New to Kegs - Wedding Planning

[MyCarHasAbs]

My fiance' wants to get married at a winery. I'm personally not a huge fan of wineries but it's her wish so whatever. As long as I get to serve my own beer. I want to serve 3x 5gallon kegs instead of bottles. To me, this makes more sense instead of slaving over nearly 100 bottles.

All necessary equipment included in the cost, what's a ball park price for 3x 5 gallon kegs?

 

[lstewartff]

I would have to guess $500+. Depends if you are buying new or reconditioned, Then the price of gas, cleaning, the beer. Are you wanting all three kegs hooked up at once, then you need a manifold. Really depends on what you want. You could probably find a single keg kit and then buy some reconditioned kegs and come out cheaper. do a search on kegging supplies on yahoo and you will find all kinds of prices. The good thing is once you buy it, you have it, and will only have to add to it in the future.

 

[darylwoodman]

My fiance' wants to get married at a winery. I'm personally not a huge fan of wineries but it's her wish so whatever. As long as I get to serve my own beer. I want to serve 3x 5gallon kegs instead of bottles. To me, this makes more sense instead of slaving over nearly 100 bottles.

All necessary equipment included in the cost, what's a ball park price for 3x 5 gallon kegs?

You can buy a two keg set up here for $230 (without gas)

http://www.homebrewing.org/5-Gallon-Ball-Lock-Keg-System-w-Picnic-Faucets-2-USED-Kegs-5_p_4398.html

Kegs are about $55-60 used (corny) - add $9 for new o-rings (3 sets). The CO2 tank is about $40-$80 depending on the size and about $15-$25 to fill it with CO2. The regulator is about $45-$75--average $50. Three picnic taps about $4 ($12) and some appropriate tubing with fittings ($20). You will need a liquid connect and a gas connect for each (about $6 each)--that's another $36.

I doubt that you would need a manifold. If one keg pressure drops and stops pumping, just move the gas line onto it for 10 secs and it will re-pressurize.

I guess you could do it for $375. - just ballpark.

Visit the online stores, they are quite helpful.

Cheers-

 

[RansomBrewing]

First, let me say as someone with experience with this... you should make sure that they will let you bring your own alcohol to the winery. You probably already did that, but it is something that I felt I had to say. Disclaimer: I've not done this, the place that we are getting married will not allow us to bring our own beer.

Now, to answer your question.

Kegs: If you are OK with used kegs you can save a decent amount of money there. Check out http://www.cornykeg.com/ ... you're looking at about $150 in just kegs.

CO2: You'll need some type of CO2 source. I would go for a CO2 tank if you have the money for it. The tank will cost $80 when you are all said and done probably. But, I know there are places that will rent them to you.

Regulators: This is where you need to decide how many times you are going to use this set up. Do you want all of your beers to be set to different carbonation levels? Are all three beers going to end up being about the same? The difference is needing a separate regulator for each one (~$45 each). If you decide to just buy one regulator then you need to buy a air distributor (~$30). Section total: between $75-145.

Tubing and fittings: $.50 per foot ish. What do you need... 5 ft from CO2 tank to keg, 5 ft from keg to jockey box.. times three.. $15?

Way to keep it cold: You could build a jockey box. If you are handy, build one. Buy a cooler ($40), 3 faucets ($100), a cold plate ($100) (I guess you can get them much cheaper on ebay, but I'll put a link to one you could get from a store here so you know what I'm talking about), and miscellaneous fittings.
Faucets: http://www.beveragefactory.com/draftbeer/faucets/faucets/EBCFBLSHANK4.shtml?CAWELAID=1372128042&CAGPSPN=pla&catargetid=320012430000187825&cadevice=c&gclid=CjwKEAiAxsymBRCegqiLzI7Q1S8SJADOgQrzgMSNYqz-iFXdJsFLFtwlKE0tOw_He5qX_SSgRhMs_RoC3-zw_wcB
Cold Plate: http://www.micromatic.com/draft-keg-beer/jockey-boxes-pid-CP-0814-3.html

