new to kegging

[dicowitz88]

Ok so ive often thought about it but never done my wife is thinking about getting me a kegerator now my question is besides the key itself would the keg have everything i need to keg my home brew or would i be looking at getting more equipment to actuallu keg my beer

 

[carlisle_bob]

Hi

A normal keggerator will come with *most* of the stuff to handle a commercial keg. Often they don't have a CO2 tank.

To easily keg your own beer, you will need some different fittings than come on a standard keggerator. You will also need one or more corny kegs. Figure the kegs will be in the $30 to $50 range (each) and the fittings might run $20 to $30.

Bob

 

[dicowitz88]

Ok so once i get all this i hook everything up force carb for about a week the disconnect everything and can store it for a bit or does co2 have to be connected even while beer is carbonated and not in use

 

[carlisle_bob]

Ok so once i get all this i hook everything up force carb for about a week the disconnect everything and can store it for a bit or does co2 have to be connected even while beer is carbonated and not in use

Hi

You probably need to force carb it for about three weeks if you are running at "normal" pressure. If you are doing some sort of over pressure deal, you can get it done faster.

If the keg doesn not leak, then yes you can unhook everything at that point. If you are lucky, it will stay carb'd just fine.

Bob

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Clearly you can take the money you've saved on punctuation, and apply that to your kegging budget!

 

[erikpete18]

^Ha, snarky, but funny . Anyways, mine take generally 2-3 weeks to carb up using the set-and-forget method, but even then they don't start tasting right until the 3rd or 4th week, I think due to the carbonic acid from the dissolved CO2. When you talk about unhooking it, do you mean to age it, or while you are serving it? For aging in the keg, I'll generally just hit the keg with around 30psi to make sure everything is sealed up, then set it off somewhere where it doesn't get too hot. Then once you're ready to drink it, you can hook it up to co2 and carb it. If you want it ready right away, you could even naturally carb with priming sugar in the keg, although you'll have to use less than you would for bottling.

Also, just a thought, but a lot of the time you can build a better kegerator than you can buy, unless you've found a nice deal on one. Take a look at a bunch of the threads on here (search for "kegerator" or "keezer"). It really doesn't take much in the way of DIY know-how, and for the same price of a mini-fridge sized kegerator (what, around $400?), you could make a much nicer one. You've just got to convince the wife that in the end it will end up costing the same!