One last checklist

[brackbrew]

Sorry to bug about this again,

I'm going to start the entire kegging process next week for the brews for my wedding, but I want to make sure I have all the steps right. So anybody that reads this and has kegging knowledge please respond to let me know if my processes are right, wrong, missing something, etc. From everything I've read here and elsewhere, this is what I've compiled...

1. Break down keg
2. Wash all components and sanitize all components with iodophor
3. Rinse inside of keg (with sterilized water) and reassemble
4. Use some CO2 pressure and run some rinse water through the beverage-out tube
5. Wash and sanitize siphon
6. Siphon beer into kegs
7. Pressurize each keg to about 5psi to prevent any kind of leakage
8. Chill kegs to drinking temperature (mid-40's to 50's F)
9. Pressurize kegs to desired psi for correct volumes of CO2 in each beer style
10. Keep pressurized and chilled for a few days
11. Wash tap, attach, bring pressure down to approx. 10-12 psi
12. Dispense and (taste test).

Now, my only other questions are this...I'll have three gas connect hoses (one for each keg), but I only have one tank and one regulator for the CO2. What's the best way to get each carbonated right? My three styles are a pale ale, a brown ale and a hefe. Where can I get information about the correct volumes of CO2 for each beer?

Since these three kegs are for my wedding, I HAVE to make sure I get this right. The wedding is on July 22nd. All I'm on waiting on to arrive is the temp regulator for my freezer and the other gas connect hoses and taps.

THANKS SO MUCH FOR EVERYBODY'S INPUT!!!

BREW ON

 

[Sephro]

Few corrections... #1 Some people will purge the kegs with CO2 before racking the beer in there.. Its not critical but some people say it should be done..

For the CO2 amounts the Best way IMO is to Download ProMash. Even the free trial will work. They have the calculator for it in there. Chances are at 40-50F you will only need to put 13-14psi in there so you shouldn't have to drop the pressure at all to serve. Just make sure you have your system balanced.
Here is a link to teach you how to do that
http://www.franklinbrew.org/brewinfo/balance.html Link also has a carb chart..
I have found that if you repeat step #12 6+ times you get the best results

You may want to pour 1-2 glasses from each before serving to people because there often times will be a bit of sediment that will come up there... It's not like you can't drink it just for aesthetics.

Also a little keglube on the o-rings is a good idea to ensure it makes a good seal..

You can speed the carb process up a bit by blowing CO2 through the Out valve.. Just DO NOT PUT ON THE GAS LINE ON THAT POST!!! It will get stuck... If you do choose to put it on make sure you put one of the brown connectors on there....

 

[david_42]

The simplest solution is to get a gas manifold so you can have all three tanks connected at the same time. Otherwise, just hit each keg with 30 psi twice a day for at least a week.

If you obsess too much over the beer, SHMBO will get the wrong idea.

 

[brackbrew]

Two questions, what is purging with CO2 and what does it do? And what is a gas manifold, and where can I get one (and how much does it cost)?

Ok, so that was technically five questions...but I'm getting down to crunch time here...

BREW ON

 

[david_42]

Northern brewer is a good place for manifolds, about $45 for a four port. Purging with CO2 is just putting a few psi on a keg then releasing it to help remove the oxygen from the keg. Since the ale will be long gone before oxidation sets in, you really don't have to worry.

 

[brackbrew]

I see the manifolds on Northern Brewer; I actually only need one to hook up to three kegs. Can I use the manifold to dispense as well?

Thanks!

BREW ON

 

[david_42]

Yes, you can. Just reduce the pressure at the regulator. May I recommend that after you've got the dispensing pressure set, tighten the locknut on the regulator. People love to mess with regulators.

How'd the CoC Brown turn out? It's a great one for turning BMC drinkers.

 

[brackbrew]

How'd the CoC Brown turn out? It's a great one for turning BMC drinkers.

Well, I did have a blow-over during primary fermentation, but hopefully nothing bad happened. It was really active for the better part of a week! It's been conditioning for two or three weeks now, looks great, smells great, haven't had a chance to taste it yet, though. I'll let you know within the week, though!

BREW ON

 

[brackbrew]

For the CO2 amounts the Best way IMO is to Download ProMash. Even the free trial will work. They have the calculator for it in there. Chances are at 40-50F you will only need to put 13-14psi in there so you shouldn't have to drop the pressure at all to serve. Just make sure you have your system balanced.
Here is a link to teach you how to do that
http://www.franklinbrew.org/brewinfo/balance.html Link also has a carb chart..

Great website, but now this raises an additional question...I can probably get away with carbonated the pale ale and brown ale together at around 2.0 volumes, but it recommends a hefe between 3.3 and 4.5. They only way I'm going to be able to carbonate this stuff in time is with a 3-way CO2 manifold I just spent MORE money on. So how would I be able to change the the CO2 volumes in the hefe while it's hooked up to manifold? and how can I monitor it?!

