New to Kegging Questions

[guitar510]

I just got my corny keg setup and kegged my first beer!

A few questions come to mind now that I have...

1. Can I force carbonate with the picnic faucet attached?

2. How do I clear the picnic faucet of liquid if I detach it from the keg?

3. When bottling, I would rack to the bottling bucket not too worried if some yeast came along. The yeast would settle out in the bottom of the bottle and I could leave it behind when pouring from the bottle to a glass. How does this translate to the keg? The dip tube goes to the very bottom and I assume there is similar settling in the bottom of the keg.

 

[sudsmcgee]

1. Yes, just make sure it doesn't leak beer.

2. I use a pump from this thread. I pump sanitizer through it and leave the line full of sanitizer when storing.

3. I've never bothered racking to the bottling bucket. I rack right into the keg. You get a bit of yeast for the first couple of pours, and then as long as you don't shake the keg, it pours crystal clear.

 

[THEDIETZ]

1. yes you can...just make sure the faucet isn't open. but why chance it? just take it off.

2. when i am done with a beer to clear the faucet..i just fill the empty keg with hot water and oxyclean...during cleaning the keg i put the co2 on the keg and pour some of the solution through it to clean the line. then when i rinse the keg i do the same thing again to rinse the faucet/line

3. i don't use a secondary. i use the primary for a month method that you can read a lot about on here. most of the yeast cake gets pretty packed up by that point. be careful when racking into the keg...but if you are gentle you will get a very clear beer

 

[sudsmcgee]

I also pump iodophor solution through my lines from a keg as stated above. When I do this, to avoid wasting CO2, I created this attachment to pump compressed air into the keg to force the iodophor solution out.

 

[guitar510]

Thanks for the quick replies.

3. I should have been more clear. I did go straight from 1 month primary to keg. Even though the yeast cake was dense and I transferred carefully, there would be some settling at the bottom of the keg from the transfer and the chilling of the beer.

 

[sudsmcgee]

Don't worry. Let it rest at kegerator temp for at least a week. Only the first one or two beers should be slightly cloudy. After that you're all good.

 

[badbrew]

I also pump iodophor solution through my lines from a keg as stated above. When I do this, to avoid wasting CO2, I created this attachment to pump compressed air into the keg to force the iodophor solution out.

That's pretty trick. I need to try that. I bet there is a fitting to convert from air hose to the nut on the keg connector somewhere. :fro: