Serving draft outdoors for the 1st time.

[iueelyen]

Hey guys

I need my work checked. I'm looking for advice and things I should consider in order to make my night a night of drinking and not troubleshooting foam. Everything from how I should carbonate all this, how I should predict what my temperature will end up being as the night progresses and tips for keeping the beer cold longer.

I'm going to be serving some of my kegged homebrew for a Halloween party this month. I will have 6 kegs of various styles some 3 gal some 5. I also will probably have a commercial beer or two as well. I've never served beer on this scale before and i'm scared i'll be troubleshooting foam all night if I don't get everything done correctly.

For discussion purposes i'll list everything I'm working with:
Beer:
Four of the beers are in 3 gal corny kegs:

• Wit
• Alt
• IPA
• Saison

Two of them are in 5 gal corny kegs:

• PaleAle 1
• PaleAle 2

I suspect we will have some commercial beer too:

• Shiner
• who cares

The setup:
I'm installing 6 tap handles into a Halloween prop my buddy built (below).
I purchased some 7 gal plastic buckets and plan to put a keg in each and fill with ice.
The beer line 3/16 will be 10 foot long and rise up about 4 foot (3.5" shanks). No real math went into the length, it just needed to reach the beer. I planed to insulate the beer lines with some pipe insulation.
I have a dual regulator and two gas line distributors. I suspect the commercial beer will require different pressure for the larger keg so I wanted to be able to be ready for that.
I'm currently carbonating the beer in my kegerator 2 kegs at a time 12.2psi @ 40 degres for 3 days. Then storing them in my extra fridge until the party. I've only done the crank it to 30 and shake the keg method before so i'm worried if i'm doing it right. I'd like the beer to be more consistent from keg to keg so I thought this might be better.

The prop we are installing this in will raise the lines about 4 foot. You can see the tap holes drilled in the lid.
Any lessons learned will be greatly appreciated!

 

[Howhownow]

First, that thing is awesome.
Second, I think you have your bases pretty well covered. The on thing I did see is 3 days at ~12 PSI may be a little to quick to bring them up to full carb. If I want to get full carb in a 3 day span, I hit them once with 30 and shake them to get started, then reattach and set to desired pressure.

 

[hunter_le five]

LOL I scrolled down to the picture without reading the text first for context. That was quite unexpected....

 

[iueelyen]

Making sure I understand...

Hit it with 30 PSI and remove gas and in 3 days reconnect @ my serving psi (10ish)? You have to list your steps one by one for me lol.


My buddy just sent me another pic

 

[Howhownow]

- Hit the (COLD) beer with 30 PSI, unhook, shake (I roll mine briskly horizontally on the floor for minimum effort and max surface area exposed to the CO2)
- After it settles (10-15 min) hook it back up to CO2 at serving pressure. You should hear more CO2 flowing into the keg because the first hit has mostly been absorbed.
- Leave for x days at serving pressure

All this method does is give the carbonation a jump start if you don't have a full 10+ days to let it naturally come to full carbonation at serving pressure.
You should get clearer pints (after the first 1-2) with this vs. the shake method, as everything gets time to settle. This may be negated, though, if you more the kegs a lot before serving. You can pull a pint BEFORE you move the kegs, as well, to remove this debris. Moving kegs is easier after a pint, anyway (unless you are driving them).

 

[dnslater]

Sounds like the ice is providing the refrigeration, and not the box unit, so you will need to be sure to keep the 10' lines cold, without submerging them in ice, where they could freeze. Maybe coil them and zip tie them so they sit on each keg?

 

[iueelyen]

yeah
That's not really an icebox. It's just a table wrapped in that plastic sheeting.

I was going to try and put as many buckets as I can under it and the extra slack will be rolled up and set around the kegs in the bucket so they will get the benefit of the ice. I'll use the foam pipe insulation on the exposed tubing.

So you think if I submerge the tubing it may freeze? That's great info and exactly what I was looking for. I'll can roll the excess up and place on top and cover what I can with a thin blanket of ice. The 7 gal bucket should allow me to completely cover the 3gal kegs.

 

[wilserbrewer]

I typically force carb with 30 psi for 36 hours on cold beer, then reduce to serving pressure. (or disconnect and store till needed)

 

[Stealthcruiser]

No, your beer tubing will not freeze, ( the beer), if submerged in ice.

 

[Yooper]

I typically force carb with 30 psi for 36 hours on cold beer, then reduce to serving pressure. (or disconnect and store till needed)

Me too. 36 hours at 30 psi, then three days at 12 psi (all at fridge temperatures) and the beer is pretty darn good by better 7 days after being at 12 psi, and clear as well.

If you shake to carbonate, you very well might be serving buckets of foam to your friends at the party.

Also, moving the kegs for the party will resuspend any sediment in the keg, so you want to make sure to have the beer pouring clear by setting it up early if possible.

 

[wilserbrewer]

36 hours at 30 psi

I have been playing around the last few kegs, Rather than wait till the beer is cold to force carb, and it seems 48 hours at 30 psi on a warm keg when it first goes in the cold keezer gets pretty close as well. Seemed counter productive to load a keg in the keezer and not put it on gas for a day till it's cold...just thought I'd mention it seems to work fine.

 

[Yooper]

I have been playing around the last few kegs, Rather than wait till the beer is cold to force carb, and it seems 48 hours at 30 psi on a warm keg when it first goes in the cold keezer gets pretty close as well. Seemed counter productive to load a keg in the keezer and not put it on gas for a day till it's cold...just thought I'd mention it seems to work fine.

I also start with room temperature beer and put it right in the kegerator and put the gas on it. I'm sorry that was not clear. I know some folks cold crashed their beer before kegging, but I am not one of them.

 

[iueelyen]

I typically force carb with 30 psi for 36 hours on cold beer, then reduce to serving pressure. (or disconnect and store till needed)

That's pretty much what I did. Once I had them all carbonated I tested each with a line the same length as I planed to use the day of the party. If one was over charged I released the pressure then shot some co2 down the drink line and again released the pressure till it poured a nice beer.

Once I had them all equalized I set the pressure to about 11 psi and thats where they are now (40 degrees @ 11 psi) They will sit there for 2 weeks before the party.

The party is down the block from my house, I'm going to try and carefully move the beer down there the night before by car. Hopefully i don't disturb it too much.

I have one more question......
I noticed the beer in the kegs don't taste as good as the bottled beer (I normally keg 3 gal and bottle the remaining 2 gal). Am i screwing up the beer by overdoing the co2 then bleeding off the excess and then forcing more back in? I don't have this down yet (although I have learned a lot from this project), it's still somewhat trial and error.