put it on the gas if I have an open spot for it. This is personal preference and open for great debate.

Do they really hold 5 gallons? Yep and not much more. I think I measured once just to see and up to the very top was under 5.5 gallons (can't remember exactly)

 

[Diver165]

I am just about to buy a Kegging kit. Is the beer forced carb? Should I wait the three weeks that I usually do when bottle conditioning? Should I age in the primary or in the keg? Do those little corny kegs really hold 5 gallons?
Thanks again, Nick

You don't HAVE to force carb. A lot of people do. I haven't ever force carbed because I honestly never thought about it. I just use my priming sugar and put it into the keg as if I was bottling a 5gal batch. I lock the keg down (lable it) and put it aside in my basement for 3-4 weeks minimum. This allows for conditioning and carbonation.

Yes the avg Corny keg will really hold 5 gallons. It's perfect for the avg batch of beer. Someone else will probably give you a run down of all the various sizes and capacities. But I'm just referring to the recycled pop/soda keg.

 

[superjunior]

there's a lot of options with kegging. op check out some of the stickys in the kegging section of the forum