New to Kegging.. Please Advise

[caldridge32]

Greetings to anyone who may read this,

Im a newbie to kegging so I would appreciate some help. All I know about kegging is that you put brew into keg then presurize with co2 then wait then drink.. I know sounds super simple but something is telling me there is much more to it. Can someone please breakdown the in's and out's of keg maintnence, upkeep, line cleaning, keg cleaning and so on.. My homebrew is important to me and I would hate for a bad keg practice to ruin some I hold in high regard. Thanks

 

[funkadelicturkey]

Greetings to you and welcome to kegging.

It is pretty simple. Clean the keg with something like PBW, you can run this through your beer lines to clean them at the same time, rinse with water, run water through your beers lines to rinse out PBW. Sanitize the kegs with something like StarSan, again run this through your lines to sanitize your line. Empty out the Starsan, fill with beer, purge the oxygen in the head space by pressurizing the keg with CO2 and opening the relief valve, repeat a few times. Hook the keg up to CO2 and use your preferred carbonation method, mine is 12 psi in the kegerator for 7+ days and enjoy. Rinse the lines whenever a keg is emptied/replaced.

 

[caldridge32]

Thanks for the information

 

[Phalangical]

Read the stickies at the top of the Bottling/Kegging section, covers everything you could possibly want to know from sanitation to carbonation to line balancing and everything in between.

 

[LuiInIdaho]

Line Length. I can't remember where I saw this, but I do know that the length of your beer line makes a difference. It has to do with the diameter the line, the length, and the pressure that you are serving at. Yooper was one who mentioned this in an earlier post. So, I would recommend that you might search for line length when you get ready to serve. Mark

 

[mugzz819]

Line Length. I can't remember where I saw this, but I do know that the length of your beer line makes a difference. It has to do with the diameter the line, the length, and the pressure that you are serving at. Yooper was one who mentioned this in an earlier post. So, I would recommend that you might search for line length when you get ready to serve. Mark

I believe 10 ft is the recommended starting point. Mostly because it's easier to shorten it if necessary than add to it. I just started kegging in Dec and got 10 ft lines and they've been fine so far. You can just coil it so it's not all over the place.

 

[0202]

Definitely check out the stickies. I found it to be really simple to get running, though I'm sure I haven't encountered all the problems there are to encounter.

- Do check your Co2 lines/manifold/etc for leakage THOROUGHLY. I lost a 5 lb tank over 2 months to a leak that I couldn't see using the soap bubble method. Still not sure where it is, so I close the valve when not in use until I identify it.
- Don't attach the liquid quick disconnect without making sure that the tap handle is securely in the off position