Serving Wedding Homebrew From Kegs

[basisforaday]

So, I am getting married in the middle of May and had a few questions for you guys about serving/preparing to serve the kegs, more for a quick sanity check to make sure I'm doing everything right. I am planning on serving these kegs from a jockey box that I made. Right now I have 2 kegs finished and conditioning at room temp and on gas at 30 PSI. I followed the set and forget it carb chart that said to leave it at around 27-30 PSI for a week or two for it to carb up. That leads me to my questions:

1. After the week or two on gas, I disconnect and those are basically ready for the party, right? I mean all I would need to do is cool them down as much as possible the night before/day of the wedding and serve, right?

2. Is there anyway to test the carbonation before I cool these down for the wedding? I don't really want to be cooling down the kegs to test and run through the jockey box a month before the wedding, do I? Won't that be harmful to the beer?

3. Am I doing all of this correctly? Anything I should change in my method for preparing the kegs to be served?

Thanks guys! Just want to make sure that everything goes smoothly and everyone enjoys the homebrew!

 

[Pie_Man]

Congrats on your wedding.

I carbonate my kegged beer at serving temperature. That seems easier than at room temperature and then cooling as colder liquids absorb more CO2 than warmer liquids. 30 psi seems a little high for the length on time you are planning. When you chill the beer, it will absorb more of the CO2. Using the same chart, 30 psi for a beer at serving temp is going to give you about 3.5 volumes of CO2, which is high. That is somewhat dependent on how long it takes the cooling beer to absorb the CO2. Perhaps it is best to set the pressure to the temperature you intend on serving the beer at? I am not really sure.

1. After the week or two on gas, I disconnect and those are basically ready for the party, right? I mean all I would need to do is cool them down as much as possible the night before/day of the wedding and serve, right?

2. Is there anyway to test the carbonation before I cool these down for the wedding? I don't really want to be cooling down the kegs to test and run through the jockey box a month before the wedding, do I? Won't that be harmful to the beer?

1. No, they should stay on gas. You can pour a handful of beers without the gas hooked up, but not enough for a wedding.
2. Not really harmful, but it seems easier to keep the beers cold the entire time. Given your current approach, I would do a test run. I fear you may be over carbonating the beer slightly, but that depends somewhat on the style of beer you are serving.

 

[broadbill]

Things off the top of my head you want to check:
that your kegs and reg are in working order
that your tubing is clean
that your kegs are carbed correctly, at your serving temp.
that you have a good way to set and maintain serving temp...change in temp will change carbonation.
that your jockey box works as it should, no leaks, etc.
that you don't get foaming when you hook keg to jockey box.
That you have all the stuff you need to set up and repair in case you need to so some on-the-fly troubleshooting at the wedding.


Going off some random info on the internet to carb a keg and just assuming it is good, not testing it before the big day. Talk about a recipe for disaster! I'd test, and then retest, and maybe test again.

 

[BadNewsBrewery]

I am planning to brew a few batches for a friend's wedding in a year and serve through a jockey box, and I'm already in the planning phase. I've got a kegerator, but my plan is to brew a batch that we'll serve, prep it, and pour it through the jockey box to make sure I've got everything dialed in. Wedding day is not the day to find out something should have been done differently.

I would test your setup ASAP, verify everything functions as you hoped, and fix anything that's screwed up. You've got roughly 2 months to get it all fixed, which is plenty of time even if you totally screw things up. Hell, you could brew an entire new batch by then unless it was something that needed to be aged for a long period of time.

Good luck, and congrats!
-Kevin

 

[basisforaday]

Congrats on your wedding.

I carbonate my kegged beer at serving temperature. That seems easier than at room temperature and then cooling as colder liquids absorb more CO2 than warmer liquids. 30 psi seems a little high for the length on time you are planning. When you chill the beer, it will absorb more of the CO2. Using the same chart, 30 psi for a beer at serving temp is going to give you about 3.5 volumes of CO2, which is high. That is somewhat dependent on how long it takes the cooling beer to absorb the CO2. Perhaps it is best to set the pressure to the temperature you intend on serving the beer at? I am not really sure.



1. No, they should stay on gas. You can pour a handful of beers without the gas hooked up, but not enough for a wedding.
2. Not really harmful, but it seems easier to keep the beers cold the entire time. Given your current approach, I would do a test run. I fear you may be over carbonating the beer slightly, but that depends somewhat on the style of beer you are serving.

Thanks for the reply man, I didnt mean that I was going to disconnect gas entirely, just put down to serving pressure. Guess that came out totally wrong when i wrote it.

Also, the reason I'm carbing at room temp is because I don't have space to keep the kegs cold until the wedding. I plan on carbing everything at room temp and then chilling the kegs the night before the wedding.

 

[basisforaday]

Things off the top of my head you want to check:
that your kegs and reg are in working order
that your tubing is clean
that your kegs are carbed correctly, at your serving temp.
that you have a good way to set and maintain serving temp...change in temp will change carbonation.
that your jockey box works as it should, no leaks, etc.
that you don't get foaming when you hook keg to jockey box.
That you have all the stuff you need to set up and repair in case you need to so some on-the-fly troubleshooting at the wedding.


Going off some random info on the internet to carb a keg and just assuming it is good, not testing it before the big day. Talk about a recipe for disaster! I'd test, and then retest, and maybe test again.

Thanks for the list man. I've already done most of this. I've tested my jockey box several times by running water through it and I know everything in it is clean and sanitized. I've also tested with an already carbed keg that was carbed cold and everything worked great. My main concern is carbing at room temp and then running it through the jockey box.