Can't wait to keg

[Sepanik1986]

Well, for Christmas I bought myself a keg setup and have a couple of questions.

1) How do I figure out what the carb pressure should be?

2) is there an advantage to sow carb in the keg vs. quick carb?

3) what is the easiest way to bottle from the keg? (I'm mostly hoping to use this set up to cancel out the priming sugar/bottle bucket situation but will have a keezer in the new house in a couple years)

Thanks for any input and advice in advance

 

[seabrew8]

Well, for Christmas I bought myself a keg setup and have a couple of questions.

1) How do I figure out what the carb pressure should be?

2) is there an advantage to sow carb in the keg vs. quick carb?

3) what is the easiest way to bottle from the keg? (I'm mostly hoping to use this set up to cancel out the priming sugar/bottle bucket situation but will have a keezer in the new house in a couple years)

Thanks for any input and advice in advance

1. Serving pressure is usually 10-12psi. Depends on the length of your lines.

2. You get to drink it faster!

3. I never done it but there's a product called a "beer gun" that people post about.

 

[jmcquesten]

Well, for Christmas I bought myself a keg setup and have a couple of questions.

1) How do I figure out what the carb pressure should be?

2) is there an advantage to sow carb in the keg vs. quick carb?

3) what is the easiest way to bottle from the keg? (I'm mostly hoping to use this set up to cancel out the priming sugar/bottle bucket situation but will have a keezer in the new house in a couple years)

Thanks for any input and advice in advance

Best advice I can give is start off with 15 feet of 3/16" beer line. If you really want to do it right, use mikesoltys.com line length calculator to get a more precise length for your setup. There is a carbonation chart on that website too.

If you don't use a long line for your beer, you'll be back here in no time asking why your beer is foamy but flat. Don't believe anyone that tells you 5 or 6 feet is enough. You NEED long beer lines (or other tricks) to make the beer pour properly.

Start with long lines.

The same goes for filling bottles. I use a beer gun with 20 ft of line. It works perfectly. Other people do all kinds of things to make this work, the best way is really long beer lines.

Slow carbonating gives you the added benefit of more time for your beer to clear while waiting. If you quick carbonate, your beer will still be cloudy and you can easily over carbonate.

 

[indymedic]

You will love kegging. I switched about 6 months ago and it's the best move I have ever made in brewing. If you read the stickies there is a carbing chart in one of the that is helpful. I have been doing 30psi for 24 hours and then setting to serving pressure for a week. I have not bottled from the keg yet so I can't help you on that one.

 

[skraeling]

I just did biermunchers gun (still perfecting my technique on it). works juuust fine and is essentially free.

picnictap + #2 drilled rubber stopper + whatever beer line length 5ft+ + racking cane or bottle filling wand (my bottle filling wands spring tip is removable as one piece).

star san then freez bottles.

Cut gas to keg, purge the serving pressure in there

reset regulator to like ~5psi

fill bottles.

profit


if I can figure out a way to film it ill do a quick video of it.

 

[Yooper]

To bottle from the keg, you really need to have the beer cold so I hope you have a place to keep it at 40 degrees or below before bottling.

Bottling from the keg is quick and easy, although a bit messy. I have a blichmann beergun now, but for quite a few years I did this: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=24678

Most bottled beers are at 2.4-2.5 volumes of c02. There is a carb chart here that shows what pressure for what temperature: http://www.kegerators.com/carbonation-table.php

 

[GPP33]

The beer line length calculators IMO are worthless. Start with 15ft, if your beer is well carbonated but you get no head and it comes out super slow trim it back and try again. Do not try to limit flow rate by only partially opening the valve, you'll just get foam. Mine are at 10feet and I usually serve at 12 to 15 PSI. I've stopped force carbonating, end product is better if you let it sit for a week or two, if I have room in my keezer I'll lay the keg at an angle to get more surface area exposed. If you fill the keg to the very top it'll take forever to carb due to the decreased surface area.

