First time kegging

[Todes]

Hello, this is my first time kegging, and it was also the first time I used the new brewing equipment and I didnt get 5 gallons of beer, maybe I got 4 gallons, I was wondering if this could be a problem while carbonating because I have 5 Gallon cornys. Can you give me some advice? thank you !!

 

[bleme]

It won't be any problem for carbonating. It does pose more risk of oxidation though. What do you ferment in and what kind of beer?

 

[Todes]

It is a Red Ale

 

[SoCal-Doug]

It will be perfectly fine. You can do the chill-and-shake thing if you are in a hurry, or just hit it with the CO2 and wait.

 

[bleme]

I asked what you fermented in because the best way to remove all oxygen is to fill the beer with StarSan or water and push out with CO2, then fill with your beer through the 'out'. With this method, you could just have a gallon to rack in there and it wouldn't matter. This method uses the least amount of CO2 but it pretty much requires your fermentation vessel to hold 2psi.

Another option is to fill through the lid, seal, pressurize to 30psi, purge and repeat 5-10 times. This works best if you can add priming sugar to the keg and let it naturally carbonate, which will scavenge the remaining O2, but that takes another 3 weeks. Nobody wants to wait that long on their first keg but it is something to think about for the future.

 

[Todes]

I asked what you fermented in because the best way to remove all oxygen is to fill the beer with StarSan or water and push out with CO2, then fill with your beer through the 'out'. With this method, you could just have a gallon to rack in there and it wouldn't matter. This method uses the least amount of CO2 but it pretty much requires your fermentation vessel to hold 2psi.

Another option is to fill through the lid, seal, pressurize to 30psi, purge and repeat 5-10 times. This works best if you can add priming sugar to the keg and let it naturally carbonate, which will scavenge the remaining O2, but that takes another 3 weeks. Nobody wants to wait that long on their first keg but it is something to think about for the future.

Thank you. I didn´t understand the question, I fermented in a plastic bucket

 

[stz]

I would love to push the beer out of the fermenter in a closed system, but it'd mean changes for what I perceive to be negligible benefit. I usually put a few pints of sanitiser into the keg after cleaning and push it out with co2. I open the keg to siphon beer in, but generally hope that the co2 has displaced the oxygen in the keg and as I fill, I displace the co2 which rises as a barrier above the beer until the whole lot has displaced any oxygen. Either way it is a hell of a lot better than bottling. I could fill through the beer out leaving the gas in open to bleed it, but presume it would be very slow.

 

[Todes]

I would love to push the beer out of the fermenter in a closed system, but it'd mean changes for what I perceive to be negligible benefit. I usually put a few pints of sanitiser into the keg after cleaning and push it out with co2. I open the keg to siphon beer in, but generally hope that the co2 has displaced the oxygen in the keg and as I fill, I displace the co2 which rises as a barrier above the beer until the whole lot has displaced any oxygen. Either way it is a hell of a lot better than bottling. I could fill through the beer out leaving the gas in open to bleed it, but presume it would be very slow.

Thank you, I did as you suggested yesterday. Today I want to carbonate it. I am going to use a device like Blichman Quick Carb. Will I have some troubles carbonating it? because the keg isnt full

 

[Morrey]

Thank you, I did as you suggested yesterday. Today I want to carbonate it. I am going to use a device like Blichman Quick Carb. Will I have some troubles carbonating it? because the keg isnt full

You should not see much difference carbing the beer if you are a gallon short. You'll have no problems...enjoy

 

[Todes]

thank you !