Keeping keg cold

[par383]

I'm going camping in a few weeks, and was thinking of bringing a corny keg of homebrew. After all, what's camping without beer?

Any ideas on keeping it cold for about 2 days?

My initial thought is to put the keg in a large trash bag and fill it with ice, and keep another bag or 2 in a cooler and fill the trash bag as needed. I would get a keglove, but I don't think it'll last long enough.

 

[Whut]

You're on the right track. Instead of a bag I'd use a trash can. Have fun!

Edit: Removed the comment regarding rock salt - what was I thinking?

 

[Bobby_M]

What? Rock salt doesn't slow the melting of ice, it hurries it. Yes, the water will get colder than 32 and the beer might freeze initially. I agree with the garbage can. Put the keg in, fill the void with ice, then water.

 

[Quadfire]

take a cooler with extra bags of ice and a little bit of dry ice. The dry ice is much colder than normal ice and will keep the normal ice frozen until it's needed.

 

[Cpt_Kirks]

I have a 70qt cube cooler I use as a portable kegerator. It holds two 3 gallon kegs, a paintball bottle and a LOT of ice.

I had a keg of light lager and a keg of amber ale in it with me camping last month. It has HOT, about 95* each day, but I only had to put one bag of ice in it a day.

The brew was nice and VERY cold.

 

[Cpt_Kirks]

Oh, yeah.

Before camping, I took two 5 gallon kegs to a family reunion. My neighbor gets frozen steaks shipped to him. I scored a couple of the THICK foam shipping boxes from the trash. I cut holes in the top for the kegs to stick out (a little over half of the keg fit in the box). For the top of the kegs, I took an old foam sleeping pad and cut sections to fit on the keg tops. I secured the foam with duct tape. Worked like a charm.

 

[BierMuncher]

10-gallon round cooler (my mash tun).

This was two days on the pool deck in 90+ heat. I added ice twice.

Throw a white sheet over it to reflect off the sunlight.

I'm doing this again tomorrow night when the neighbors come over to swim and drink my beer.

 

[springer]

what I used last weekend was my HLT . The 10 gallon Igloo beverage cooler is great. I used on of those cheap little silver survival blankets to cover the top as the keg was taller than the cooler. Keg is also a pretty good fit so it wont fall over inside and I coiled the beer line around the keg so it stayed cold. Iced it up Friday night keg was already cold and Sunday there was still ice in it and the taps were covered in condensation


EDIT:Jeeze i need to type faster

 

[chefkdub]

check out the cold plate coolers. They're a bit pricy, but worth it if you're going to use it a lot

 

[Cpt_Kirks]

This is from a thread on the family reunion kegs, including "jockey box":

"I fished some frozen steak boxes out of the trash, cut a hole in the lid, and made some keg coolers. I added a piece of foam pad to insulate the top of the keg.

Set up a keg of Amber Lager and a keg of Pils for the family reunion Saturday. It worked great, but the 10' of beer line coiled on top would get warm between pours.

I needed a JOCKEY BOX. Hmmm....

A gallon ziplock, with the coiled beer line inside, filled with ice. Foam free, ice cold pours!"

 

[RC0032]

10-gallon round cooler (my mash tun).

This was two days on the pool deck in 90+ heat. I added ice twice.

Throw a white sheet over it to reflect off the sunlight.

I'm doing this again tomorrow night when the neighbors come over to swim and drink my beer.

I thought about this but I was worried the dirty ass keg would make my mashturn dirty

 

[Schlenkerla]

Here's my solution for that problem! Just made this yesterday. I still plan to keep the kegs cold with an ice bath. I'm serving my beer at a homebrew beer fest! :rockin:

EDIT: Forgot to mention that I used spring return taps, this way the taps close by themselves and no accidents from druck servers. ....... Me or the other fools.

 

[EdWort]

Here's my solution for that problem! Just made this yesterday. I still plan to keep the kegs cold with an ice bath. I'm serving my beer at a homebrew beer fest! :rockin:

Nice, now we need a pic of the inside.

 

[Schlenkerla]

Here they are...

... 2-channel cold plate. Decided to forgo the pass thru shanks and drill holes for the hoses. Did so a bit tight so they don't flop around. That way I can pull the hoses inside when its time to jockey the sucker and I won't trip on them while carrying this thing.

There is not much hose in this cooler once you connect the kegs.

My CO2 setup, gonna install a T today in this line.

Keg Bubble Wrap w/ silver duct tape both from Menards - $18 enough to do 4 kegs easily and then some more - R5 Insulation

 

[RC0032]

My CO2 setup, gonna install a T today in this line.

Can I get a parts list for this?

 

[Schlenkerla]

Just for the CO2? This is for two kegs on the Jockey Box.

6' - 5/16" Air Line
2 - Gas quick disconnects with swivel nuts
1 - Gas ball valve
5 - 5/16 hose clamps
1 - 5/16 T
1 - Kobalt Regulator
1 - Gas Bottle 20oz.

 

[RC0032]

Details on the CO2 build

 

[par383]

Here they are...

Keg Bubble Wrap w/ silver duct tape both from Menards - $18 enough to do 4 kegs easily and then some more - R5 Insulation

Have you had any experience on how long the beer will stay cold with the bubble wrap?

 

[BierMuncher]

Details on the CO2 build

Here's one.

 

[Schlenkerla]

Here's one.

BierMuncher - You are such a Show-Off!!!

 

[RC0032]

Here's one.

Thats so easy! thanks! I wanted one of these systems for the air nailer part for hanging my crown molding

 

[bendavanza]

Here's what I did with a trash can and bag liner + ice. I went through a bag or 2 a day but the ice store was real close by, and the drinkers were happy to keep me supplied.

 

[Schlenkerla]

Have you had any experience on how long the beer will stay cold with the bubble wrap?

I served Edworts AW June 11th. It was ~85F. It was cold until it blew. So about 5:00 -10PM. Maybe it could go longer. But the sun wasn't beating down on it after 8PM.

The recommended wrap per the instructions (for a water heater) is two 2" layered wraps on the top & bottom then a full covered wrap all the way around. It creates an air space. That's what I did. A few of my HB buddies do roughly the same thing. I believe they just did two layers. No stand-off layers.

 

[Irie5447]

rock salt is very corrosive and the temp drop probably wouldn't justify the abuse to your keg.

 

[Schlenkerla]

rock salt is very corrosive and the temp drop probably wouldn't justify the abuse to your keg.

Ice works just as good and is almost dirt cheap. Skip the rock salt and buy an extra bag of ice!

 

[shoebag22]

Here's my solution for that problem! Just made this yesterday. I still plan to keep the kegs cold with an ice bath. I'm serving my beer at a homebrew beer fest! :rockin:

EDIT: Forgot to mention that I used spring return taps, this way the taps close by themselves and no accidents from druck servers. ....... Me or the other fools.

This looks perfect... any idea how much you spent? Parts list?