New brewer...or soon to be

[Djshakes]

Hello All

After going through 7 kegs of Blue Moon and my cheap friends barely contributing I think it is time to learn to brew my own beer. Besides, I need a new hobby. I have been reading thread after thread on here and have started the Home Brew book by John Palmer.

I have one question. I currently have a kegerator built into my bar that I love. Is is difficult to keg your home brew? I know I need to get corny kegs and the other gear. From what I read it can be tricky pressurizing the korny kegs?

I don't want to deal with bottles. Thanks!

 

[lebucheron]

Some good answers and resources here:
http://tinyurl.com/9llqqnb

 

[Djshakes]

Thanks I read three or four of the threads. It didn't say how to do it specifically but I am assuming it can't be that difficult. Basically get the beer in the keg and then pressurize it. I have the C02 setup already and just need the corny kegs and any connectors.

One last question:

Lets say I fill up two cornys. I don't have daul CO2 system. Is it okay to fill one keg, carb and drink while the other sits in the keg unpressurized? Once the first keg runs out I just hook up the second, carb and drink?

 

[Yooper]

Thanks I read three or four of the threads. It didn't say how to do it specifically but I am assuming it can't be that difficult. Basically get the beer in the keg and then pressurize it. I have the C02 setup already and just need the corny kegs and any connectors.

One last question:

Lets say I fill up two cornys. I don't have daul CO2 system. Is it okay to fill one keg, carb and drink while the other sits in the keg unpressurized? Once the first keg runs out I just hook up the second, carb and drink?

Trust me, it's not difficult at all! If I can do it, anybody can do it!

You can certainly carb and drink one keg while one is unpressurized. But even easier is to get a "t" fitting and carb them both up at the same time. Even if you only have one tap, you can carb up the second and just switch the tap over when you want to. That can be for a different style of beer, or for the same beer.

It's really easy to do. I have one regulator, one tank, but I have a distributor that has a 4-way so I can have four kegs at the same pressure in my kegerator. I have three taps. There are numerous ways to do this, and none of them are expensive since you have the basics already.

Brewing is fairly simple and straightforward for the most part. If you can bake a cake, you can make beer. Some of us geek out totally and make it far more involved than it needs to be, while some just brew once a month with some extracts. Most are in the middle, and find that a few simple items make brewing fun and easy.

 

[Djshakes]

Thanks Yooper. I have read more and it seems a keg needs to be under pressure for about 3 weeks to get the desired volume if you are NOT force carbing with 30 psi for a day. That is fine. Once I pass the three weeks it will be easy sailing. When one is done I can switch over to the other, brew a batch and hopefully when the second is done the new keg is ready.

Like everything, I figured some people were super technical and tried not to get intimidated. I hope to be there some day. Found some corny's and fermenting bottles on C list. Will have to pick them up this weekend.

 

[RM-MN]

If you have a brew in the fermenter and the keg to put it in isn't empty there is no great rush to get it out of the fermenter. So far the longest I've kept a brew in the fermenter was 9 weeks, plenty of time to get the keg emptied. My brew came out really good too.