So, I just bought this...

[flushdrew42]

ok.
new burner purchased. (64k BTU bayou)
new SS brew kettle purchased
new fermenters purchased (1 primary 1 secondary)

for the time being, i'm going to BIAB (modified a bit...)

i plan to use my regular cooler (unconverted to a mashtun) as my mash vessel for the bag, heat my strike water, dough in the bag, in the cooler. and mash. i already use this method(pic below), only but i place my 2gal brew kettle inside the cooler, with water around the kettle. so, how different could it be to BIAB inside the cooler, just with the bag in the water? yes, i plan to stir adequately... then, drain wort into my brew kettle with the drain plug.
then, later, i plan to convert the cooler to an MLT.

just need a keg. or 6.

i'm holding off on ordering the beer lines and keg connectors until i know what kind of keg i'm getting. a guy from 90 mi away has a listing for a kegerator w/ 1/6B sanke's but he won't sell them without the $200 kegerator.

 

[flushdrew42]

it's in the garage now. fridge is HEAVY. gets mega cold. the fridge itself will need some mega cleanup, but seems quite solid.

a CL listing from about an hour away provided a potential keg (but it's a 1/4 keg) for $25 bucks.

the taphandle is pretty rusted, but it's just the handle. the faucet is quite shiny. i disassembled the whole setup last night and started a multi step soak scrub clean in PBW.
tank is in really good shape, regulator and valves are all freely moving and show no wear. i think i really did well on this one.

can't wait to put out my first batch!

 

[flushdrew42]

Parts are completely clean as of tonight's cleaning. I need to buy a couple rubber washers, one for the top of the tap handle assembly, and one for the shank beer line nut. No pics tonight but I removed the big Budweiser stickers and one of the bud man ones. The Bud Man stickers are incredibly difficult to remove, very brittle. Like removing old wallpaper.

I plan to paint the whole thing black and use the detail on the freezer door as a red accent. But that is for another day, and most likely a ways out. I think I will keg the batch I have brewing now, just to try it out... Keg comes tomorrow. I will need to clean it and use it to run star san through my gear.
I might need a tutorial or two on using the regulator but I think I can get it.

Man, this hobby is addicting.

 

[flushdrew42]

Here's my keg. It is a 1/4 and while the handle rim is bent, it is in okay shape. I am quite pleased with it for $25!

 

[krazydave]

Sometimes you have to wonder what people do to these kegs to make them look like that. Especially a 1/4bbl keg like that. Given the decrease in weight from a full 1/2bbl keg, you'd think it would take one hell of a drop to bend that stainless that much. Plus, it's on the top of the keg, so did someone drop a full keg on it??

 

[flushdrew42]

i'm betting it fell from a shelf or something like that.

it still has enough beer in it i can hear it swish around inside. (8 mo old bud light, about to go down the drain tonight) but i need to get inside of it. i tried the screwdriver in the slot method, didn't work. i'm going to attempt to drill holes in it, so i can use an O-ring pliers to remove it and replace it each time i refill. any tips?

 

[Zeus1120]

I had to fight to get the keg spear out of the sanke I bought to make my keggle. It's teh suck, but I eventually got it out with a small pick from Harbor Freight:

http://www.harborfreight.com/4-piece-pick-and-hook-set-66836.html

I'd keep trying to get it out w/o drilling, if possible.

 

[flushdrew42]

i'll go pickup a set of those picks tonight.
thanks for the heads up.
is there a specific tool that the distributors use to remove those? or do they fill through a tap type set up?

 

[krazydave]

I use a pick and a smaller tipped flathead screwdriver. Make sure you get whatever pressure is in there out also if you haven't already. Do so by tipping it on it's side and pressing in the steel ball in the middle. Not only is it dangerous as heck to try and pop a spear out of a pressurized keg, but it'll also press against that ring and make it much harder to get out.
Once the pressure is out, push down on the part surrounding the ball to relieve pressure from the ring and see if you can turn the ring so that the end of it is near that little groove on the top. Then you can use that groove to stick your pick\screwdriver in and start popping out the ring.

 

[flushdrew42]

Well, several runs of hot water and cleanser later, the keg no longer smells like someone buried a dead rat in a ham bag in it. Man, 8mo old bud light is nasty!!!

Getting the spring/washer deal back in was an adventure, but after 3x (1 for cleaner, 1 for star San, and 1 for beer) I have gotten pretty good at it. Keg holds pressure, and dispenses nicely. Spear pulls all but about 1/2 a glass out of the keg.

I sanitized and racked a batch of my porter to it, and it's on to carb up now.
Here it is!

 

[carlisle_bob]

search ebay for corny kegs or soda kegs. Some guy has millions of ball-lock kegs that he's selling for $28 plus shipping. Shipping up to 4 kegs was $40, so you get them under $40. It's about the best I have found but I am in Chicago and estate sales with corny kegs for free don't seem to pop up. Curious. Maybe in 20 years when our kind starts to kick the bucket (oops sorry...morbid!).

