Corney Questions

[Petho]

I am new to kegging and have a question. I have a 5 gallon corney and it has the pin lock connectors. There are 2 push on connectors, one is grey and one is black. I notice that the grey connector will fit on either post but the black will only fit on one post comfortably.
Is there suposed to be only one way to hook up the keg?

 

[Hammy71]

Yes, you want the gas going to the top, pushing the beer down. The gas 'in' (grey) has a short tube. The black should hook to the post that has a dip tube that reaches to the bottom of the keg. Gas pushes the beer out through the bottom, which coincidently is where the beer is.

 

[Petho]

Seems reasonable. The fellow at the LHBS said that I could hook up the gas to the dip tube side for a few days at high pressure to force carb the batch but I am guessing that is not a good idea if the connectors dont really fit the post properly.

 

[snowveil]

I've come up with a pretty crude but simple way to remember which is which.

Gray = Gas
Black = Beer

Also, for the pins...the gas post only has 2 pins, while the liquid post has 3. You want more Beer than you do Gas!

 

[subliminalurge]

The fellow at the LHBS said that I could hook up the gas to the dip tube side for a few days at high pressure to force carb the batch but I am guessing that is not a good idea if the connectors dont really fit the post properly.

Oh, it's not really a "bad" idea. I don't personally think you get much, if any, benefit from it, though. Certainly no more than just giving the keg a bit of a shake every now and then.

 

[Petho]

Interesting, thanks for the advice, urge. I am kegging another batch next weekend and I'll try the other method. thanks!

 

[subliminalurge]

Interesting, thanks for the advice, urge. I am kegging another batch next weekend and I'll try the other method. thanks!

No problem...

The whole thing with carbing beer involves four important factors. Temperature, psi, surface area and time.

The whole theory with hooking up the gas line to the liquid post involves increasing the surface area by bubbling the co2 up through the beer. I'm not convinced that the surface area of these bubble provide a significant increase in the surface area of the beer exposed to co2, for a long enough time, to make a significant difference.

On the other hand, once my keg is chilled to serving temps, if I reach into the fridge and give it a little bit of a shake, I can hear massive amounts of co2 flowing through my regulator. Since the headspace is already pressurized, there's only one place that the "old" co2 can be going to make room for all that new stuff. Into the beer.

I don't know the physics of it, and I should, and wish I did, but what I do know is that with a few shakes here and there I can carb up a keg of beer a whole lot faster than I can by just running it through the dip tube.

 

[day_trippr]

Kinda weird how everyone gave a pass to the whole "pin lock connector" thing when it seems pretty clear they're actually ball lock posts.

I'm fairly certain you can't hook up to actual pin lock posts the "wrong way"...

Cheers!