Getting ready for first keg fill

[PADave]

Brewed yesterday, and this one will be going into my keg setup for the first time. I bought the whole system back in January off CL, but haven't got around to setting it up. It's just a single keg setup, and I'm replacing the faucet and lines with new ones. Went with the Perlick 650 flow control. I just want to run my plans by everyone to make sure I'm not doing something wrong.

Since I only have room to fit one keg in the fridge, I plan to naturally carb. I did an IPA, so dry hopping is coming into play also. In 2 weeks I'm going to transfer to keg and add about 2/3 the priming sugar I would use to bottle. I also ordered a hop filter, which I'll use to dry hop in the keg at the same time. I'll hit the keg with 25 psi to seal it up, and let it sit at room temp. Now here is where I have questions. Should I remove the dry hops at some point? Can I just open the keg, pull out the hop filter, put it in the fridge with the gas on and let it finish carbing? Or should I just leave the hops in the keg?

Or the other option is to stick to my current practice of dry hopping in the primary, and then keg.

I want to go with naturally carbing the kegs for now, since I only have room for one in kegerator. The plan is to have at least one keg always full, ready to hook up when one kicks. If all goes well, plans for the future are a 4-5 tap keezer.

See anything wrong with my thinking? Any tips? Thanks in advance.

 

[peterhub]

Don't forget that you're actually trying to get a certain number of "volumes of CO2" into your beer. The pressure required depends on the temperature of the beer, which means that you can adjust the psi of the regulator depending on the temperature (I'm not talking about "burst" carbonation here). For instance, I like my brews to be at around 2.5 volumes of CO2. If I use the "set-it-and-forget-it" method of forced carbonation, I have a couple of options: cool the beer to around 36F (my serving temp) and apply around 10psi for a week or so; or leave the beer at room temperature and apply around 30psi for a week or so. Either way, you'll end up with around 2.5 volumes of CO2. I have a double-regulator on my CO2 tank, one set at 10psi for the kegs in the kegerator, and one that I use for removing air from kegs, etc., or for force carbing at room temperature. The advantage is that if a keg kicks, I always have new, carbed one that only needs to be chilled overnight.

 

[Gonefishing]

If you have CO2, I don't understand the reason to natural carb. You can run a gas line into the fridge and leave the tank outside. Or, are you saying that the second (and subsequent) keg would be naturally carbed so that it's ready to go when the first one kicks?

 

[Nagorg]

The only reason to natural carb in this scenario is of you dont have another CO2 source for your room temp keg(s). I think I'd get me another CO2 setup just for this if I couldn't carb both in the kegerator at the same time.

 

[PADave]

My understanding was that the keg had to be cold to force carb. I also thought that you saved a lot of co2 by naturally carbing. Of course I could be wrong in my thinking, that's why I'm asking. But either way, with my current setup, only one keg will fit into the fridge, and I can only hook one keg to gas at a time. If I naturally carb, the one on deck would be most of the way there, and wouldn't take as long. The dry hops are what I'm wondering about even more.

 

[PADave]

If you have CO2, I don't understand the reason to natural carb. You can run a gas line into the fridge and leave the tank outside. Or, are you saying that the second (and subsequent) keg would be naturally carbed so that it's ready to go when the first one kicks?

At least most of the way there, and take less time to fully carb once hooked up.

 

[thunderwagn]

Gas is cheap and will last a lot longer than you think. Especially with a single keg setup. To each his own, but I'd at least give it a shot on gas and make your decision from there. My guess is, you'll be done with sugar. I'll admit, I considered the same. But have never regretted going with force carbing.YMMV

 

[PADave]

Gas is cheap and will last a lot longer than you think. Especially with a single keg setup. To each his own, but I'd at least give it a shot on gas and make your decision from there. My guess is, you'll be done with sugar. I'll admit, I considered the same. But have never regretted going with force carbing.YMMV

Ok, for the first one I might try that, since the fridge will be empty. But do I dry hop in the keg, letting it sit at room temp, then chill?

 

[thunderwagn]

Ok, for the first one I might try that, since the fridge will be empty. But do I dry hop in the keg, letting it sit at room temp, then chill?

I've been dry hopping in the keg and love the results! I followed what others have done and just use a hop sock with a couple marbles and tie it off with unwaxed/flavored floss and run the floss up through the lid to hold the sock off the bottom to avoid clogs. I've left the keg out for a couple of days (after hitting with a hefty dose of 02 to start the carb) then toss in the fridge.
There's plenty of keg hopping threads for more info.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

I've been dry hopping in the keg and love the results! I followed what others have done and just use a hop sock with a couple marbles and tie it off with unwaxed/flavored floss and run the floss up through the lid to hold the sock off the bottom to avoid clogs. I've left the keg out for a couple of days (after hitting with a hefty dose of 02 to start the carb) then toss in the fridge.
There's plenty of keg hopping threads for more info.

No issues with stray hop leaves clogging the poppets? do any hops leaves make it into the glass? I was reading through this thread fixin' to issue warnings about hops clogging the poppets, but since I haven't done it and you have I'm gonna keep still.

 

[thunderwagn]

No issues with stray hop leaves clogging the poppets? do any hops leaves make it into the glass? I was reading through this thread fixin' to issue warnings about hops clogging the poppets, but since I haven't done it and you have I'm gonna keep still.

No loose hops in the keg(not mine at least). That's what the hop sock tied off with floss is for