I fill bottles using a bottling wand with the plunger removed so it's essentially a rigid plastic tube. It fits snug into a picnic faucet. The more carbonated your beer the more you'll loose, I let mine overflow until beer starts spilling over then shut it off.

 

[mongoose33]

Lots of good advice above.

I bought one of those fancy bottling guns (The Last Straw), and I've used it exactly once. I have two methods for bottling depending on where I'm filling from and my mood.

One is using the poor man's beer gun, the tubing w/ the stopper installed. I took a spring-actuated bottling wand, cut off the valve/spring, cut a 45-degree angle in the end, and attached some tubing. That tubing fits snugly over a picnic tap, and it's easy peasy to use. It is in essence a counterpressure filler, and it works well.

The other is using a growler filler from a faucet. You have to get one that fits the faucet model you have. I have Perlick 650ss faucets, and the filler just fits up inside the tap with a couple of o-rings to hold it.

It's not counterpressure, but after the first beer drawn, which cools the line and faucet and filler tube, there's very little foam.

As others have noted (Yooper, for instance), cold is your friend. As beer warms, CO2 comes out of solution, which results in...foam! So the trick is to keep things cold as you can. Many recommend chilling the bottles, which I do sometimes. If i have cold star-san, when I spray-sanitize the inside of a bottle with my vinator, it cools the bottle for me.

But once all the parts of the setup are cooled by flowing beer, I can even fill relatively warm bottles with little problem.

One thing I do like to do is have all the headspace filled with foam when I cap the bottle, i.e., I cap on foam. That foam is composed of CO2 and beer, and not oxygen, so this is a way to purge the bottle's headspace of oxygen.

Here's my poor-man's beer gun; remember, the tubing at the top fits snugly over the spout of the picnic tap, sealing tightly and giving me a system that can handle the pressure necessary.

 

[OkanaganMike]

lots of good advice above.

I bought one of those fancy bottling guns (the last straw), and i've used it exactly once. I have two methods for bottling depending on where i'm filling from and my mood.

One is using the poor man's beer gun, the tubing w/ the stopper installed. I took a spring-actuated bottling wand, cut off the valve/spring, cut a 45-degree angle in the end, and attached some tubing. That tubing fits snugly over a picnic tap, and it's easy peasy to use. It is in essence a counterpressure filler, and it works well.

The other is using a growler filler from a faucet. You have to get one that fits the faucet model you have. I have perlick 650ss faucets, and the filler just fits up inside the tap with a couple of o-rings to hold it.

It's not counterpressure, but after the first beer drawn, which cools the line and faucet and filler tube, there's very little foam.

As others have noted (yooper, for instance), cold is your friend. As beer warms, co2 comes out of solution, which results in...foam! So the trick is to keep things cold as you can. Many recommend chilling the bottles, which i do sometimes. If i have cold star-san, when i spray-sanitize the inside of a bottle with my vinator, it cools the bottle for me.

But once all the parts of the setup are cooled by flowing beer, i can even fill relatively warm bottles with little problem.

One thing i do like to do is have all the headspace filled with foam when i cap the bottle, i.e., i cap on foam. That foam is composed of co2 and beer, and not oxygen, so this is a way to purge the bottle's headspace of oxygen.

Here's my poor-man's beer gun; remember, the tubing at the top fits snugly over the spout of the picnic tap, sealing tightly and giving me a system that can handle the pressure necessary.

View attachment 380966

+1 - was hoping to chime in but think everyone has already nailed it.

 

[bobeer]

Well, for Christmas I bought myself a keg setup and have a couple of questions.

1) How do I figure out what the carb pressure should be?

2) is there an advantage to sow carb in the keg vs. quick carb?

3) what is the easiest way to bottle from the keg? (I'm mostly hoping to use this set up to cancel out the priming sugar/bottle bucket situation but will have a keezer in the new house in a couple years)

Thanks for any input and advice in advance

1. I usually put 20 psi on it and leave it for a few days. Purge it a little and see where its at for the style of beer it is. I sort of just figured it out on my own, ha.

