Lots of corny kegs - What are the options?

[seabrew8]

I will have 5 corny kegs next week some time and was looking around for some options. I only have 2 carboys and a few buckets i'm not keen on using, too old and scratched up.

- Can i just rack my fermented beer from my glass carboy to the corny and let it age for a while? Then chill and force carbonate it when i'm ready to drink it?

- What about priming it? Do you just rack the fermented beer with the priming sugar and once it carbonates put it on 10-12 psi?

Is one faster then the other? Pros and Cons?

Any tables on how long sugar priming takes?

Do you have to drink the whole keg once you start dispensing out of it? Or can you switch out another keg at any time with no ill effects.



Thanks,
Brad

 

[JoshuaWhite5522]

Brad,

now I'm not kegging yet, but a couple of brewing buddies of mine do. As far as I know, and someone with a little more knowledge may want to chime in and correct me if I am wrong, there is nothing wrong with moving your fermented beer to a corney, I would fill the keg with CO2 to purge the oxygen to avoid oxidization. Still IMHO you might just as well fill the keg with CO2 and start force carbonating since it does take some time for all the beer to absorb the CO2

Priming your keg is another option, just beware your first few pulls off the keg will have a good deal of yeast. You can avoid this by triming an nich or two off your dip tube, so that is sits above the slurry that will develop.

Force Carbonating would be faster, especially if you do the "shake your corney" method, I tend to aviod this because everytime you shake you risk breaking the protiens that are responsible for head retention.

As long as you are keeping you beer under CO2 pressure and at a constant temp, you should have no ill effects from switching to another keg.

 

[frolickingmonkey]

Adding to the good advice Joshua gave you...

You don't necessarily have to purge the keg with CO2 before you rack your beer into it, but it's very important to purge any O2 out of the headspace of the keg and to make sure the lid is sealed properly. The main concepts go something like this:

1. Rack your beer into the keg and put the lid on.
2. Turn your regulator up to between 10-30psi (I like 25psi) and attach the gas to the keg. This will seat the lid with positive pressure.
3. Pull the relief valve in 3-6 short bursts. This will purge the O2 out of the headspace.

You can then disconnect the gas and let the kegs hang out in your basement, closet, etc until you're ready to force carbonate them in your fridge/keezer/etc. If force carbonating and you've got the space in your fridge/keezer, I prefer the "set it and forget it" method, as you know that after a couple of weeks your carbonation levels will be perfect and you don't have to monkey around with anything. This usually takes between 10-14 days, but I find things are even better after 3 weeks.

If you're going to prime the kegs and go the natural carbonation route, you'll still want to seat the lid and purge the O2 first. Figure it takes the same amount of time as bottle conditioning, so a minimum of 3 weeks at room temperature, possibly longer.

Like Joshua said, as long as the kegs are under pressure, don't feel... pressured... to drink the whole thing. If you're switching kegs, just make sure you clean your tap lines between kegs.

 

[seabrew8]

As long as you are keeping you beer under CO2 pressure and at a constant temp, you should have no ill effects from switching to another keg.

So i can drink a few gallons of carbonated keg beer, unhook it from the C02 and take it out of the frig and place it at a similar temperature and not worry about it spoiling?

 

[seabrew8]

Like Joshua said, as long as the kegs are under pressure, don't feel... pressured... to drink the whole thing. If you're switching kegs, just make sure you clean your tap lines between kegs.

So if i pull a few glasses out of a keg and decide to let it age more, i can just set it aside again and use another one? What Temperature would you put it in?

 

[JoshuaWhite5522]

I would say no greater than 68 degrees, but I generally try to age mine a little below the beers serving temp. 55-60 for strong beers, 50-55 for regular ales, and 45-50 for lagers and light beers.

 

[ReeseAllen]

My vote is yes, you could safely take a half-drank keg out of the fridge and store it for a couple of weeks, assuming it was pressurized with CO2 and the seals were good. Hit the fittings with star-san before putting it into storage, and also when bringing it back out of storage. But you're already sanitizing all your fittings between uses, right?

If you're looking to age a beer, you're going to need live yeast in the beer while it's in storage. Most homebrewers with keg systems use force carbonation, and many crash cool their fermenters before racking into the keg, so relatively little yeast makes it into the keg and the CO2 tank provides all the carbonation. If you're carbonating your kegged beer via sugar priming, however, there should be enough viable yeast left in the keg that when it is warmed back up to room temperature, some of the yeast wakes back up and starts working on breaking down the bad compounds in your beer.

 

[shortyjacobs]

I tap kegs early and then realize I want to let them age longer all the time. I just stick the carbonated keg in my basement at about 65 degrees and let it age for weeks or months. Beer's always better after sitting, that's for sure. I've had aging cure a number of annoying flaws.

 

[Homercidal]

I was wondering out loud here...

If you rack your beer into a keg, then pump the pressure up to say, 30 PSI and stick it in the closet, isn't the beer going to absorb the CO2 in the headspace and allow the pressure in the keg to drop to almost nothing?

I usually force carb quickly, or put the keg in the fridge, so I am unsure how much CO2 room temperature beer will take in. Last time I conditioned my beer outside of the fridge, I kept the gas connected for 2 weeks.

 

[shortyjacobs]

I was wondering out loud here...

If you rack your beer into a keg, then pump the pressure up to say, 30 PSI and stick it in the closet, isn't the beer going to absorb the CO2 in the headspace and allow the pressure in the keg to drop to almost nothing?

I usually force carb quickly, or put the keg in the fridge, so I am unsure how much CO2 room temperature beer will take in. Last time I conditioned my beer outside of the fridge, I kept the gas connected for 2 weeks.

Yup. Beer will hold whatever carbonation you put in it. If the beer is flat, and you charge the headspace to 30 PSI then let it sit, it will equilibrate to 1-2 PSI headspace and a small volume of carbonation.

To carbonate at room temp, you need more like 25-30 PSI. To carbonate in a fridge, you need 10-12 PSI (depending on style of course).

HOWEVER, carbonation is just equilibrium. SO, if you, for example, carbonate in a fridge at 10-12 PSI, then disconnect the keg and store at room temp, the headspace will increase pressure up to 25 PSI or so, but the carbonation of the beer will remain the same. Likewise, if you carbonate at room temp and then disconnect the gas, then put it in the fridge, the headspace pressure will drop from 25 PSI to 10 PSI or whatever, and carbonation will also stay the same.

The headspace pressure/carbonation pressure is an equilibrium thing, so as the keg warms, for example, both the beer and CO2 in headspace warms. The CO2 in the headspace will increase pressure due to PV=nRT, but won't carbonate the beer more, because the partial vapor pressure of the CO2 in the beer will increase exactly the same.

 

[Cpt_Kirks]

I rack from primary to keg, then seal the keg with 30psi, purging it three times in the process. I carb it at 30psi for 2 days, then drop the pressure down to about 12-15psi for a week or two. If I am carbing at room temp, I raise it to 20psi for the first week.

Kegs can be moved in and out of the fridge, no prob. You want to store the keg at 70*F or less. The cooler, the better.

I had a 8% ABV keg of Weizenbock that went in and out of the kegerator for a year, it only got better.

Problem is, I need more kegs. Next batch will fill all 13, so I need to buy more or get to drinking.