cornelius keg should i ??

[omese]

hi folks im new to the site hi to all im darren from scotland, took up brewing in may of this year and very good hobby indeed, tend to bottle my beer but now looking to move to the next step maybe....cornelius keg!!

im looking for some tips/info see if its worth it

1- should i get one???
2- what all will i need ??
3- whats the process of filling, carbonating storage etc

any information would be great as think it maybe best ption due to the amount of beer i make and time consuming bottling

thanks guys any help would be mucho appreciado

 

[hercher]

1. Yes. Once you start kegging, you won't stop. It is easier, and get's your homebrew in its proper place -- your glass -- much faster than bottling.

2. You will need a keg (duh!), a CO2 tank (here in America I usually find the tank and the gas at welding supply shops), a CO2 regulator, plastic tubing, and a dispenser of some sort. You will also need to have a way to keep your beer cold. I purchased a small refrigerator which I eventually converted into a kegerator with four faucets on the front.

3. The process is simple. When your beer is ready to be bottled, gently transfer it into your sanitized keg. Pressurize the keg, let a little CO2 bleed out to purge any oxygen in there. Chill the beer under pressure -- I usually hold it at 25-30 psi for a couple days. Reduce the pressure to 8-10 psi, and start drinking.

As with everything involving homebrewing, kegging can be easy and uncomplicated or highly technical and involved, depending on your personality. There are charts you can use to carbonate your beer far more precisely than what I described. Some people purge the oxygen out of the tank prior to filling it. Some people like to naturally carbonate their beer in the keg.

The only downside of kegging is that your beer becomes slightly less portable. You will want to pick up, eventually, a growler or two, so that you can take your homebrew to other people's houses.

But, I don't miss the nuisance of bottling, and SWMBO certainly doesn't miss the dozens of carefully hoarded empty beer bottles around the house.

 

[markcurling]

1. No. Get three.

 

[milldoggy]

1. No. Get three.

I would suggest 10

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[audger]

how much beer do you brew? if the answer is more than 5 gallons a month, a keg will save you a considerable amount of time.

if you only brew one batch every few months, it may not be worth the investment in the entire setup. (or maybe it will still be worth it to you)

 

[Smashing]

I would suggest 10

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I have 10, I suggest as many as you can find.

 

[Face Eater]

I have 10, I suggest as many as you can find.

I have 8 and need more!

 

[DeafSmith]

It really depends on how much you (and friends and family) drink. Even if you only brew a few times a year, as I do, it still may be worthwhile to have the ability to force carbonate and bottle from the keg so you can have sediment free bottles to take to parties, or give to friends. By the time you invest in a CO2 bottle, regulator, refrigerator or freezer with temp. control, taps, etc., you may as well get several kegs - you will quickly find that one or two, or maybe even three or four is not enough. Here's some useful links:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/sticky-kegging-faqs-43347/

 

[JuanMoore]

I'm all for kegging, but IMO there are better kegging systems out there than corny kegs. They are cheap and easy to find here in the US, which is the main reason they're so popular amongst homebrewers here. From what I understand, they are very expensive and hard to come by in your part of the world, so if it were me I'd look at using sanke kegs instead. They are a better system IMO, and might be cheaper and easier for you to find. Just something to consider.