Kegging made easy????

[OUSooner]

For fear of sounding like a noob yet again… I am running out of room in my basement! Cases of beer, cases of wine, all kinds of brewing equipment, wine cooler, cheese that is aging, drum set, army gear and empty bottles. I literally need to start kegging. I want to set up my own system is this something that I can accomplish quickly and relatively cost effective? I have no knowledge of the system started reading some of the set ups and need this spelled out in layman’s terms lol. I can work on helicopters and UAV for Christ sake but this project seems daunting. Any help is appreciated…

 

[Firewalker11]

I bottled once and found it to be horrible so i moved on to kegging into cornies instead. Beverage elements has class lll cornies for about $35 each plus shipping, they have all the rest of the gear as well.

I got my 3/16" tubing off of Amazon.com and my ball lock QDs from Brew International, by far the best prices out there at the time I purchased them.

 

[Rockn_M]

I bought mine from the beveragefactory.com. Had everything I needed, decent price and took about a week to be delivered. Once delivered it took about 30 min to hook up and get it plugged in. That was much easier than trying to build one.

Good luck!

 

[Psylocide]

It's really idiot-proof.

Get yourself some kegs/CO2 tank/lines (I use 10'), a fridge or temp controlled freezer to put them in.

Fill kegs, put gas on them, rock and roll.

The stickies are helpful.

 

[LAHammer]

I had a spare fridge that I was already using to hold beer so I used it to start. Built a wood platform that fit the bottom of the fridge to support 2 kegs and the CO2 bottle. From my LHBS I bought the CO2 bottle and regulator along with 2 kegs, gas and beer quick connects and picnic taps. It was a tangle of tubing for a while but worked well until I was able to build a 4 tap keezer. Forget the cost but I'm thinking around $200, maybe $250.
Much easier than a helicopter...:beard:

 

[hifidelity]

Beverage elements has class lll cornies for about $35 each plus shipping, they have all the rest of the gear as well.

I received 4 of these kegs yesterday and they weren't near as bad as the description on the site would lead you to believe. I was quite pleased...what a great deal!

 

[Gavin C]

I've got a couple of setups from kegconnection.com
One for my two tap kegerator (Convereted Mini fridge)
One for my new largering chest freezer

A great site where you can get the whole setup and pick and chose what you want.

I recently switched out my 1 year old lines (5') for new lines (12'). So much easier to control and balance things with the longer lines. Don't make the same mistake I did. Get longer lines right off the bat. The 5' were OK but there is nowhere near the same level of control over a pour with all the differing carbonation levels.

• Get a C02 tank (cyltec has good prices on amazon)
• Get Kegs (I have ball lock, but pick one type and stick with it) AIH has good prices. All mine were used kegs, all work great.
• Get All the connections and lines (setups from kegconnection come preassembled with Oetiker clamps which I like to use).

The preassembled regulator and lines will largely eliminate worries of leaks.

Kegging is very simple.

Very quick too.

I bottled my first batch and that was enough for me. Now all I bottle are ones to give away and sometimes to store for extended periods. I did this primarily to test out my bottling proceedure. Bottling a few 6 packs is super easy from a keg.

 

[brewprint]

Simple.

Buy a small freezer, a temperature controller to keep it from running a freeze cycle.

Buy a picnic tap setup with a few kegs (2-4 or how ever many you want). That setup will include a co2 regulator.

Buy a co2 tank. You can buy one from where you buy the kegs. Or in my case I had to buy one where I get my co2 and I can only do exchanges.

Rock and roll!

I buy all my stuff from Homebrewing.org. They have the best prices if you look.

 

[jplowe]

I bought my CO2 tank re-certified from a fire extinguisher shop. Super cheap and its a dollar a pound to refill.

 

[brewprint]

I bought my CO2 tank re-certified from a fire extinguisher shop. Super cheap and its a dollar a pound to refill.

Jeez my refills are over $20. The co2 is cheap. It's all the other fees that bring the cost up.

 

[LandoLincoln]

From another similar thread I posted in...

Air side:

CO2 tank: Go as big as you can. A 20 pound tank costs about twice as much as a 5 pound tank but holds four times the gas. A 20 pound tank costs about 1/3 more to fill than a 5 pound tank. Bigger equals more economical, plus less trips to the gas store to refill.

Regulator: I'd start out with a single valve regulator and then later on if you decide you'd like more then it's pretty easy to add more later.

Air line: I like the red rubbery stuff that they sell at places like kegconnection.

Air distributor: Figure out how many kegs your keezer can hold and just buy an air distributor than can service that many kegs. Yes, they're ridiculously pricey for a metal bar and some valves, but...eh. Buy once, cry once. Make sure that the valves are all check valves which will prevent beer from going from one keg to other kegs in the event of one keg being over-pressurized and over-full.

Hose clamps: Nothing fancy needed. Simple hose clamps from Home Depot or Lowes will be fine.

Air line quick disconnects: Depends on if you have ball lock or pin lock kegs. Just get the right ones. Go with the ones that have MFL swivel connectors instead of just the barbs. They're more pricey but those MFL connections really come in handy.

Liquid side:

Quick disconnects: Pretty much the same advice as the air disconnects.

Beer line: Inside diameter and length are important. If you're making a keezer you'll want to go with 3/16" ID tubing, and at least 10' per line.

Picnic taps: A very easy and economical way to start kegging. No shame in starting off with these. But if you want the whole shebang...

