Rotating kegs

[bigmike99]

Since I'm just starting to build up a pipeline (finally) I was wondering what some experiences were for those that rotate partially drank kegs in and out of their lineup. I currently only have a 2 tap kegorator and aren't planning on upgrading for a while since it's a nice unit and portable.

Everything that would be taken out of the rotation would be carbed and filled with co2 so I doubt there would be any issues, especially if it's just for a few weeks. Also I should add that the kegs would still be kept between 30-40 degrees.

Cheers

 

[bobeer]

Personally, I'd just kill the keg before you tap a new one. If I'm kegging a beer it's because I want to drink it fresh. For me, bottling is for all those big beers you want to age. Maybe if you know you're not going to want to drink a full batch of a beer on the tap then just keg half of it and bottle the rest.

I have 2 kegs too but only 1 faucet atm. What I do is have one keg on tap ready to serve and the other is usually cold crashing in the fermentor. Once the unkegged beer is ready to be kegged I borrow the gas QD from the live keg and force carb to 30 psi and do the rolling-the-keg-on-the-side thing. Once I feel the beer has soaked up all the gas I hook back up the live keg. I let the new keg sit for a couple days then hook the gas back up to it and see where it's at. If it's ready to go I'll leave it a 10 psi and if I want to drink it I just switch the QD and faucet line to the new keg. I use 5 ft of line so I only have a couple ounces of the other beer in the line. I just pour it out, drink it, then pour the new keg in my glass.
It's sort of a ghetto way of doing it but I haven't gotten a 2nd setup of QD's, faucet, and gas splitter. It'll happen at some point but right now this works for me and my beer doesn't suffer at all.

 

[LLBeanJ]

No issues swapping kegs in and out of rotation. I don't do it often, but every now and then I have a need for this. I move the keg from fridge to basement and back to fridge as I see fit. No problem.

 

[acidrain]

Personally, when I have a new brew and want to make room, I bottle what's left in the current keg.

 

[chickypad]

Out of curiosity, how would you be keeping the extra kegs cold? If your keezer is big enough and you just don't have enough faucets I'd get a couple picnic taps. As mentioned though the beer will be fine, it's more a question of whether the style is better when young.

 

[bigmike99]

Keeping them cold in my garage. Beer I rotated is a porter so I'm good. It's only got a few pints left anyway so it'll be done shortly.

As far as bottling I'm hoping santa brings me a bottling gun....that'll solve a lot of issues.

Cheers all. Thanks for the replies.

 

[Craw3773]

What if a keg was pulled out of a fridge, and into a utility room?

If the room was at 70 degrees, would it be the same as bottle conditioning?

What is the impact of a beer swinging in temperature from a fermenting temp to a serving temp?

 

[monkeybox]

What if a keg was pulled out of a fridge, and into a utility room?

I've done this a few times. Utility room is about 65 ambient, and the concrete floor has to drop that about 5 degrees.

If the room was at 70 degrees, would it be the same as bottle conditioning?

This is the reason I did it. I had a young beer that needed some time, so I took it out of the kegerator and let it age for another month or two in the storage room. When I put it back on, it was much better.

What is the impact of a beer swinging in temperature from a fermenting temp to a serving temp?

No impact. Urban legend. It's light that kills beer, not temperature swings.

You want to make sure there's a good seal on the kegs, though one of mine lost pressure and still tasted fine. It required a few days back on gas before it was back to proper carbonation, however.