Working out of town for 2 weeks at a time.

[MikeGillis]

I work out of town for 2 weeks at a time, but I would really like to start kegging my beer. However I'm wondering if leaving beer in the lines for 2 weeks at a time would be a bad thing?

 

[Onkel_Udo]

Not really. If you use quality line and real taps, it is almost the same as it being int he keg. If like me, you use cheap line and picnic taps, you will have a bit of foaming in the first pour after letting it sit more that just overnight.

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

I travel a week or two at a time as well. Four kegs on tap at home at all times. If it's been awhile since I poured a beer, I just run off half a pint or so and dump it. In my mind, that is eliminating any possible "stale" beer. Never had a problem.

 

[porterpounder]

If the beer is clean and going into clean lines it's not a problem. Even better if the lines are cold. If not, then toss the first half pint or so and carry on.

 

[MikeGillis]

Thanks for the quick responses. Looks like I will be pulling the trigger on a new kegging system. What do you do for force carbonation while out of town? The first beer I will be kegging is a hefeweizen with a co2 volume of 3.2 so with fridge at 40 degrees I would set co2 to 20 psi. Would you leave it at that level for 2 weeks or turn it down?

 

[ColoHox]

If you are worried about it, you can always disconnect your taps from the kegs while you are gone. I had a small leak once and vented my entire CO2 tank into my fridge while out of town.

 

[day_trippr]

fwiw, 12 feet of 3/16" ID beer line hold a scoche more than two ounces of beer.
No need to dump more than that if need be.

I don't do anything special when the spousal unit and I are out of town for up to a couple of weeks at a time. Keezer does its thing and it's all good when we get back. Never have felt the need to flush the lines to get "fresher" beer in the glass...

Cheers!

 

[Onkel_Udo]

Thanks for the quick responses. Looks like I will be pulling the trigger on a new kegging system. What do you do for force carbonation while out of town? The first beer I will be kegging is a hefeweizen with a co2 volume of 3.2 so with fridge at 40 degrees I would set co2 to 20 psi. Would you leave it at that level for 2 weeks or turn it down?

If leaving, ALWAYS set to serving pressure and purge until the headspace is at the same pressure. Even better, set it to serving pressure from the start and wait the 1-2 weeks it take to carb. It is normally drinkable in 4-5 days and right for English beers in 7 and others between 8 and 14 days.

 

[Subdivisions]

Thanks for the quick responses. Looks like I will be pulling the trigger on a new kegging system. What do you do for force carbonation while out of town? The first beer I will be kegging is a hefeweizen with a co2 volume of 3.2 so with fridge at 40 degrees I would set co2 to 20 psi. Would you leave it at that level for 2 weeks or turn it down?

Since you'll be carbing up to 3.2 volumes then yes, you'll leave the pressure at 20psi for the life of that beer. You generally need about a foot of 3/16" line per psi so you'd need 20ft to keep this from foaming. If you wanted to have the hefe plus a normally carbonated beer at 2 - 2.5 volumes you'd need a dual regulator and have the lines at the appropriate length.

I recently did a wheat and just carbonated to 2.5 volumes since i have 10' lines. I thought it was just fine at that level. The problem is if you have only one tap it's a pain to switch the length of the line for higher carbonation. With multiple taps and regulator you can just dedicate one tap to your fizzy beers.