Is kegging that much of a PITA?

[bleme]

Kegging also opens the door to making changes to a beer after it is done. Keg hopping. Back-sweetening. Adding flavorings, spices, oak, etc.

As an experimental brewer, this one was kinda big for me. For instance, I had an event where I knew my keg would be gone in 1 day. I made a simple wheat beer, chilled it, juiced a full flat of strawberries and dumped the juice in, and kept it cold until 'show time'. The result was a fresh strawberry taste that you just couldn't get ANY other way. The crowd went wild. I was a hero.

 

[bracconiere]

The gauge hasn't moved much

it won't budge until the liquid is gone, as soon as it moves the tank is empty....you'd have to put the tank on a scale and compare it with the, usually, stamped on TW weight.....


those gauges are pretty much worthless...

 

[Jayjay1976]

As an experimental brewer, this one was kinda big for me. For instance, I had an event where I knew my keg would be gone in 1 day. I made a simple wheat beer, chilled it, juiced a full flat of strawberries and dumped the juice in, and kept it cold until 'show time'. The result was a fresh strawberry taste that you just couldn't get ANY other way. The crowd went wild. I was a hero.

Awesome idea!

Even if it weren't reasonable to expect to kick the whole keg in one day, it would be easy to swap out the keg lid for one with a gas post, attach a spunding valve to prevent over pressuring and then enjoy it at your leisure over over a week or more. Serving temps will definitely slow down the secondary fermentation and preserve the fresh juicy flavors.

Would also be super easy to drop in a block of frozen juice concentrate, just sayin'!

God damn, what a neat idea!! Thanks Blemer!

 

[LittleRiver]

...I'm resisting the urge to keg for two reasons: I have a small adorable child who I parent full-time and go to the gym regularly... one bottle of beer a day... a tap would destroy my diet.

You will not acquire a new personality when you acquire beer faucets. The amount I drink, one a day, has not changed since I switched from bottling to a four tap keezer.

...for those who need to control their beer drinking, bottling makes sense.

I disagree.

If you switch to kegging you'll have more time to spend with your kid, or for the gym, or whatever.

 

[seatazzz]

I've been kegging for over 2.5 years now, and will never go back to bottling. I keep some bottles around for competitions and sharing with friends, but nothing, absolutely NOTHING, beats coming home from a long day at work and pulling a perfectly carbonated pint of something I brewed myself. Also I hate cleaning bottles. Back when I was bottling it seemed like every other batch was oxidized to the point of being barely drinkable. No worries of that with kegging. And my husband doesn't drink that much, so when he's in the mood for a beer he doesn't have to waste whatever's left in the bottle after he's had his 6-8oz pour. As for cleaning the lines, I just replace them every 6 months with brand new line; I'm kinda lazy and don't want to buy the stuff I would need to clean them, not to mention wasting co2 that could be used for carbonation instead.

 

[BruceH]

it won't budge until the liquid is gone, as soon as it moves the tank is empty....you'd have to put the tank on a scale and compare it with the, usually, stamped on TW weight.....


those gauges are pretty much worthless...

Funny you mentioned that. I was pushing cleaner and starsan through a few new to me kegs yesterday and the needle started to go down quickly! There is still some in there but it's time to take the tank for a refill.

 

[Transamguy77]

+1 to all the benefits that have been said, kegging really is much easier and less time consuming. And kegs take up way less space that bottles do.

If you look on Craig’s list you can find someone getting out of the hobby selling off their stuff pretty reasonably or keep your eye out for sales. My wife bought me my first setup for a few hundred then when it made sense or I found a good deal I bought more kegs.

I would recommend buying or making a keg washer, it’s not necessary but it does make the cleaning easier. I also have a lot of kegs and make 10 gallon batches so I’ll wait till I have 8 or 10 to clean and do them all at once.

 

[bracconiere]

Funny you mentioned that. I was pushing cleaner and starsan through a few new to me kegs yesterday and the needle started to go down quickly! There is still some in there but it's time to take the tank for a refill.

at least it was just cleaner/sanitizer you were pushing....it really is a PITA when it drops while you're pushing beer! happened to me once, had to bug the neighbor for a ride to the welding shop!

 

[balrog]

THe 20lb tank gets filled about once a year for me. I brew maybe 36 5g batches a year, all kegged. THe emergency 5lb has never been used. When I travel with kegs I use the 20oz paintball tank, which gets filled about 2-3 times a year. I guess the point is to have a backup.

 

[bracconiere]

I guess the point is to have a backup.

food for thought...i keep mine on a scale now though....

