Help with a Keg!

[ja3372]

I have not brewed beer in a couple of years and this past weekend I decided to go for it again. The problem I always had with brewing is I can't stand waiting for the bottles to carbonate. My wife wants to get me an anniversary gift so I was looking into buying a small Keg. I'm not looking for a 5 gallon keg maybe a 2-3 gallon. I see a lot of different models on different websites but I don't want to buy garbage. Can anyone give me a heads up on a good small keg and what components I need. I also don't want a big 5lb co2 container since I want it compact as well. I don't mind buying small co2 cartridges if thats possible as well. Any feedback would be great.
Thank you

 

[dancingfetus]

most people use corny kegs, as they are easy to clean and do not require a lot of special fittings, and a bit larger then you are thinking. something like this link may work for you. You can choose if you want ball lock or pin lock, however in order to balance your system, you will need to store at least a few feet of beer lines in the cooled area.
As far as wanting a smaller CO2 container, im sure its possible, but it may be more headache then you are looking for, as you would still need a regulator attached to it.

 

[Psylocide]

Get a corny, use a bit more CO2, but have the option to step up to 5 gal. You can get cornies for under $50.

Once you start kegging, you'll need more beer.

 

[ja3372]

should I get a ball lock or pin lock?

 

[Dory]

Hi,
I've got some questions about kegging I was hoping someone could answer for me.

I live in Queensland, Australia. The temperature is currently 27 degrees celcius (about 80 degrees Fahrenheit). On Monday I started my batch of home brew beer. This will be the 3rd batch of beer I've ever made so I'm quite new to home brewing. The first 2 times I bottled my beer, but this time I wanted to try a different approach and try "kegging" my beer.

I ordered online 2 19L stainless steel kegs which came with a regulator, a "Pluto" gun and everything I need for kegging. This all arrived today. However I read the instructions that came with the kit and I noticed it said;

"You will need to arrange the following:
1. CO2 bottle
2. Converted fridge to hold your keg"

I knew I needed a CO2 bottle for kegging and I already have one, but I had no idea I would need a special fridge. So I've been watching a lot of videos about kegging on YouTube to see how everyone else is doing it, and whether or not there's a way to do it without a special fridge. But every video I watched they have the same sort of set up where they have their keg inside the fridge set at 4 degrees, with a hole drilled in the side of the fridge, running their CO2 bottle from outside the fridge connected to keg.

Now this has got me a little worried because I just spent a bit of money on this keg kit and this is not what I was expecting out of it. I have no room for one of these special kegging fridges, and no room to store my keg in my normal fridge.

What I was hoping to do was treat my keg like a giant bottle. Rather than filling 30 or so individual bottles I wanted to fill my keg with my completed batch then store the filled keg at room temperature for a couple of weeks for the second fermentation to take place as I would normally do with the filled 750ml bottles. The plan was to have my filled kegs sit at room temperature perminatley, for storage. Then when I go out to a mates for a party I wanted to put the keg in an esky of ice and everytime I need a refill I could just dispense my home brew straight from the keg into my schooner glass.

So here are the questions I would love to know the answer to.

Q1. Is the way I want to do it possible? Or will leaving it in the keg at room temperature until I'm ready to drink it ruin the beer?

Q2. I'm still unclear about carbonizing beer in the keg. I know with the bottles you put a teaspoon of sugar in each bottle or carbonation drops in each bottle then you leave it for 2 weeks for it to carbonize. And I know the CO2 bottle is for carbonizing your keg of beer. But I just don't get how to do it if I'm doing it my way and storing my filled kegs at room temperature. Do I connect the CO2 to my keg and put a certain amount of CO2 in the keg, then disconnect the CO2 and store the keg at room temperature for a couple of weeks as you would do with putting a certain amount of sugar in the bottles and storing them for a couple of weeks. OR do you leave to CO2 bottle connected to the keg and turned on to a certain pressure for a couple of weeks?

Q3. Say at the end of a party or whatever I've still got half a keg or a quarter of a keg or however much I have left in the keg, can I then take my keg home then store it back at room temperature until the next party/event after its spent the night in an esky of ice or will that spoil the beer?

Q4. If I took my keg to a party, would I also have to take my CO2 bottle and connect it to my keg and have the CO2 bottle turned on for dispensing beer. I mean is that how it works in general? Do you have to always have the C02 connected and turned on everytime you want to dispense beer or do you just fill your keg with a certain amount of C02 and that's it forever, that will last until there's no more beer left in your keg?

I think that's all I needed to know. Sorry about the really long and probably boring message. I tried wording everything to be as detailed as possible so there's no confusion. As you can see I know nothing about kegging. I know now that I should have done a bit more research before I bought a kit. But I really do love and enjoy home brewing, and I can't wait to master it haha.

I would really appreciate your help and advice.

Thank you.