Finally gonna keg!

After 2 years of brewing and bottling small extract and 17 5 gal. all grain batches I finally purchased a shiny new 5 gal. keg :rockin:

I already had a kegorator set up for commerical kegs so all I really needed to buy was the keg and a few fittings.

I guess I'm just looking for any advice/tips to kegging. I brew mostly IPA's and Hoppy light colored ales. So Im thinking of keeping this keg always filled with one or the other until I can get another and have 2 taps going at once.

First thing I'm gonna do before anything else is smear some vaseline all over those gaskets. Pretty excited to take this next step..

 

Wow 175 Gallon batches. Thats almost a yearly limit in a brew. Your MLT a gas tanker truck?

All joking aside. Kegging is addictive, they multiply like bottles. I would use some food grade lube rather than vaseline though. Keg Lube is what I use when I use lube to keep the seals sealed.

Enjoy.

 

You'll want to pick up at least two more kegs ASAP. You don't want to finish a keg, then have to wait until you clean, fill and carbonate your next beer. You'll quickly want to establish a pipeline.

Don't use vaseline. Pick up some keg lube, it's cheap and it's food grade. Vaseline (IIRC) can degrade the rubber.

 

I'll go third and say no on the vaseline. Bad for rubber, which is ironic given some of vaseline's uses.

My wife got me three corny kegs for xmas (I've only ever bottled) and I've already drank one and have another batch in the fermenter with a third batch ready to brew this weekend. Never would I have been this ambitious if I had to do it with bottles. I gave two cases away to a friend that just got into homebrewing and I recycled the rest. Good riddance.

 

Congrats! I still bottle a few small batches but I do love the ease of kegging now as well. I would read up on some of the kegging stickies. I thought this one was especially useful when I had foaming problems, turns out my lines were too short:

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/keg-force-carbing-methods-illustrated-73328/

Enjoy!

 

I agree with the advice on buying keg lube. A small amount goes a long long way.

 

Thanks guys. Damn, I took it all apart and put the vaseline on the gaskets before I saw any of these replies today. Oh well, it's done now. I will definitely pick some of that lube up for the future though. I'm surprised my guy at the LHBS didn't mention it?

I think I might take another trip down there tomorrow and get a second one. I'm sure they'll go quick. I would've bought a 2nd one the other day, but he only had 1 left. I might have to go to another nearby LHBS.

 

Adventure in brewing has used cornys for $45 plus shipping. Got several from them. Local shops want $65 - $85 each were I am at.

 

If you have or plan to get Perlick faucets you'll want to get one of these: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f41/bottling-wand-perlick-525-75-aka-bowie-bottler-228344/

I just got one and it makes bottling from my keg really easy if i want to take some beer to a party!

 

Amen to that! Whether it is a 6-pack or a growler it takes me no more than 10 minutes including clean up.

 

This is awesome! Kegged my 1st batch last night and we were drinking it in 10 mins. Delicious with a nice head and rings all around the glass! I need to up production.

 

It carbed up in 10 minutes? I usually need atleast 10 days! LOL

 

Maybe the pressure was at 150psi?