Splitting Batches

[MasterKBrewery]

I am building a kegerator. I want to continue making 5 gal batches but would like to bottle some and keg some. Is it ok to half or 3/4 fill your keg and bottle the rest? Do you just top off the keg with CO2 to reduce air exposure? I realize this likely makes force carbonation unlikely unless I use priming sugar after keg and before bottld.

It seems bottling after kegging wouldn't work.

What do you guys do?

 

[bobeer]

you can bottle from a keg with a beer gun. I'd just prime the other half that you're bottling then bottle as normal. If you're unsure of the calculations for priming just calculate the whole 5 gal and cut it in half.

It shouldn't be an issue to put 1/2 the amount of beer into a keg. Yes, you'll have to purge the oxygen out of the keg to kill any air exposure risk; as you normally would with kegging. You may need a little more c02 to compensate the extra head-space in the keg but probably not. If I were you I'd just go about it like business as usual, for both kegging and bottling, and adjust where you need to for the priming and purging. Good luck!