Kegging without fridge/kegerator

[ArcaneXor]

I searched for an answer for this, but didn't find anything that really answered my question.

Basically, I am interested to find out if it is feasible to keg my homebrew in 5-gallon corny kegs and carbonating them either by force or naturally at room temperature. Since I don't have a chest freezer or fridge to store the cornies cold (and no room in my place to install a used one from Craigslist), I would dispense the room-temperature beer into 2-l soda bottles with a carbonater cap and put those in the fridge on an as-needed basis. Or I might use something like a beer gun to fill glass bottles, again with warm beer that would then be put in my regular fridge to cool.

Would this work ok? Anything special I should know in terms of equipment or pressure calculations to end up with properly carbonated, non-oxidized beer, or is it really as simple as hooking a gas tank to the filled keg at a certain PSI, shaking the keg for a while, and then dispensing it using some sort of beverage tubing via the carbonater cap into the 2-l bottle?

 

[MoRoToRiUm]

Would work great for aging and conditioning! You can carb with out it being chilled, but it will take longer if you force carb. You could use the keg as a 'big bottle'; natural carb, and leave it warm to carb up and condition. Use a counter pressure fill method (like beer gun or BMBF sticky) to bottle then chill for serving.

 

[EdWort]

Sounds like a lot of work when you may as well just bottle can carbonate in 2L bottles.

Just fill the 2L bottle to about 1.5" from the top and add 1 slightly heaping Tbls. cane sugar to it, then squeeze the bottle till the beer comes to the top and screw on the cap. This gets rid of all the air and makes room for the pressure from carbonation. When the bottle is rock hard, it's ready to chill and drink.

The results are the same for you without the expense of all that equipment.

 

[ArcaneXor]

Sounds like a lot of work when you may as well just bottle can carbonate in 2L bottles.

Just fill the 2L bottle to about 1.5" from the top and add 1 slightly heaping Tbls. cane sugar to it, then squeeze the bottle till the beer comes to the top and screw on the cap. This gets rid of all the air and makes room for the pressure from carbonation. When the bottle is rock hard, it's ready to chill and drink.

The results are the same for you without the expense of all that equipment.

That is a good point. I was just thinking along the lines of being able to drink the beer more quickly by force carbonating it, having better control over carbonation levels, and getting some of the basic equipment (i.e. the kegs) now while they are still cheap. But I see that without having a way to keep the kegs themselves cool, it may be more difficult that it is worth to quickly and precisely carbonate this way because of the lower solubility of the gas at higher temperatures.

I'll think about it for a while. I may still get the kegs, even if just to learn how they work or use as them as bright tanks to free up my 5-gallon Better Bottles for meads or Apfelwein. If not - I don't really mind bottling all that much, so I may as well stick with it until I can get a "real" kegging setup sometime next year.

 

[EdWort]

Nothing wrong in investing in some cornies. I am sure they will hold their value.

It just seemed to me to be a bunch of work only to eventually end up in a 2L bottle. I know a brewer who bottles this way and his beers are awesome! He buys 2L bottles of store brand club soda for $0.69 and pours it out. No cleaning required and he gets 3-4 batches easy out of the caps. Only 10 bottles for a batch.

 

[Cpt_Kirks]

You will definitely need a counter pressure filler. I fill 2 liter bottles without one (need to put one on my to do list) and get a good bit of foam out of chilled kegs. With warm kegs, you are liable to get 2 liters of foam.

 

[MoRoToRiUm]

Grab the cornies now! It will help spread the cost of your future kegerator/keezer They will work great as a secondary ferment vessel (or primary too, which is what I do). If you are planning on carbing in the 2 litres (good plan) it would free up another carboy/better bottle for more beer when it's in secondary. Let us know how it goes