Kegging for dummies

[PattyC]

I'm going to be kegging for the first time this week and have gone through a ton of threads on kegging on this board. I know everyone has different methods for carbonating, and I'm pretty sure I'll figure out what works best for me with experience. That said, I still have kegging-for-dummies type of questions that I'm still not quite clear about:

1) When you "burp" a corny keg, should you disconnect the gas first or just turn the regulator off?

2) From what I understand, when not in use you can disconnect the regulator, turn off the gas and just leave the keg in the fridge and it will hold at your serving psi as long as you didn't purge (either by serving or burping) any CO2 before shutting off. Is this correct?

3) When force-carbing using the rocking method, does it matter what psi you set it at? Should you go lower if you are kegging, say, a Mild, which is served at around 1.8 vols.? Or does it only matter what you set the serving pressure at after the beer has settled?

4) Should you take the CO2 cylinder out of the fridge when not using?

 

[stratslinger]

1) If, by "burp" you mean purge by pulling the release valve, there's no need to do either of those things. Keep the gas turned on. You want the CO2 to enter the keg, then to purge any air in the keg, and then CO2 to refill and repressurize the keg immediately. Don't bother disconnecting or shutting off anything during this process.

2) Sure, you could do this, but why would you want to? Just leave the gas hooked up and turned on at all times, and you'll be good to go. The regulator is designed to keep everything at equilibrium - you're not going to be constantly losing gas or anything like that. Just get it all dialed in and leave it alone!

3) I can't really answer here, as I use the set-and-forget method and I'm not familiar enought with the rocking or shaking methods.

4) In general, if you can, it's probably slightly better to keep the CO2 cylinder and regulator outside of the fridge - just punch another hole for your gas line. The cylinder shouldn't be a problem, but I'm told many of the regulators just aren't built to stand up long term to the kind of moisture they see inside a fridge. If you can't keep the cylinder outside the fridge, then sure, when you don't have any kegs hooked up, it's probably best to get the cylinder and reg out of there.

 

[PattyC]

1) If, by "burp" you mean purge by pulling the release valve, there's no need to do either of those things. Keep the gas turned on. You want the CO2 to enter the keg, then to purge any air in the keg, and then CO2 to refill and repressurize the keg immediately. Don't bother disconnecting or shutting off anything during this process.

2) Sure, you could do this, but why would you want to? Just leave the gas hooked up and turned on at all times, and you'll be good to go. The regulator is designed to keep everything at equilibrium - you're not going to be constantly losing gas or anything like that. Just get it all dialed in and leave it alone!

3) I can't really answer here, as I use the set-and-forget method and I'm not familiar enought with the rocking or shaking methods.

4) In general, if you can, it's probably slightly better to keep the CO2 cylinder and regulator outside of the fridge - just punch another hole for your gas line. The cylinder shouldn't be a problem, but I'm told many of the regulators just aren't built to stand up long term to the kind of moisture they see inside a fridge. If you can't keep the cylinder outside the fridge, then sure, when you don't have any kegs hooked up, it's probably best to get the cylinder and reg out of there.

Thanks for the answers!

Yes, purge is what I meant. Still getting a hang of kegging vocab. I watched a Northern Brewer video on kegging and after force carbing over 2 days at 20 psi, they say to shut off the regulator, then purge, then set to serving pressure and turn regulator back on. So I'm a little confused there on whether it matters.

So if I just leave the gas on all the time, does that mean leaving the regulator on, too, or does it matter?

 

[stratslinger]

OK, gotcha... In general, if all you're doing is purging, there's no need to shut off the regulator. However: if you're going to reduce the pressure setting on the regulator then yes, you had better shut off the regulator prior to purging! No need to disconnect anything - just shut off the last valve before your keg on the gas side of the connections, if you follow. If your setup is anything like mine, you probably have 2-3 shut-off valves - I just opt for the last one the gas would pass through before it hits the keg.

If you're concerned about hitting an exact carbonation level though, you may want to reconsider the shaking method. Consider just carbing at serving pressure - it'll take a few days longer, but you won't overshoot your target carbonation level.

 

[DeafSmith]

4) In general, if you can, it's probably slightly better to keep the CO2 cylinder and regulator outside of the fridge - just punch another hole for your gas line.

Just be careful where you punch that hole. There's a lot of threads on here where people have ruined their refrigerators or freezers by drilling through a coolant line. The front door of a fridge or top of a chest freezer should be safe, or build a collar for a freezer.

 

[scrambledegg81]

Just be careful where you punch that hole. There's a lot of threads on here where people have ruined their refrigerators or freezers by drilling through a coolant line. The front door of a fridge or top of a chest freezer should be safe, or build a collar for a freezer.

This.^ If you have to drill, it's far easier to remove the interior panels to see where you're drilling rather than take the risk of coming through the outside blindly.

As for #3, I also use the set & forget method, and it's worked perfectly well for me. I keep my regulator set at 10 PSI at all times, so after some calculating & research, it takes an average of 2 to 3 weeks to completely carbonate.

 

[PattyC]

I don't have a kegerator yet, so I won't be punching holes anytime soon. Probably just keep everything in my yet-to-be-purchased mini fridge/chest freezer for the time being.

My LHBS guy said maybe to just rock it at 12 psi and let it sit for a day before purging and setting to serving pressure. I might try that since I'm sure I won't be patient enough to wait 2-3 weeks my first time kegging.