 

[LostHopper]

Leaky CO2 is something to keep an eye on.
Sharing easily with friends is not terribly difficult but tricky, when filling bottle/growler from kegs.
It is more expensive.
If you don't have something to chill a keg (I use the stairwell/hatch off my basement in winter and can hold quite a bit. In summer I have one of those 5cuft chest freezers, no collar/mod, to hold two kegs with picnic taps).
View attachment 670672 View attachment 670674

Sorry to hijack but I kegged my first batch yesterday after years of bottling and had a question about those taps that fit directly on kegs.

On a whim while at the LHBS I picked up a barebones kegging setup using a picnic tap since I have room for one keg in a spare fridge. I asked the owner about those on-keg taps and he recommended for the first try to use a beer line (he gave me 5') and a picnic tap. He said the line length makes getting proper carbonatiion with less foam a little easier for novice kegger. He also said if the keg is in a tight spot in the fridge it's easy to accidently turn it on and have a spill. My question is about the beer line length. Is the on-keg tap trickier to get proper carbonation. Now that the keg is in the fridge it might be a tight fit for the tap anyway. Thanks

(To anyone thinking about kegging let me assure you it is easier. As someone mentioned, it's like filling your bottling bucket except now your finished.)

 

[balrog]

Keg top taps are fun. They are tall, especially with a handle, and won't fit my chest freezer.

They provide no back pressure, as does 10' of beer line of course, and you will get the problems inherent with that

But if kept COLD, then little headspace pressure is required to carbonate to appropriate levels, so the keg top tap works fairly well. Once temps in my hatch rise above 40 or so, I have to keep higher headspace pressure to keep proper carb, and then I either put on a 10' line and picnic tap, or bleed keg, pour, repressurize keg (using more CO2).

 

[balrog]

Just to add:

I have seen people recommend putting little plastic epoxy mixer stems into the dip tube to provide back pressure but I've never tried them.

 

[ABI Brewery]

I have been kegging for years and love it, and much like many others here I have some bottles for comps or sharing and dont have any plans on ever going back to 10 gallons worth of bottles.

I dont know where you are but one thing that i found out the hard way is the storage areas that you will be storing or cold crashing, im in Minnesota and this winter when i put a couple kegs in my "cold storage" to condition and cold crash i found that there was a bad oxidization issue, my cold storage was too cold and when the CO2 absorbed into the beer and the poppets allowed air to get sucked into the keg when the everything got down to the 30 degree cold storage room temp, just watch for that, and get a Mark II keg washer, those things kick a$$

 

[bleme]

Sorry to hijack but I kegged my first batch yesterday after years of bottling and had a question about those taps that fit directly on kegs.

About the only thing I have found that taps useful for are English beers that are only carbed to 1.5-1.7 volumes. Anything above 2.0 was just too much foam.

 

[LittleRiver]

... question about those taps that fit directly on kegs.... Is the on-keg tap trickier to get proper carbonation....

I assume your question is about getting a proper pour without excessive foam, and not about getting proper carbonation.

As others have mentioned, since everything is in the fridge having it all cold helps hold down foaming. You may be just fine with some line and a picnic tap. Leave it in the fridge, even if it's disconnected.

If that's not enough, you can increase your line length, or if you don't want to deal with a longer hose a flow control adjustment can be used. You can get a flow control faucet, a flow control disconnect, or an in-line flow control.

 

[LostHopper]

I assume your question is about getting a proper pour without excessive foam, and not about getting proper carbonation.

As others have mentioned, since everything is in the fridge having it all cold helps hold down foaming. You may be just fine with some line and a picnic tap. Leave it in the fridge, even if it's disconnected.

If that's not enough, you can increase your line length, or if you don't want to deal with a longer hose a flow control adjustment can be used. You can get a flow control faucet, a flow control disconnect, or an in-line flow control.

Correct. I meant foam control during pour, not carbonation.
Thanks

 

[Yesfan]

How's that old rap song go?

"You got bottle problems, I feel bad for you son.
I got 99 problems and a keg ain't one."

I remember someone posting that years ago in a keg vs bottling thread. I was looking into kegging back then and that post has stuck with me since. At that point, about 7 years ago, I had only 5 batches under my belt.

.......Plus you get to feel like a beer god pulling draft beers for friends and family. Trust me, your beer geek cred will skyrocket.

Absolutely agree with you. 100%

 

[Leezer]

Sharing easily with friends is not terribly difficult but tricky, when filling bottle/growler from kegs.

Many advantages to kegging, but a marked decrease in sharing with friends is a definite downside.

 

[day_trippr]

Doesn't have to be that way. When I went to kegging I kept my bench capper, a case of 12s and a case of 22s and all of the unused caps.
I still do "boat beers", shares and gifts from the faucets using 12 ounce long necks and occasionally 22 ounce bombers (those I want back! ) I stick a tube in the faucet bore and fill wet, chilled glass and cap on foam...