If you can't make one, you can always buy one.. but wow are they expensive. http://www.micromatic.com/part-pid-HDCP-D2-48B.html

Places to save money:If you are just doing this as a one time thing and want to save money, you may want to think about "keg conditioning" and using the handheld CO2 things instead of a tank... like this: http://www.cornykeg.com/product/hand-held-co2-ball-lock-keg-charger-kit/ . That will take a bit of work, but as long as you keg condition you shouldn't have any problem with getting flat beer. Saves a CO2 tank ($80), regulators ($75-145). But, if they aren't used right they can be dangerous.

I think total, you are looking at like $650 or something like that.

 

[sandyeggoxj]

For serving ask around at your brew club for someone who has a jockey box to borrow. If you were local I'd let you choose between my 4 tap or 2 tap box to borrow.

Second check liquor license and venue policy. That could shut you down. The rest of the stuff is basic kegging stuff.

 

[MyCarHasAbs]

Yep, the way some of these places have been, they'll allow bottles but no kegs which sounds ridiculous to me. I figure if we're shelling out thousands, I should get what I want. Especially if I've already reached out to VA ABC and checked to make sure it's cool to get a one day banquet license for serving. It's basically just the venue not acknowledging ABC laws.

The reason I don't want to do bottles is I've found carbonation levels are not always guaranteed to be consistent. That and it's just a lot safer and easier to transfer 3 kegs than 100+ bottles that could break on the way there or I could potentially get a bottle bomb here and there. There's just a lot more that can go wrong with a bunch of bottles than there can be with 3 kegs.

I'd probably go for reconditioned. I'd probably start with one, get the hang of it and then buy the other two. If I can keep the keg budget to about $500-600 that would be ideal. My photographer is going to be $3G's alone haha.

 

[tmendick]

I work for a catering hall and we don't allow people to bring in kegs. They really don't want you to bring in 15 gallons of beer that will be unregulated by a bartender.
It is more for their liability sake than legality, the bartender can be held liable if some one was way over the limit and killed someone in a car accident. They may have never seen them in the hall because they would be getting wasted in a self service area.
The bottle loophole is that they expect you to only bring in a little, not 15 gallons worth.

 

[YeastMode]

Yep, the way some of these places have been, they'll allow bottles but no kegs which sounds ridiculous to me. I figure if we're shelling out thousands, I should get what I want. Especially if I've already reached out to VA ABC and checked to make sure it's cool to get a one day banquet license for serving. It's basically just the venue not acknowledging ABC laws.

The reason I don't want to do bottles is I've found carbonation levels are not always guaranteed to be consistent. That and it's just a lot safer and easier to transfer 3 kegs than 100+ bottles that could break on the way there or I could potentially get a bottle bomb here and there. There's just a lot more that can go wrong with a bunch of bottles than there can be with 3 kegs.

I'd probably go for reconditioned. I'd probably start with one, get the hang of it and then buy the other two. If I can keep the keg budget to about $500-600 that would be ideal. My photographer is going to be $3G's alone haha.

I do not know what your time frame is, but you can buy one or two kegs and then bottle right from them. Its a simple process.

 

[YeastMode]

You can buy a two keg set up here for $230 (without gas)

http://www.homebrewing.org/5-Gallon-Ball-Lock-Keg-System-w-Picnic-Faucets-2-USED-Kegs-5_p_4398.html

Kegs are about $55-60 used (corny) - add $9 for new o-rings (3 sets). The CO2 tank is about $40-$80 depending on the size and about $15-$25 to fill it with CO2. The regulator is about $45-$75--average $50. Three picnic taps about $4 ($12) and some appropriate tubing with fittings ($20). You will need a liquid connect and a gas connect for each (about $6 each)--that's another $36.

I doubt that you would need a manifold. If one keg pressure drops and stops pumping, just move the gas line onto it for 10 secs and it will re-pressurize.

