Is secondary necessary when kegging?

[earwig]

I searched a bit but I'm on my phone and it doesn't work very well so forgive me if this has been asked/answered before. I want to begin kegging and I'm wondering if you folks find it necessary or beneficial to secondary and/or cold crash when kegging. Thanks.

 

[Nuggethead]

Some do secondary and some do a combination of both. It's not necessary, but it depends on how much you want the clearest beer possible. I have done primary only with no secondary and no crash cool and had good results.

 

[earwig]

Thanks nugget. So the lines and dip tube don't get extra crummy or clog with no secondary?

 

[Nuggethead]

No, as long as you have good racking procedure. If you rack a bunch of gunk and hops it's possible. Just primary and let it clear and settle. Then rack to a bottling bucket and then to a keg. I have even had luck racking from primary to keg and skipping the bucket as long as it's pretty clear to start with.

 

[earwig]

Cool thanks. While I have your attention... how often do you take everything apart and clean it? How often do you replace the o-rings?

Thanks again.

 

[Nuggethead]

I'm pretty anal about cleaning and sanitation. Most people just run cleaner and sanitizer through the keg and let it squirt through the poppits and refill. I remove the posts and poppits and scrub them, pull the dip tubes and brush them out each time the keg kicks. As far as o-rings, I check them for signs of cracking and as long as they sealed on previous keg, I clean and sanitize, re-lube. But thats just me.