Questions about kegging

[carlsonderek]

Hey all. Never kegged before, an I've been researching everything to get set up for it. Obviously I need a kegerator/Keezer. Three questions
1--if I decide to use a chest freezer, has anyone ever experienced problems with defrosting/thawing? If I connect it to a brewing thermostat, technically it would never freeze, therefore there would be no real need to thaw or let it defrost right?
2-if you have 5 gallon kegs, is it ok to fill them, lets say, with only 3 gallons? In some cases maybe I would want 10 or 20 bottles for gifts and such. I just want to know if leaving said keg partially empty is a problem for any reason.
3-forced, or priming sugar? Or can I just decide based on the beer style?
Thank you!

 

[worstbrewing]

1-- I used a chest freezer, and as long as you're using a temp controller it won't freeze but moisture can be an issue. I put an "Eva-dry E-500 Renewable Wireless Mini Dehumidifer" (check amazon) and a PC fan in mine and it keeps the air circulated while the eva-dry keeps moisture/mold to a minimum
2-- You can definitely do it, but I'd recommend purging O2 from the keg first by pressurizing it, purging and pressurizing again at least, just to make sure the excess space is CO2
3-- I force but its entirely up to you, you can decide per keg what you want to do, I just force cause its easier to set and forget

hope this helps!

 

[Greenbasterd]

1. yea a kegorator is nice but you can get away with putting it in your fridge by taking the shelves out. i wouldn't worry about defrost in the freezer.

2. yea filling them with 3 gals is fine. u usually pump some co2 into my kegs before filling them to avoid any oxidation. that way you wont have 2 gallons of air/oxygen in there.

3. it would be possible to carb with sugar in kegs but corny kegs dont seal all that great when they're not under pressure. so its possible that any co2 created from the priminig sugars would leak out before it could seal the keg. at least with most kegs.. they are hit and miss for sealing with pressure.. they like a little over 5 psi before they seal. although sometimes they seal right away. adding some keg lube would deff help this tho..

 

[carlsonderek]

worstbrewing and Greenbasterd thanks so much both these are helpful and appreciated. I DID know that about the kegs wanting some pressure to help seal but I didn't think about it so that's a good point. Well thanks for the advice I'm gonna start getting ready for a hefeweizen and an IPA for the coming warm weather. Thanks guys