Cheers!

 

[Yesfan]

Many advantages to kegging, but a marked decrease in sharing with friends is a definite downside.

Nah, I don't think so. I seem to share more as I don't know how much beer is left in a keg vs how many bottles I have left (another reason why I like doing 10 gallon batches). With bottles, if I got down so far I'd hold off sharing until I made more.

Gave my boss, who also home brews, a 40oz growler of stout I made.

 

[tellyho]

Have to agree. I was a bottler for 12 years and gave away a lot more then. Harder to give away now.

 

[Kharnynb]

one question about kegging that always bugs me, how often do you wash out your lines?

When working as a bartender, we were supposed to rinse the line at the end of every service and it would get disinfected once per month, which would sound like a hassle on homebrew setups.

 

[Gduck]

one question about kegging that always bugs me, how often do you wash out your lines?

When working as a bartender, we were supposed to rinse the line at the end of every service and it would get disinfected once per month, which would sound like a hassle on homebrew setups.

I clean mine every time I change the keg that is in that line. Okay, I’ll be honest, on occasion when I switch a keg I get lazy and just run water through it to flush it out. But I do try to actually run some cleaner and then sanitizer through a line anytime I change the keg. Every few changes I run BLC(beer line cleaner) through it to keep beerstone from building up. Probably twice a year I disconnect everything, disassemble it, and give all the parts a good clean. If any line looks suspect, or has any kind of aroma I’ll replace the line.

 

[Kharnynb]

ok, so follow up, do you guys all drink daily to keep what's in the line/tap head clean?

 

[day_trippr]

lol! I drink from all six taps daily but not to keep the lines fresh
Speaking of which, EVAbarrier tubing is the bomb wrt keeping beer from staling/flattening in the lines.
HUGE difference from the standard Bevlex 200 solid PVC lines I ran for years...

Cheers!

 

[LittleRiver]

one question about kegging that always bugs me, how often do you wash out your lines?

Every time. I just incorporate cleaning the lines as part of my process of cleaning a keg:

• take the keg outside and rinse thoroughly with a nozzle on the garden hose (this blows out all the sediment)
• put PBW & ~2gal hot water in the keg, close it up
• shake then let it rest for a few minutes, repeat a couple more times
• put the keg in the keezer, hook it up, turn on the C02 for about 5sec (that's all it takes)
• drain the cleaning solution into a bucket, through the faucet

• put ~2gal hot rinse water in the keg, shake it thoroughly
• put it in the keezer, give it a little gas, drain it through the faucet

• put a cup or two of starsan in the keg, shake
• put it in the keezer, give it a little gas, drain it through the faucet

Written down, it looks like more work than it really is. It's easy.

Every few brews (3-4?) I break down the keg completely, and clean all the small parts with hot PBW before the sanitizing step.

I use a homemade PBW substitute (Oxyclean & TSP).

 

[Gduck]

ok, so follow up, do you guys all drink daily to keep what's in the line/tap head clean?

Nah, all the lines are in the freezer so stay chilled, and I’ve never had an issue with anything bad coming out. I mean it’s not weeks passing between pouring beers from them or anything, but sometimes a few days pass where I haven’t pulled anything from the taps. A lot of the bars I’ve known a)have long runs of line and b)the entire run isn’t refrigerated (usually wrapped in some insulation for the unrefrigerated portions), so it’s more likely funky things are going to happen in to those lines without regular cleaning. And sadly I’ve been to far too many bars where they didn’t keep up on cleaning, or even flushing a line that’s sat unused for a bit, and ended up with a pint of, shall we say, sub-par beverage.

 

[bracconiere]

do you guys all drink daily

LOL

 

[Kharnynb]

Nah, all the lines are in the freezer so stay chilled, and I’ve never had an issue with anything bad coming out. I mean it’s not weeks passing between pouring beers from them or anything, but sometimes a few days pass where I haven’t pulled anything from the taps. A lot of the bars I’ve known a)have long runs of line and b)the entire run isn’t refrigerated (usually wrapped in some insulation for the unrefrigerated portions), so it’s more likely funky things are going to happen in to those lines without regular cleaning. And sadly I’ve been to far too many bars where they didn’t keep up on cleaning, or even flushing a line that’s sat unused for a bit, and ended up with a pint of, shall we say, sub-par beverage.

Luckily, that would get your license pulled in very short order here....
do you clean the tap itself if you haven't used it for a few days?

 

[Gduck]

Luckily, that would get your license pulled in very short order here....
do you clean the tap itself if you haven't used it for a few days?

I wish that was enough to get places licenses pulled.

As for my taps, yeah, I have a bottle of sanitizer by them and I’ll spray them out and wipe them down after I’ve poured my last pint of the evening.