switching kegs

having a get together with a mellow group and wanted to remove a keg that is half gone and put something in more to there taste and then finish the other one later. will one of the kegs go bad?

As I understand it, you want to keep beer cold once it's been cold. That being said if you switch out a keg, try and keep it cold until you can reconnect it.

if pressurized, but disconnected and half full does it then need to be kept cold if it was once cold? and how long can it remain disconnected?

as long as it is pressurized it should keep for a while and if you keep it cold i would say up to a year but that would be pushing it to me.

I'm not 100% sure on this, but I would err on the side of caution and keep it cold. Once it's been pressurized it should hold pressure even after being disconnected. Got a big enough ice bucket and a wet towel?

Put your keg in a primary bucket, add ice water and salt.

Place a towel over it to wick the cold water up.

Don't obsess too much about keeping it cold. Keep it cool (cellar temps) to make sure the yeast stays dormant but other than that the temp change will do no significant harm.


There is also no significant risk in pulling the current keg off the lines and setting it aside for your party. Since you're using Co2 to push it, there's no real difference, from the beer's point of view, between being full, half full or mostly empty.

im in michigan,its 32 today, i can just set in the garage. thanks for all the help

I routinely move kegs from the kegger to the conditioning cabinet and back. The cabinet is about 50F.