Keg Juggling

user 574 · Mar 29, 2006

Question on having enough keg beer ready for a long party week in May. I have two parties (daughter HS graduation) and wife grad school (now get to friggen work!

). Not only the two parties but also 10 or so visitors around for a week from WI that drink beer; lots of beer :cross:.

I got 4 total kegs; two will be in the kegerator I plan on having start full and on tap. The other two I want ready and carbed up when one goes dry in the kegerator. I have no room in the fridge for all 4. I was thinking of switching them around in the kegerator until all 4 are properly charged.

Question is would keeping the two spares at room temperature after being CO2'd up be good enough where they'd be ready for consumption or would I lose enough CO2 that I'd have to wait 1+ days again. I figured I'd watch as one is getting low and put the spare keg on ice as it's turn is coming up. Or would I be best served by getting two of those portable CO2 chargers on the backups? Also, any issue with them at room temp with the CO2?

Kevin K · Mar 29, 2006

If only I shared your problems...

waskelton4 · Mar 29, 2006

woo hoo ..
my invitation must have gotten lost in the mail

Kaiser · Mar 29, 2006

desertBrew said:
Question is would keeping the two spares at room temperature after being CO2'd up be good enough where they'd be ready for consumption or would I lose enough CO2 that I'd have to wait 1+ days again. I figured I'd watch as one is getting low and put the spare keg on ice as it's turn is coming up. Or would I be best served by getting two of those portable CO2 chargers on the backups? Also, any issue with them at room temp with the CO2?

The CO2 is going nowhere. This means you can keep them at room temp, then chill to serving temp and then hook them up to the CO2. Only if you hook them up to the CO2 before they are chilled you may loose some CO2 because the set pressure might be lower than the pressure necessary to maintain the CO2 level in warm beer. How much can be lost? I don't know. It would also depend on the time.

Have fun.

Kai

david_42 · Mar 29, 2006

Yep, charge them up and chill before serving. Burp them before just connecting, so you don't have to worry about backflow. If you chill them before you swap them into the kegger for charging, they will absorb the CO2 faster.

And you won't have warm ale in the kegger during the party preps.

user 574 · Mar 29, 2006

Cool, thanks. I started doing the countdown to when I need these full and I gotta get hopping! Brew day each weekend for the next 4-5 weeks and SWMBO approves :rockin:

I think I need to play it safe though and buy two more kegs. I need drinking material before this event and I'm not bottling!