Just frustrated, sorry.

BREW ON

 

[olllllo]

So how would I be able to change the the CO2 volumes in the hefe while it's hooked up to manifold?

I am moving to a dual regulator system but that won't happen for awhile.

This is currently how I do it with a manifold.

1. Get all beer to conditoning temp.
2. Connect corny's to the the system through the manifold.
3. On the manifold open hefe, close off other 2.
4. Adjust regulator for appropriate pressure at given temp for 3.3 - 4.5 volumes.
5. On the manifold close off hefe.
6. Adjust reg to pressure that will get you 2.0 volumes.
7. Open manifold valves for other 2 beers. You may have to vent the kegs to make sure that the pressure comes down (from hefe pressure)
8. At this point I close off all manifold valves, the valve on my reg and turn off my gas.

You don't need the gas on unless you have leaks. If you have leaks, you must fix them or you will lose all of your gas in the tank in as little as aday.

I may have missed a miinor step but you should get the general process down. Since you seem to like lists here is one from me to you.

1. No one at your wedding will tell you that x beer is undercarbed for the style if for some reason all of your beers end up at say 2 volumes. Relax.
2. Re: Force carbing. You don't need you gas on pressure for very long. Turn it off.
3. If you didn't have a manifold, you could still do this. You'd have to reconnect and hit each corny. You can even serve w/o it. It would just be a pain. It would be the same concept of hand pumping the half barrel. When the beer doesn't come out, you'ld have to connect to the gas to get the pressure up.
4. If you think that you messed up the carbing process, you can always vent the cornys and start over.
5. The first couple of beers tapped may appear foamy and full of sediment. Things will clear up after a few draughts.

Good luck with the wedding. The beer will be fine.

 

[brackbrew]

Well, I think I'm going to carbonate all three to about 2.5 volumes; some literature that I have say that's an acceptable low end for hefe's and high end for ales. There's also talk of venting, shaking and repressurizing. I really feel dumb, because I feel like I'm still not grapsing this process. After I have the beer in the keg and chilled and hook up the CO2 and the manifold and open the valves and adjust the pressure for 2.5 volumes, what do I do next? I thought you just let it sit for a few days and keep the CO2 on while it dissolves in the beer? I'm just not sure how I'd shake these kegs vigorously if I have 3 hooked up to a manifold? Or do I disconnect to shake?

Sorry for all the questions again.

Thanks and BREW ON

 

[olllllo]

You don't need to have the CO2 on the whole time.
Once the keg is up to pressure turn off the gas. If you're a "I-wonder-if-I-left-the- stove-on-kind-of-Person" you can vent it off every couple of days and repressurize.

You should be able to set it and forget it and have carbed beer in a week. If your big day is less then a week you can use the overpressurize shakey-shakey method. All this does is expose more surface area to the CO2 to hasten the process. With cold temps, high pressure and lots of shaking you could concievable get it cabed in hours, but that's emergency.

As for the heartburn with disconnecting: The gas and beer side disconnects that attach to the corny are quick release. Easy to do.

Just make sure you don't hook gas to beer or vice versa. Black = Beer and Grey = Gas. Some cornys are marked In (Gas) and Out (Beer). In other cases you will have to look inside to see the dip tube (Short = Gas side Long = Beer Side)

BTW: When is the Big Day?

 

[brackbrew]

You don't need to have the CO2 on the whole time.
Once the keg is up to pressure turn off the gas. If you're a "I-wonder-if-I-left-the- stove-on-kind-of-Person" you can vent it off every couple of days and repressurize.

So, once the regulator reads the correct pressure, turn the CO2 tank off and close the valves on the manifold?

You should be able to set it and forget it and have carbed beer in a week. If your big day is less then a week you can use the overpressurize shakey-shakey method. All this does is expose more surface area to the CO2 to hasten the process. With cold temps, high pressure and lots of shaking you could concievable get it cabed in hours, but that's emergency.

I'm hoping to attach the CO2 to the kegs tomorrow (Thursday night); I'm taking the kegs up to the reception place on Tuesday to see if we can work with them and their beermeisters...should I try to overpressurize a little?

As for the heartburn with disconnecting: The gas and beer side disconnects that attach to the corny are quick release. Easy to do.

Just make sure you don't hook gas to beer or vice versa. Black = Beer and Grey = Gas. Some cornys are marked In (Gas) and Out (Beer). In other cases you will have to look inside to see the dip tube (Short = Gas side Long = Beer Side)

So if I wanted to do the shakey thing, disconnecting is no big thing, but when I'm done shaking the beer, do I vent the keg and reconnect to the CO2 and set the same pressure again?

BTW: When is the Big Day?

July 22...a week from this Saturday...any other last minute suggestions would be most appreciated.

Thanks again.

