Kegging multiple kegs at once for a party

[Jbrew]

So as the title states. Have always heard about homebrewers supplying their bbqs with their own homebrew, so I've decided I want to give it a go. Looking to do 4 or 5 kegs, have till the summer, so plenty of time for planning but wanted to start getting everything in line so i can adequately plan. Thinking of doing 2 kegs of the triple hopped miller lite clone ale, maybe a keg or 2 of kona big wave, and some kind of ipa, not sure yet, obviously still have plenty of time to work that out.
I don't have a fridge big enough to hold that many corny kegs at once, so ill be force carbing warm. What's the best way to do this? Should i build a 5 valve manifold and just set the regulator at 22psi or so to shoot for about 2.2 vols or so? Or Would I be better off doing each keg individually? I would guess either way ill have to build the manifold for serving. Thanks all for any suggestions.

 

[day_trippr]

As our favorite carbonation table runs out of temperature scope at 65°F, I find this calculator more useful for determining the appropriate pressure for "warm carbonation".

I'd just slap a multi-port manifold on a primary regulator body and set to whatever pressure vs temperature results in your desired volumes of CO2. Put the kegs on gas as you cook up each batch, leave each on gas for couple of weeks. No reason to make it any more complicated/expensive...

Cheers!

 

[Jbrew]

The calculator was helpful, thank you. What happens when I'm ready to serve. I will put them in a tub and ice them, do I degass and drop the pressure?

 

[Master]

I've done this, but I used corn sugar in the keg and basically bottle-carbed it 5 gallons at a shot.

Put in the sugar, rack the beer into it, give it a quick hit of CO2 to seal the lid and let it sit.

 

[RangemasterD]

So as the title states. Have always heard about homebrewers supplying their bbqs with their own homebrew, so I've decided I want to give it a go. Looking to do 4 or 5 kegs, have till the summer, so plenty of time for planning but wanted to start getting everything in line so i can adequately plan. Thinking of doing 2 kegs of the triple hopped miller lite clone ale, maybe a keg or 2 of kona big wave, and some kind of ipa, not sure yet, obviously still have plenty of time to work that out.
I don't have a fridge big enough to hold that many corny kegs at once, so ill be force carbing warm. What's the best way to do this? Should i build a 5 valve manifold and just set the regulator at 22psi or so to shoot for about 2.2 vols or so? Or Would I be better off doing each keg individually? I would guess either way ill have to build the manifold for serving. Thanks all for any suggestions.

 

[eric19312]

The calculator was helpful, thank you. What happens when I'm ready to serve. I will put them in a tub and ice them, do I degass and drop the pressure?

I find it is always good practice to vent the PRV before hooking a new keg up to pressure. If the keg is over the pressure of the line I get beer in my gas lines. If you chill the kegs before putting them on pressure the issue will be reduced but still a good practice. If you can put them in the tub with ice the day before the event. They are going to take some time to chill.

One solution to this issue would be to not chill the kegs. Buy or build a jockey box. Then you would not need to figure out how to keep all 5 kegs cold. You could just disconnect the keg that kicks and reconnect to the next keg in line.

 

[eric19312]

I've done this, but I used corn sugar in the keg and basically bottle-carbed it 5 gallons at a shot.

Put in the sugar, rack the beer into it, give it a quick hit of CO2 to seal the lid and let it sit.

Corn sugar (table sugar works just as well) in the keg is great solution for warm carbonation and has advantage of scrubbing oxygen introduced during your kegging procedure. But you end up with a fair amount of yeast in the keg which needs time and stillness to settle out. It has worked well for me when I can take that warm carbed "bottle conditioned" keg and drop it into my keezer and let it sit for a couple days. But I'd be cautious in a situation where the kegs are going to be moved around a few hours before serving.

 

[mongoose33]

Since you have a long time before you need these kegs, why not keg something now, figure out how well your carbonation is going to work, etc? You'll want to figure out serving temps, line length, are you serving from picnic taps or are you going to get some faucets, etc?

I wouldn't think you'd want the first test of your plan to be at your BBQ.

 

[madscientist451]

I've carbed in the keg before with a slightly shortened dip tube, it works great.
For the amount of lead time you have your beer selection seems somewhat
uninspired. But, you have plenty of time, so you can tweak your beer
selection and recipes.
The Kona golden ale should suit a wide range of tastes, but I'm skeptical about a triple hopped lite beer, I guess it would depend on the hops.
If you have a cool basement, now would be the time to make lagers and let them cold condition. It would really be better to get a cheap fridge on craigslist so you have more room for your kegs can keep lagers cold the whole time.
You should consider throwing in a beer/cider hybrid or some other fruit beer,
a standard IPA and lower ABV, session IPA.
Basic brewing radio had a podcast featuring a Graff made with palisades hops, LME, steeping grain and apple juice that everyone agreed was good.
(I haven't tried it yet)
Even in warm weather, some drinkers like a dark beer so maybe a standard ABV porter?
You don't need to have all 5 kegs tapped at once, so you really don't need a manifold. A manifold and a bunch of lines increases the possibilities of leaks, and problems. You can skip all that by using picnic taps and switching the gas line from keg to keg as the beer is used up. Or, instead of buying a manifold and more lines and hardware, get another CO2 bottle.

 

[Jbrew]

Well i currently have a kegerator now with two taps. I've been using the set it and forget it method at 12psi. The kegs are cold at the time though of carbonation and stay cold the whole time. I'm also running 10 foot long beer lines. I did give some thought as to how the pour would be, but I guess im being optimistic that it would be a nice pour with picnic taps.

A jockey box would be really cool, but I think that's more equipment investment that I don't really want to make, as 3 taps would be needed on the box and i probably wouldnt use it again for at least another year or 2.

 

[Jbrew]

I havnt explored too much about what I plan to brew yet. The crowd ill be serving will all be new to home brew, and are generally comfortable with stuff like Heineken, Coors lt, and corona. So I was erring on the side of caution using Schenkerla's miller lite recipe, then figured the kona big wave was still a smooth, less scary beer, but still a step up from lite ale. I then figured an ipa, but I'm expecting that the ipa would be the least drunk.
I'm still giving it some thought though. Maybe I'm being too ambitious and should just 2 homebrews and supplement with commercial beer.
Thanks for the help so far.

 

[redarmy990]

a barrel of beer will take anywhere from 24-36 hours to chill in a beer fridge, Im talking here about walk in cooler that bars and restaurants use.

So a 5 gallon corny would probably chill in around 12 hours to serving temp.

And putting it on ice should get it chilled quicker than that , expect froth.