kegging - lossage and freshness between beers

[dcunitedfan]

Hi, I've been homebrewing for nearly a year now. So far I've been bottling but I'm thinking about making the leap to kegging. I am wondering though about a couple of things. (As an aside, I should mention that my consumption pattern is not regular - I might consume multiple beers one day, followed by multiple days without beer. And the only time where there is truly significant volume is if I throw a party.)

First, when bottling, I find that there really is almost no loss of product either in the bottling process or the serving process (ie popping the cap and drinking). I'm wondering if that will change when I go to kegging. Will I be likely to be losing product due to foaming, spilling, etc. I understand that it's important to tune the system with regard to CO2 pressure, beer line length, etc and also reportedly some tap designs are better than others. Second, am I likely to have to be concerned with having the beer in the tap or the lines go stale on me in between servings (particularly if I go several days between beers)?

Basically I'm trying to determine if I'm going to have less useable beer per batch due to my sporadic drinking pattern, if I go to kegging.

 

[gnef]

techincally, yes you will lose more. practically, no. i don't think you will notice any difference. the only time you would is if your faucet gets pulled forward on accident and you start losing gallons, which has happened to many people. not me yet, and hopefully not me in the future. haha.

sources of loss are in the bottom of the keg that the dip tube can't reach, an improperly balanced system that just foams (like you said, but this is easily correctable), and the only reason why i see some beer going stale is if you use rear-seal faucets and don't use them for long periods of time. if you can front the cost, i would definitely recommend forward-seal faucets like ventmatic (now shirron) or the perlicks, which do not suffer from the same deficiencies as rear-seal designs.

what's nice about kegging is that you can pull off as much beer as you want. lets say you are drinking, and finish one bottle of beer. you want some more but not a full bottle, but you have to finish the second bottle even though you didn't want to. with a keg, you pull off exactly how much you want, so in effect, you could think that you have more usable beer.

 

[david_42]

About the only wastage I see is when I clean the beer lines and that's a ounce, max. Even that could be eliminated, if I only cleaned the lines when I blow a keg. With very high gravity ales, like barley wines, I like being able to tap off a small glass to sip & not have to open a bottle.

The beer in the lines is as cold as the kegs and at the same pressure, so no worries about it going stale.

Some people experience more spillage with kegs because they drink more.

 

[MariaAZ]

I'm having the same concerns as dcunitedfan; our beer consumption is not very regular. It may take a couple months to polish off a 5 gal. batch. How long does kegged beer last once it's tapped?

 

[ajf]

I always lose more when bottling than kegging.

First, I spill about a cup full when filling the bottles.
Then I lose another cup in the bottom of the bottling bucket.
Finally, my last bottle only gets 3/4 full. (This always happens).

With kegging, I lose 1/2 cup in the bottom of the keg, and I can take a half glass if I want to without wasting half a bottle.

-a.

 

[gnef]

it is under co2 pressure, so it should not spoil any faster than bottled beer. in fact, i think it should last longer, as bottled beer has had more exposure to oxygen than kegged beer in general.

 

[dibby33]

lets say you are drinking, and finish one bottle of beer. you want some more but not a full bottle, but you have to finish the second bottle even though you didn't want to.

I don't understand. Not wanting to drink beer. This is uncharted territory.
I would never even consider this as an option. Does this mean that when you pour a glass of beer from the keg you only fill the glass up 1 sip at a time. Just drink the damm beer!!!


As for the high alcohol beers - just bottle them in smaller bottles. I bottled mine in 375ml bottles as opposed to the 800ml that I normally use.

By the way I am at work just now and gasping for a beer. New years eve and I am both working and on call until 8am 2mrw. This is the cause of my rant Been working since Christmas and not enjoying it very much

 

[dcunitedfan]

Thanks for the replies so far - to clarify my concern is not so much about lossage during the transfer from fermentor to keg (or bucket to bottle), but rather any lossage during tap dispensing. Also even with a forward seal faucet, you have a bit of beer that lingers forward of the seal I would think, and I was concerned that might give an off flavor to later pours when there has been a substantial (multiple day) delay between beers. It's not going to keep me from going to kegs even if it is a factor (I might just keep a spray bottle with water handy for those "first beer after a long wait" situations and spray off the inside of the nozzle a bit before pouring), but I thought I would ask those with experience with kegs for their thoughts.

 

[david_42]

Get a "squeeze & squirt" and fill it with sanitizer.

I keep meaning to do this, but it just hasn't been a priority.

 

[gnef]

i don't believe i've run in to the problems you describe. i use all forward seal faucets and a stout faucet. with forward seal faucets, extremely little lingers in front of the seal, most of it goes in to your glass. they also don't stick. or at least have never stuck on me. i do not pull pints off the same faucet for over weeks some time.

 

[ALPS]

With very high gravity ales, like barley wines, I like being able to tap off a small glass to sip & not have to open a bottle.

Barley Wine on tap?!!?

 

[rdwj]

I usually only drink on the weekends and I keg. I never get any kind of off flavors and rarely lose ANY beer. The only thing that I would suggest is forward sealing faucets. I frequently get sticky faucents and they are a bit of a pain.

Other than that, kegging is the only way to go!

 

[dcunitedfan]

I did finally take the plunge and get my kegerator freezer set up. I went with Ventmatic forward seal taps (no complaints at all).

I do find that merely cleaning the lines between kegs isn't sufficient to prevent the taps from starting to get a little sticky by the 2nd keg, so now I'm also removing the taps and cleaning them when necessary (after every keg).