I guess you could do it for $375. - just ballpark.

Visit the online stores, they are quite helpful.

Cheers-

This is pretty much spot on as to what i spent. The only thing i would add, because it is your wedding and you don't want to be tending to kegs, is that you just use a couple plastic "T" fittings and some line. So it would look like:

Tank=>Regulator=>short Air Line=>"T" (1) [Line to Tank 1] (2) [Line to "T"]=> (1) [Line to Tank 2] (2) [Line to Tank 3]

 

[Rockn_M]

I do not know what your time frame is, but you can buy one or two kegs and then bottle right from them. Its a simple process.

I do this for all my bottles. Whether I am giving them away as gifts or to take someplace with me. I carb in the keg then transfer to however many bottles I need. It does take some time but this way your don't get uneven carbing or yeast at the bottom of each bottle.

This still would require to get kegs, co2 tank, regulators, beer gun, etc.

Good Luck!

 

[NickTheGreat]

You must be me from 3 years ago! I got married in a winery and brought 3 kegs of homebrew.

I already had the kegs, and the winery was cool with it. The owner was/is a homebrewer, and they've started making beer commercially in the mean time.

Anywho, 3 kegs, Co2 tank, regulator, and manifold. I'd think that you could easily do this for under $500.

One thing to think about it serving at the wedding. My bride probably would not have been keen on garbage cans full of ice or even the homemade jockey boxes. Our winery had a big fridge near the bar, and I put the kegs inside, and had our bartenders just use picnic taps.

Oh . . . bring the kegs the day before, or at least early in the morning. Let the sediment settle, and dispose of the first few ounces out of each keg . . .

 

[soccerguy83]

Where in Va are you and where are you getting married? If near Richmond, reach out to James River Home Brew club and see if anyone is willing to let you borrow some of this stuff for the big day, I'm sure someone would.

 

[darylwoodman]

I feel like an idiot now for buying a manifold. I didn't think of using a straight T and couple of worm clamps. Oh well, I guess the manifold has a little more versatility, and I did only pay 19.99 for it.

Cheers-

 

[YeastMode]

I feel like an idiot now for buying a manifold. I didn't think of using a straight T and couple of worm clamps. Oh well, I guess the manifold has a little more versatility, and I did only pay 19.99 for it.

Cheers-

The manifold has its advantages, which are (1) they usually have built-in check-valves, (2) they usually save on tubing needed, and (3) you can turn some lines off while keeping others on when a keg is being force carbed or you have an empty slot.

All things considered, the manifold is the way to go. But for a simple party/wedding serving solution, you can rig up a couple "T" fittings for a few bucks, and then the OP can focus on dancing and trying to remember his great aunt so-and-so's name from Ohio.

 

[ulnpiper]

I recently did this with 2 kegs for my daughters wedding and in Georgia the venue just required that the licensed bartenders serve the beer.

Instead of dragging my co2 tank and regulator, I used the co2 chargers below. The only issue with them is that it requires someone to tend it and keep the beer flowing (I appointed one of my friends who was not in the wedding party to monitor the beer).

Anyone using these note that it takes about 2.5 - 3 cartridges per 5 gal keg. I also had one which developed a leak right away, so we had to go through extra cartridges until the beer ran out.

co2 Chargers

 

[darylwoodman]

I recently did this with 2 kegs for my daughters wedding and in Georgia the venue just required that the licensed bartenders serve the beer.

Instead of dragging my co2 tank and regulator, I used the co2 chargers below. The only issue with them is that it requires someone to tend it and keep the beer flowing (I appointed one of my friends who was not in the wedding party to monitor the beer).

Anyone using these note that it takes about 2.5 - 3 cartridges per 5 gal keg. I also had one which developed a leak right away, so we had to go through extra cartridges until the beer ran out.

co2 Chargers

You could always go with a hand pump. Hey, you don't have to mess with it, that's why you have hired help.