2. None but time waited to drink it.

3.i take a 1/2 inch 2 ft long tube and shove it up the facet. Put just enough psi on it to push the beer out. Chill your bottles before filling and youll be fine.
There's a diy beer gun how-to on here that a lot of people use as well.

 

[Sepanik1986]

Thanks for all the input everyone! I really am excited for this new adventure in my home brewing. I think the last time I got something new was a kettle with a ball valve.

I do have a fridge that I'll be keeping the finished product in after kegging.

Once again thank you all

 

[mongoose33]

Thanks for all the input everyone! I really am excited for this new adventure in my home brewing. I think the last time I got something new was a kettle with a ball valve.

I do have a fridge that I'll be keeping the finished product in after kegging.

Once again thank you all

I'm helping a friend get started in brewing. Two weeks ago we brewed up an IPA he wanted to do, as his "first" beer.

It was kegged earlier this week, cold-crashed and force carbed. Last night he took home the keg, a spare tank/regulator I have, and picnic tap to serve it with. He's doing the same thing you're going to do. In fact, keeping the keg and picnic tap in the refrigerator keeps the tubing and tap cold, which results in a better pour.

It's how I started kegging as well. Nice to open up the door of that fridge and pour yourself a tasty draft beer any time you want. And for those who might complain about having to open the refrigerator door to get a draft beer, I also have to do that if I want to get a bottle of beer!

 

[brewcat]

Kegging got me really into brewing.

 

[MrHopScotch]

One advantage of slow carbing (setting to serving pressure from the start) is that there is essentially no risk of overcarbonating the beer. As you'll find out, it's not hard to increase the carbonation, but it's a real pain to decrease it if you overshoot.

FWIW, I personally set pressure to about 30 psi for a day or so, then reduce to serving pressure (10-15 psi). From that point, carbonation is usually perfect for my taste within a week or so, but I can't overcarbonate in that short time at high pressure. I have done quick carbonations in a day or two, but if you have time, the beer will almost always be better in a week or so anyway.

 

[bkboiler]

I cant argue with the go longer in the beginning aspect of the beerline, but as a point of reference mine is 8' and my beer pours just fine at 14psi. The height from keg to spigot also plays into the "resistance" against beer flowing. There are otber variables that affect it like the brand of tubing (internal surface roughness), and serving temperature.
So...yeah, just start with 15' and cut a foot off until it pours fine.
I tend to just turn it up to serving pressure and give it a week or two. It's fun to sample the beer as it's carbonating!

 

[Sepanik1986]

I recently watched a video on balancing line which seemed interesting. I think the average length was between 6 and 8 feet

 

[day_trippr]

I recently watched a video on balancing line which seemed interesting. I think the average length was between 6 and 8 feet

Thus inspiring half the threads in the Bottling/Kegging forum, sharing the common theme "Help Me Fix My Foamy Pours!"

http://www.mikesoltys.com/2012/09/17/determining-proper-hose-length-for-your-kegerator/

Cheers!

 

[Brentk14]

I use this website to figure out pressure for carbing.
http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/carbonation.html
Pretty easy from there. I used to do the 25psi for a day and test, but I find that I don't lose much time doing it the new way, and I don't overcarb anymore.

 

[skraeling]

I just tried setting mine to 35psi for 12hrs at 37*.... lightly carbbed but I wanted more.

Set to 40psi for another 5hrs. damn near good enough for goverment work. I would have left it at 35 longer but was going to be gone for too long to leave it at that pressure.

 

[seabrew8]

I just use a 5 foot cobra tap i have never had any issues personally.

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

I recently watched a video on balancing line which seemed interesting. I think the average length was between 6 and 8 feet

Forget the line balancing act. Buy a Perlick flow control faucet and use the 4 or 5 ft lines the tower came with. It will be your best kegging piece of equipment. You wont find a bad review about the faucet. They take all headaches out of kegging.

Also Sankey kegs are superior in every way and worth looking into..Although youll probably go with a corny because that what everyone uses