Faucet assemblies:

Tail piece for faucet: Typically, chrome shanks have a tail piece built in to the shank and stainless shanks do not, so do yourself a favor and go all stainless and get stainless tail pieces. Chrome and beer don't like each other, and chrome will tarnish and eventually dissolve, leaving you with garbage that needs to be replaced. Just go stainless and get stainless 3/16" tail pieces and the associated rubber gasket that goes with them.

Shanks: Again, stainless is highly recommended. You'll notice a lot of people have shanks that are way way longer than what's needed to go through their keezer collars. This is because the more mass the shank has, the cooler the shank stays, and the less foaming issues you may encounter. I'd recommend a 3" shank.

Faucets: Stainless and forward-sealing, which usually means Perlicks. Leave them to your kids when you die, because they'll still be working long after you're not.

Other stuff:

Faucet wrench: Very useful and cheap.

 

[Newsman]

There's a guy here that sells recertified CO2 tanks... GREAT prices and great to work with. If you send him a picture of a money order made out to him, he'll cross-ship the CO2 (empty) tank.
(edit)
Here's the link to his latest post: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=530118

 

[SnakeRidge]

From another similar thread I posted in...
...

Thanks for that info, Lando. Very useful.

 

[PlexVector]

For fear of sounding like a noob yet again… I am running out of room in my basement! Cases of beer, cases of wine, all kinds of brewing equipment, wine cooler, cheese that is aging, drum set, army gear and empty bottles. I literally need to start kegging. I want to set up my own system is this something that I can accomplish quickly and relatively cost effective? I have no knowledge of the system started reading some of the set ups and need this spelled out in layman’s terms lol. I can work on helicopters and UAV for Christ sake but this project seems daunting. Any help is appreciated…

Don't forget coffee roasting...I don't think I saw that on your list.

 

[Onkel_Udo]

For fear of sounding like a noob yet again… I am running out of room in my basement! Cases of beer, cases of wine, all kinds of brewing equipment, wine cooler, cheese that is aging, drum set, army gear and empty bottles. I literally need to start kegging. I want to set up my own system is this something that I can accomplish quickly and relatively cost effective? I have no knowledge of the system started reading some of the set ups and need this spelled out in layman’s terms lol. I can work on helicopters and UAV for Christ sake but this project seems daunting. Any help is appreciated…

So are you a Sooner Grad or a Sooner fan...need to know just how far to dumb it down.

But seriously, even a Texas Aggie can do this. The questions not asked or answered seem to be:

How much/often do you brew
How many beers on tap do you want at one time

I normally have two on tap and 2-4 (additional) 5-gallon kegs full at any one time. This means I NEED space for two cornie kegs in a fridge with two taps of some sort (I just have the ends of cheap picnic taps stick out of drilled holes in the fridge door). I NEED a single gauge regulator with a splitter, 2 gas and 2 liquid quick disconnects and 6 kegs. As mentioned you also need the various lines and fittings but at that point is easier, and often cheaper, to buy a kit from Beverage elements, Adventures in Homebrewing, or two or three other folks whose names escape me.

Now the things I WANT verses need. I want a serving fridge capable of holding 4 kegs. I want a fancy secondary regulator so I can run two different serving pressures or force carb two kegs at a higher pressure while serving two. I want a fancy set of faucets with custom tap handles and this crazy thing the call a drip tray. Finally, I want my kegerator upstairs but that 1955 GE flattop is never, ever leaving that basement unless it is cut up for scrap or I learn to levitate heavy objects with just my mind.

Brought to you by OSU grad...

 

[OUSooner]

So are you a Sooner Grad or a Sooner fan...need to know just how far to dumb it down.

But seriously, even a Texas Aggie can do this. The questions not asked or answered seem to be:

How much/often do you brew
How many beers on tap do you want at one time

I normally have two on tap and 2-4 (additional) 5-gallon kegs full at any one time. This means I NEED space for two cornie kegs in a fridge with two taps of some sort (I just have the ends of cheap picnic taps stick out of drilled holes in the fridge door). I NEED a single gauge regulator with a splitter, 2 gas and 2 liquid quick disconnects and 6 kegs. As mentioned you also need the various lines and fittings but at that point is easier, and often cheaper, to buy a kit from Beverage elements, Adventures in Homebrewing, or two or three other folks whose names escape me.

Now the things I WANT verses need. I want a serving fridge capable of holding 4 kegs. I want a fancy secondary regulator so I can run two different serving pressures or force carb two kegs at a higher pressure while serving two. I want a fancy set of faucets with custom tap handles and this crazy thing the call a drip tray. Finally, I want my kegerator upstairs but that 1955 GE flattop is never, ever leaving that basement unless it is cut up for scrap or I learn to levitate heavy objects with just my mind.

Brought to you by OSU grad...

lol I am a Sooner Fan never attended the school. My wife is a OSU Alum. It can be very hostile at my house during Bedlam...

 

[OUSooner]

All great information guys I was surprised at the amount of responses I received. Haven't logged in for 2 days.

 

[Curtis2010]

Short answer, as should be evident already, is "yes". It may be a little intimidating at first, but is in fact easy and you can get a basic kegging system relativley inexpensively. And obviously you can get lots of support here!

I suggest getting two C02 tanks early on. Really sucks to run out and be a long way from a refill. I have two 5 lb tanks and rotate them out. Two regulators are handy too for when you need different pressures for different uses. Keg lube and some spare parts & o-rings are lifesavers too.

 

[BlackInk]

K-State grad here, just throw money it. [emoji23]

I'm going through the same quandary. I settled on the Draft Brew flex system: http://www.midwestsupplies.com/draft-brewer-flex-keg-system.html