New to corny kegging - storage?

[adagiogray]

My brewing buddy just invtested in a single corny setup. I've got a belgian that's about ready to go to bottle, or possibly keg.

My question is, once the beer is put in the keg, does it have to be chilled?
If not, do you have to keep it chilled once you start dispensing?
Do you need to use most of it at once, or can you pull off a beer here and there without having to actually refrigerate?

 

[Barnzy02]

Yes, the keg would need to be refridgerated.

The best way to look at it is as thought the keg is a 5 gallon bottle.

The beer will need to be chilled and carbonated.

You can force carb (set to serving pressure for a week or two then drink or set to ~30 PSI and shake)or naturally carb in a keg (use priming sugar and let sit for 3 weeks at room temp)

 

[Yooper]

You don't have to chill your keg until you want to. Beer ages faster at room temperature than chilled anyway, so if it's a beer that needs a bit of aging, I'll leave a keg out on purpose. You can either force carb it, or use some priming sugar to carb it up. It can carb up while it sits.

You don't need to chill your keg while dispensing, either, but warm foamy beer doesn't really sound that good to me. I've kept a keg in my basement though, and served at cellar temperature (in the low 50s) and that was fine. You can pull a beer off whenever you'd like, but you need to replace the co2 that comes out to keep the beer carbonated.

 

[idigg]

Hopefully I'm not thread jacking, but I have a few questions. My first kegged beer seems to get TOO much foam. I basically racked to keg, hit it with co2, purged a few times, set PSI to 25PSI for 24 hours, purged that, set it to 12PSI and let it sit for 1 week. I get 3/4 foam, and it eventually goes away. Is it over carbonated?

I am kegging EdWort pale ale in 2 weeks, here is what I want to do...

1. Rack beer to keg, purge, set to 12PSI and leave at room temp.
2. I can unhook co2 at this point right? Keg has 12PSI in it...
3. After 1 week at room temp, put in fridge (39*F) and hook up c02 (12PSI).

Sound right? I don't want anymore foam!
TIA,
Justin

 

[Yooper]

Hopefully I'm not thread jacking, but I have a few questions. My first kegged beer seems to get TOO much foam. I basically racked to keg, hit it with co2, purged a few times, set PSI to 25PSI for 24 hours, purged that, set it to 12PSI and let it sit for 1 week. I get 3/4 foam, and it eventually goes away. Is it over carbonated?

I am kegging EdWort pale ale in 2 weeks, here is what I want to do...

1. Rack beer to keg, purge, set to 12PSI and leave at room temp.
2. I can unhook co2 at this point right? Keg has 12PSI in it...
3. After 1 week at room temp, put in fridge (39*F) and hook up c02 (12PSI).

Sound right? I don't want anymore foam!
TIA,
Justin

Room temperature carbing requires more pressure- check a carbonation chart to get it right. But when you lower the temperature, it does change the carb level. At room temperature, somewhere around 30 psi should be right.

If your foaming goes away after serving a beer, the problem is probably not overcarbonation, but an issue with the lines. Either the lines are warmer than the beer (which gets fixed on the second pour), or the lines are too short, or both.

 

[HawksBrewer]

2. I can unhook co2 at this point right? Keg has 12PSI in it...

No, you will need to keep it hooked up to the co2 to continue replacing the co2 that is becoming dissolved in the beer. Once you reach your desired carb level you can disconnect from co2 if you need to because you have reached your carbonation equilibrium so to speak.

 

[adagiogray]

Just to clarify - he has a keg and the carb setup. The ferment is done(4 weeks, down from 1.074 OG to 1.014), I'm probably going to rack it straight from the primary. I was going to let it age in the keg for a few months, I asume we don't need to hook up the CO2 just yet, not until we go to chill and serve? I wasn't planning to use bottling sugar since we can force carb down the road, but what are folks' recommendations here? *should* we use bottling sugar, or should we eventually turn on some co2 in a couple of months to get it ready for serving?

 

[choffon]

If your gonna let it sit for a couple months I would prime it instead of force carb cause it seems to taste a little better to me. Just my two cents

 

[frydogbrews]

its up to you if you want to force or naturally carb. either way, purge all the air out of the keg before putting it aside. to do this, you just fill the keg with some pressure (~15 maybe) and pull the release. do that 3 times or so to blow as much regular air out of the headspace in the keg.

personally, after purging, i would jack that keg up to about 50 psi and THEN put it aside. that will dissolve into the beer while it is aging and then when you go to force carb, you have a jump on it. don't do this if you are going to naturally carb though. i rarely ever naturally carb anymore, unlike choffon, i like it more that way. (although in a blind tasting i probably couldn't tell difference, so what do i know?!?)

 

[choffon]

I prob couldn't tell the difference in a blind taste test either lol