Kegerator for Homebrew?

[natebeer123]

I don't want to bottle this time and I'm already brewing 12.5 gal batches in a keggle. Can I use my 15.5 gal sanke keg from my kegerator to keg condition and serve my homebrew? I already have tank, tap and faucet and keg, so want to use what I got.
I read on this forum that this can be done , but I didn't see any recent posts, so please let me know if I am way off.

This is what I am thinking - please don't comment on how difficult spear/ring/sanitizing is as I read plently of posts on those topics and know what i would be up against...

1.Brew my favorite stout
2.Ferment as normal (for me usually 1.5 weeks in primary and 1 - 1.5 weeks in secondary)
3.Remove ring and spear from 15.5 gal keg
4.Clean & sanitize & dry keg and spear
5.As if the keg were a bottling bucket, add priming sugar and rack 12.5 gals beer into keg
6.Return spear and ring to seal
7.Connect tap connected to regulator to monitor pressure
8.Let Keg condition for approximately 2 weeks @70 degrees. I would imagine/hope a decent amount of pressure would buildup. If it was too much, the regulator has a manual pressure Relief valve and a built in 45 psi relief valve. If pressure doesn't build up the CO2 tank can supplement what is needed.
9.After two weeks, get to serving pressure, refrigerate and serve.

Is there anything fundamentaly wrong with this? I think I'm missing a step after step7 where I would purge the keg of all air with CO2. I guess I'm not 100% sure how to do this, but i would imagine just letting CO2 into keg to build up a little pressure, then manually letting the pressure out - expelling only the lighter air. I appreciate any feedback.

 

[LuiInIdaho]

Your process sounds just like bottling except you have a 15.5 gallon bottle. You would then "bottle condition" you beer with priming sugar. My only concern would be the volume of beer in the keg. It seems to me that if you would have 12.5 gallons in a 15 gallon keg, you would have quite a bit of head space -- much the same if you bottled just a half bottle of beer.

Other than that, it seems to me that what you are proposing would work.

Mark

Edit: I re-read your post. It sounds like you might be adding CO2 to the mix for carbonation. This might eliminate the concerns I raised about the keg not being completely full.

Mark

 

[G-Hog]

If you have a regulator and CO2 tank, why would you use priming sugar? It seems like double work to me.

 

[natebeer123]

Probably out of sticking to what I know and trying to achieve the same beer that I'm used to in the bottle. I've read that even though you can carb right away in a keg, the beer hasn't aged right way, so it may not taste the same right away vs 2 weeks. I actually think it would be less work and less CO2 spent doing the keg-condition way, but maybe double the wait time. I haven't kegged yet, so I'm not speaking from experience.

Since I am inexperienced with kegging, does my purge method sound right or can anyone share with how they would purge the air out of the keg in this manner?

Nate

 

[Wacki]

What I usually do is purge the air out of the keg after racking to it. Rack to keg, hook up co2 gas, let sit for few mins, purge, repeat 2-3 times. When you hook up the gas the heavier co2 goes to the bottom of the headspace and oxygen goes to the top. I'm not sure what people who keg condition by adding sugar like you do, but headspace definitely plays a part in carbonating.

Are you taking into account the headspace?? Carbonation is a function of pressure, temp, and time (probably a few other things too like gravity. If you put 12.5 gal into a 13 gal keg you would have more carbonation than in a 15gal keg with the same amount of sugar. You can see the sugar calculators show you need less sugar for bombers than 12oz bottles, and even less for a corny keg. The amount of sugar you might require to negate all your dead space may influence your beer...honestly hooking the keg up to gas and leaving it sit will probably give you less carb level headaches than it would otherwise by priming w sugar, there is just a lot to account for and people don't seem to really fill kegs less than the max to be able to properly determine how much sugar.