BREW ON

 

[olllllo]

So, once the regulator reads the correct pressure, turn the CO2 tank off and close the valves on the manifold?

You will hear the gas as it is filling the corny and it will slow to a stop (provided no leaks). Then, yes, turn it off.

I'm taking the kegs up to the reception place on Tuesday to see if we can work with them and their beermeisters...should I try to overpressurize a little?

You could try it on one, but the set and forget works without a great deal of effort or worry.

So if I wanted to do the shakey thing, disconnecting is no big thing, but when I'm done shaking the beer, do I vent the keg and reconnect to the CO2 and set the same pressure again?

I don't have an opinion on that. Seems redundant.

You will find this helpful:
http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/Hi-Res/kegging-system.pdf


Re: Shakey-shakey

Many brewers speed up the carbonation process​

by shaking the keg back and forth, which drastically
increases the surface area of beer in direct contact with
CO2. As you do this, you will hear the regulator delivering
CO2 as it is being rapidly dissolved into the beer. You
should shake the keg until it becomes increasingly difficult
to get CO2 to dissolve into the beer. When you are
finished, leave the CO2 line attached to the beer so it may
complete the process.
You can further speed up the carbonation process by overpressurizing
the keg during the shaking process. By setting
the regulator to a very high pressure, say 30 PSI, it will be
easier to force CO2 into the beer. There is a possibility that
you can over-carbonate the beer with this method,
however. Be sure to lower the regulator pressure to the
proper pressure when you are finished shaking.
If the beer becomes over-carbonated, it is possible to
decarbonate the beer. You should periodically pull the
pressure relief valve on the keg, de-pressurizing the head
space. This will cause CO2 to come out of solution and repressurize
the head space, at which point you can repeat
the process

So while getting up to pressure and shaking have gas on. This has the effect of getting more CO2 into the tank then the regular way. Once the tank has as much CO2 as it can hold at that pressure, turn it off and close all valves.

I'm going to be out of pocket till Monday. Send me a PM and I'll give you a way to contact me in an emergency.

 

[brackbrew]

Ok, so the wedding is Saturday and I tapped the beers tonight to check their progress, and I'm starting to panic. I put them under pressure this past Thursday night, did the shakey thing a few times between now and then. Following the instructions I have, I vented the kegs before hooking them up to the CO2 to dispense. When I vented them, almost nothing came out. I attached the CO2, set the regulator to 8 psi and dispensed, but there was pretty much no carbonation. Assuming there was a leak, I cranked down everything as hard as I could, repressurized to about 19 PSI and left the gas on. Not sure what else to do at this point. HELP!!!

I'm using a 5lb. CO2 tank, a three keg gas manifold from NB and three ball-lock corny kegs if that helps.

THANKS as always.

BREW ON

 

[Sephro]

if you have a leak your tank would more than likely be empty..
Still the best way to check it is to fill a water bottle with a lightly soapy water and spray around the connections. Look for bubbling.

If I where in your shoes I would connect each keg separate and pressurize them and re-connect a few times a day.
Don't panic you still have time!

 

[olllllo]

I suspect the corny's aren't sealing and the gas is leaking out. That's why things aren't carbing and there is no pressure in the keg when he vents it. The reason he still has gas is because, once pressurized, I told him to turn gas off. Otherwise he would be out of gas in no time.

 

[AHammer16]

Y ou gave these 2 steps at the beginning:

2. Wash all components and sanitize all components with iodophor
3. Rinse inside of keg (with sterilized water) and reassemble

There is no need to rinse if you have used idophor at the correct dilution.

 

[olllllo]

It's also possible (but not likely , if new) that the gauge may be off.

 

[olllllo]

brackbrew:

How did everything go?

 

[brackbrew]

brackbrew:

How did everything go?

Sorry it's taken me so long to post. After our honeymoon (in St. Vincent--the ass end of the caribbean, so close to South America I could have spit and hit it) I had band camp for a week (I'm an assistant marching band director at my High School) and then a camping/rafting trip to Ohiopyle, PA with my newly acquired in-laws.

Thanks to olllllo and everybody else, things went off INCREDIBLY WELL:rockin:. Contrary to my fears and any hiccups I may have had in the brewing processes, the beer turned out great, carbonated perfectly. The guests liked my brews so much NO ONE touched the keg of Miller. I'm not exaggerating when I say I only saw at the most 3 glasses tapped out of the Miller keg. I had to give it to own of my wife's cousins who has a kegerator and plays in a hockey beer-league like mine.

One of my groomsmen's wife did the beer labels for me...as soon as I get the pic files, I'll post them. I hope everyone will enjoy them.

This forum and its members have been a valuable asset in all of my brewing ventures, particularly this one. I'm still getting comments about how good the beer was. Thanks again, everyone. CHEERS!

 

[olllllo]

I just cracked a brew and as it turns out a hefe. Cheers! Glad it worked out.