Hi

I have kegs from the same guy. The shipping stays close to $40 up to 7 kegs, so it's *much* better to buy a bunch of them at one time than to do a few at a time. The listing shows them as "syrup tanks" or something like that, so they are a bit hard to find.

Bob

 

[carlisle_bob]

Hi

You are going to need some sort of thermometer on the keg. Without knowing what temperature it's at you will go nuts trying to get the carbonation right. Yes indeed been there done that ...

Bob

 

[flushdrew42]

Thanks for the tip! I wondered about needing a thermometer. I will put one in there today.
Any ideas on timeline etc for it to carb up once I get the temp set at 36?

With the sanke coupler I can't roll it around to quick force carb it, without having to clamp the beer line...

 

[carlisle_bob]

Hi

Figure a couple days to do the force carb. A lot depends on surface area vs volume. Put another way - big surface / small volume in the keg = fast carb. Very full keg means small area in contact and lots of volume = slow carb.

Bob

 

[flushdrew42]

so, i left my keg alone for 3 days, at 30 psi, and last night burped it, and brought the pressure down to serving, and tried to pull a pint...

foam. boatloads. 90% foam in two full cups.
i have 3/16 inch line, and was dispensing at around 10, 11 psi.
thoughts?

 

[krazydave]

Yeah, its over-carbed. Shut the gas off, shake it some and burp it more, do that repeatedly until you're pouring normally.
That's about the only way I've found to fix that.

 

[flushdrew42]

k cool. i thought i would RDWHAHB (so i did...)

 

[carlisle_bob]

so, i left my keg alone for 3 days, at 30 psi, and last night burped it, and brought the pressure down to serving, and tried to pull a pint...

foam. boatloads. 90% foam in two full cups.
i have 3/16 inch line, and was dispensing at around 10, 11 psi.
thoughts?

Hi

How long is the line? Should be ten feet or more.
How long did you wait to serve? At least a couple of hours / over night seems to be a good idea.
How warm / cold is the beer? Temperature makes an enormous difference in required serving pressure.
I have a couple kegs of commercial beer that I ran up to the mid 20's for a week or so. I'm serving at 18 psi through 3/16 lines 20 foot long. No major foam. Yes I like bubbles in my beer.

Bob

 

[Argo1087]

Steal. Absolutely worth it......As for the tank, you could probably just do an exchange with it. I would buy that for $50 any day of the week.
MIKE

 

[flushdrew42]

Argo - thanks! i love it.

Carlisle Bob - i didn't wait very long. my line is 4ft, and i have since read to lower my pressure even further. so i did that last night. will pull a pint tonight to see how it goes.

thanks for all the help.

i am going to paint this at some point, but i guess that will wait.

 

[Tomtanner]

http://grandisland.craigslist.org/app/3025320902.html

it's an older gibson fridge w/ a CO2 bottle, beer and gas lines, tap, and budweiser taphandle...
for $50 bucks. plus the bottle is 1/2 full!

the seller says the fridge works, which is a bonus to me b/c the bottle, lines, tap, and keg connector are worth way more than that.

so. what am i, the never before kegged guy, going to need/buy/do now?

i now know i will need to upgrade my equipment a bit. (i presently brew 1.5gallon batches on my stovetop)

i just this weekend built a brewspace in my garage, i have a fermentation fridge (with temp controller) already built and running.

so, help me find my pitfalls and landmines before i even get started.
like, i know everyone likes cornies, is that the way to go?

Thanks!

Drew

Nice find!

 

[flushdrew42]

thanks tomtanner!

i've got boatloads of q's but i'll ask them all as they go, i presume.
painting this is up "next" sortof. i'm still planning how i will leave my mark on it.

 

[stratslinger]

Another tip: Check you yellow pages (yes, those things do exist!) and look for any local beverage supply shops.

I found one in a neighboring town - literally a 5 minute drive from work. This place supplies bulk soda and such to restaurants and whoever else wants it - I was able to get a tank rental from them ($50 deposit for a 15lb CO2 cylinder that I never have to worry about recertifying, and I just pay $14 to swap out for another one whenever I empty one).

And when, one day, I innocently asked if they were willing to sell any old cornies, I learned that they had been switching from cornies over to bag-in-a-box for a while, and looking to off load the old cornies. I got half a dozen ball locks for $10 a piece - granted they were filthy and needed new o-rings and such, but for that cost I wasn't about to complain!

 

[carlisle_bob]

Argo - thanks! i love it.

Carlisle Bob - i didn't wait very long. my line is 4ft, and i have since read to lower my pressure even further. so i did that last night. will pull a pint tonight to see how it goes.

Hi

There's really no down side to a long line (slow pour, but that's no big deal). The upside is you don't have short line foam issues no matter what the pressure. You can have foam issues from other sources though. Twenty feet of line is less than $10 so it's a cheap fix.

Bob