Corny Keg: Vertical? Horizontal? Tilted?

Newbie here who is thinking if buying a cornelius keg system. My chest freezer fermentation chamber is about 3-5 inches too short to fit a standard keg but I think I can get the clearance I need by leaning the keg against the side do it sits at an angle. (70 degrees maybe?) Will this work or do you have to store kegs vertically? Should I just suck it up and invest in a taller chest freezer or go with two, harder-to-find, 2.5 gallon kegs?

 

Not a good long term solution at all. The dip tube sits at the bottom of the keg, so tilting the keg is going to give you issues getting a lot of the beer out. Have you considered pin lock kegs? They're 2 inches shorter so not sure if they'll work for you...you said 3-5 inches too short that's kind of a broad range.

Most people build a collar on their freezer.

 

Google "keezer collar". You're going to want that for CO2 lines in and to mount your taps or send beer lines in an insulated PVC tube out anyway.

 

Keg out diptubes typically sit like the image below. If you lean them you can't get all the beer out. People typically increase the height of the freezer by adding a wooden "collar" between the freezer and lid. Sharing a fermentation chamber with a keg is going to make for either warm beer or cold fermentation!!!

 

collar

 

As suggested building a collar is the best way to go. However i would like to add that i recently bought 4 used kegs and 3 of them have the dip tube as pictured above in post 4 however 1 of them had the tube going straight down to the edge. I believe one of the kegs is a firestone keg but not positive if that was the one with the straight dip tube (probably is).

Although even a regular keg you'll only lose some of the beer having it tilted, even then its no issue to open the freezer and turn it up to get the rest. Waste of freezer space having it tilted though.

 

Yea I have two old kegs that have a straight down tube and a kinda valley in the bottom of the keg to direct the liquid to the tube. I don't think they make them like that anymore though.

 

I have some new 2.5 gallon kegs and they have straight tubes fwiw

 

it will work in short term but not well. You may need to put the keg back vertical if you want to get out all the beer, and moving kegs stirs up some sediment.

Collar is a better solution. It will cost you $50 in wood+brackets plus a few hours of labor, but it will be worth it. Cheaper than a 2.5G keg.

 

ya I didn't mean I thought the 2.5 gallon kegs were a solution either I was just saying they were new and had straight tubes. Building the collar is the answer here unquestionably

 

Sideways storage and/or serving is going to be to the detriment of your beer. A collar is needed.

From a similar thread some time back.