Put a blackboard on your keg!

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malkore

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Due to popular demand in the chat room tonight (and cuz WortMonger threatened to post the idea as his own :mad: ) I'm gonna show you how to put a little blackboard on your corny keg(s) so you can write down vital information. What's in it, when was it kegged, etc.

You only need three items:
Paint_supplies.jpg

1 can primer (any cheap brand will do. I prefer white so I can see where I need to re-coat the primer, and then re-coat the chalk board paint)
1 can chalk board paint - I buy the rattle can type, from Home Depot. It was cheaper than the brush on stuff.
1 roll of blue painters tape (you'll use this to protect what you don't want painted)
(and some homebrew)

Mask off as large an area as you like. Try to go pretty big. I made rectangles, but you might just want to do a 360 degree strip around the keg, 6-8" tall. Hindsight being 20/20 I should've done that.

Since spray paint tends to overspray easily, tape off a lot of extra area, or tape some paper around the edges so you don't muck up the whole keg.

Apply a couple coats of primer. Don't need to be perfectly even, just covered. The trick to using rattle can paint is lots of light coats = no drips/runs in the paint.
keg_painting.jpg


Once the primer is good per the label instructions, start doing light coats of the chalkboard paint. 4-5 light coats should get you a nice uniform surface with no drips. 30 mins between coats.

Then it has to cure a full day. Carefully remove the tape, then apply a light coat of chalk, wipe off, and its ready to write on.

TheEnd.jpg
 
Great idea! I have a small can of chalkboard paint around from one of my kids' rooms.

Right now I put a piece of masking tape on the primary then move that piece of tape to secondary and then to keg, but I like this idea a lot better. I don't know why I didn't think of it myself... too much beer I guess. :drunk:
 
I have been using a Sharpie near the black post on my Cornies. Comes off pretty easy with hot water and OxyClean, otherwise durable.
 
I just use stick on white labels from Wally-Mart approx. $1.77 for 120 labels.

Interesting idea though.
 
zoebisch01 said:
If the surface is shiny, it's always a very good idea to aid adhesion.

Yep, ideally you should clean the surface with alcohol to remove any oils, and then a bit o wet sandpaper.

that said, I did this all the lazy way, and so far, no problems with chipping, bubbling/lifting up. Hell, my one 7-up corny (green base/cap) is painted gold! :D

(btw, more pictures are coming. the only keg not in my keezer is the only keg I didn't paint yet, so I am doing that today and taking the last pictures. and my keezer is packed tight so I didn't feel like pulling one out.)
 
Great idea for the kegs.

I did this on a wall of my kitchen. I found out that any flat color paint will work. No need to pay extra for a 'chalk board' paint.
 
malkore said:
Due to popular demand in the chat room tonight (and cuz WortMonger threatened to post the idea as his own :mad:

I found that if you use clear plastic tag holders from the stationery store and tie them on the keg with nylon twine it works great. I use the same tag for the carboys before I rack it to the kegs. I use a form I made on the computer with Excel and just fill in the info. I number each brew and date it too. I use a spreadsheet to keep track of past and presant brews. It's date increments each day automatically for each beer (green fill) so you know when anything needs to be done.

Ref: https://cdn.homebrewtalk.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=7940&cat=all&ppuser=10471

Tags: https://cdn.homebrewtalk.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=7941&cat=all&ppuser=10471
 
Very Nice! I've been putting masking or electrical tape on the handles and writing on that but I like your idea a lot!
 
Bernie Brewer said:
Very Nice! I've been putting masking or electrical tape on the handles and writing on that but I like your idea a lot!

Thanks,
I tried to make it easy and neat and something that would last and be transferable to another container. No cleaning it off later or having to repaint it later due to the paint being rubbed off.
 
WBC said:
Thanks,
I tried to make it easy and neat and something that would last and be transferable to another container. No cleaning it off later or having to repaint it later due to the paint being rubbed off.


Hate to do this to you, dude, but I meant I liked the OP's idea...............:eek:
 
Ok, ALL pics have been uploaded.

And by no means do I think this is the only way to mark your kegs, nor is it probably the best way.

:mug:
 
Great idea! I just started doing this today on 6 of my kegs(I still have 3 to go) and it looks awesome. I used brushed on paint instead of spray paint and i stil have another coat to put on but its looking amazing so far and it's cheap to boot.
 
I bought a bunch of "toe tags" (about 3x5)

These are great...I just tie a loop of string through the tag and I hang it on my carboy...then move to my keg...

On one side I write the name in BIG letters..

On the back I list:

Brew Date
Secondary Date
Keg/Bottle Date
OG
FG
Notes

When I start getting more brews under my belt..I will add a Recipe Code to cross reference with a brew log.

-JMW
 
Great idea, looks cool too. :mug:

I have been using the 'blue tape' for painting that isn't hard to get off after you're done and a sharpie.

Not better, just different.
 
I think you may have lied about something...

Looks like there are four things needed to do this, a nice homebrew maybe?
 
This is cool if you have the Sanyo based kegger. In my chest, I'd never see those. I like the toe-tag idea although I've been just using artist's white tape on the top handle and a sharpie.
 
Michaels or othre craft stores sell these magnetic photo holders. I got 2 3x5 and have them on the kegorator door. Print up a label with the info on the confuser, then stick it in the photo holder.
 
Oh man! You stole my idea before I had it, it seems... I was just telling my SO about this great idea I had for labeling kegs (she thought it was a lot of effort to go to ... but girls don't understand the "nifty" factor)
 
I'm curious how easily the chalk would rub off? Any concerns?

if you get condensation in your keezer/fridge, yeah that can take the chalk off.

my main goal for this project was tracking the kegs NOT in my little keezer...the ones aging at room temp.

once tap'd I can keep track of what's what since I only can chill 3 kegs.
 
At the restaurant I work at, we use wet erase markers (you can get them at most office/craft stores) to write on the calkboards. It stays put all through service, even with handling and humidity, and it wipes off clean with a wet rag...
just a thought...
 
I was thinking about doing this on the top of my keezer, maybe infront of the tap, not sure but damn good idea
 
My apologies for bringing this back from the dead but damn this is genius! I have seen this stuff before but never thought about it for kegs. I'm definitely doing this on my kegerator ASAP!
 
This looks amazing, any word how well the chalkboard paint stays after a while? Does it still look as nice as when you first did this or has it been beaten up and lost its glamour?
 
NOW I find this thread!!!!

McGuyver here decided the breweries had it right with chalkboards on the jacketed conicals, but I have to transfer from primary to secondary to... You get the idea. So I made the toetags from pressboard and did the chalkboard paint on those. Put nylon twine through a hole in the corner and now the chalkboard goes with the vessel.
 
I'm glad you posted that pizzaman, I was just about to ask about some white-board paint.

Someone above posted that they used the chalk board paint, but still wrote on it with dry erase markers. Does this really work? It seems like the dry erase markers wouldn't show up on the black background. Do they make white dry-erase markers?

I really want to do a chalkboard/marker board on the upper portion of our kegerator, but don't like the idea of lots of chalk dust floating around. But I'd rather it be black than white. So a blackboard with dry erase markers would be the perfect solution.
 
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