# How long does it take you to keg your fermented beer?



## Newts (13/9/13)

Hey guys,

Just thought I'd throw this out there and see how long it takes others from start to finish to put their beer from the fermenter into the keg including cleaning maintenance etc. I'm just timing myself now as I do it, and thought I'd see how other people go about it. I'm kegging two brews at the moment.
My process is:

One and a bit caps of napisan into keg
Fill to about 7 litres with warm water from tap
Shake and leave for a while (varies depending if it's urgent but at least an hour)
Shake whenever I go by the keg
Hook up to tap on fridge that I'm going to use and run some through there - usually run for around 30-60 secs.
Empty some of napisan solution into a washing bucket for other keg parts. Pour the rest out.
Rinse with cold water about 4-5 times. I put this on the lawn to make the water doesn't go to waste.
Rinse once with warm water from tap again. Sometimes I do one last shake with a few litres boiling water but not sure if this is required.
Take off keg posts, gas in, and lid and put in washing bucket.
Let em sit for a few minutes. Give them a wipe over with a clean cloth and rinse with warm tap water. Starsan lid and posts and reassemble.
Put keg back together and put some warm water in. Run through tap for about 30 secs.
Empty keg and put in starsan. Run some through tap. Shake and let it sit for a few minutes.
Run some of the napisan through the racking cane. Run some warm water then Star san through the racking cane.
Empty Starsan and rack beer.
Total this has taken me about 3 hours today for 2 kegs.

I've read heaps on the sanitisation part of brewing. Just wanted to know other peoples time frames when it comes to kegging. 

Cheers,

Newts :chug: :beerbang:


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## mmmyummybeer (13/9/13)

Not sure on times but when I empty the keg I rinse it then put in some PBW and hot water, splash it around and push the poppets down to get cleaner through dip tubes, leave.

Later (generally the next day) I pour out the PBW and rinse with hot water again pushing on the poppets to rinse the dip tubes and empty water then leave until whenever I need to use it.

When I'm ready to use I place some star san and hot water in keg and splash it around and push through poppets and fill transfer hose, I then leave a while before emptying out star san. I then flush CO2 in the out post and open the release to purge. purge some Co2 through transfer hose and hook up to fermented and leave in fridge to cool, then transfer and gas. I just gravity feed into the keg so it takes about 15 or 20 so minutes, all up hard to tell but thats my procedure anyway.


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## MashPaddler (13/9/13)

mmmyummybeer said:


> Not sure on times but when I empty the keg I rinse it then put in some PBW and hot water, splash it around and push the poppets down to get cleaner through dip tubes, leave.
> 
> Later (generally the next day) I pour out the PBW and rinse with hot water again pushing on the poppets to rinse the dip tubes and empty water then leave until whenever I need to use it.
> 
> When I'm ready to use I place some star san and hot water in keg and splash it around and push through poppets and fill transfer hose, I then leave a while before emptying out star san. I then flush CO2 in the out post and open the release to purge. purge some Co2 through transfer hose and hook up to fermented and leave in fridge to cool, then transfer and gas. I just gravity feed into the keg so it takes about 15 or 20 so minutes, all up hard to tell but thats my procedure anyway.


This is almost exactly what I do, but I do a run of star san straight after the pbw if it is sitting for a while before refilling. No issues to date. Taking the time with the gravity feed to the tune of 15-20 minutes means no splashing and less oxidisation.


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## treefiddy (13/9/13)

Newts said:


> Hey guys,
> 
> Just thought I'd throw this out there and see how long it takes others from start to finish to put their beer from the fermenter into the keg including cleaning maintenance etc. I'm just timing myself now as I do it, and thought I'd see how other people go about it. I'm kegging two brews at the moment.
> My process is:
> ...


You do that every time?

Do you force carb or natural carb?


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## manticle (13/9/13)

I just recently started kegging. First time I pulled everything apart - posts, poppets, tubes blah blah, boiled in a big put, soaked in sanitiser, put back together, sanitised, purged, filled, gassed.

Along the lines of what you are doing. Second time I did similarly and had the same questions as you. Not really the easy mecca the anti-bottling crowd make it out to be.

Advice I was given by a couple of long term keggers was 'first time and every few months break everything down. In between, just flush out with pbw/sodium percarb, rinse clean and sanitise, flush with co2, fill and gas'.

Should be much quicker and easier.


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## scon (13/9/13)

Yeah, it sounds a little much... I can bottle a batch of beer in 2 hours.


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## nathan_madness (13/9/13)

Sounds like way too much work!

1. Rinse with boiling water flush through tap and line.
2. Rinse with PBW again through tap and line.
3. Flush keg with tap water and flush tap and line.
4. Rinse with Starsan flushing tap and line.
5. Fill with beer and carbonate.

Takes about 20-30min.


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## mxd (13/9/13)

for me, leave empty kegs until I can be stuffed cleaning (or need em to fill)
Fill bath with hot (tap water) with sodium perc in it.
Open kegs (if no gas then assume leak somewhere and check
Rinse in shower
put some sodium perc in keg, attach disconects (that are attached to pond pump) and run for some time
put disconnect on anther keg
Empty "clean" keg
rinse in shower, put some hot water in and some no rinse
Give it a shack
Some time in future,
give it a shack
empty no rinse out
put beer in
connect to gas 
drink
repeat.


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## Screwtop (13/9/13)

Newts said:


> One and a bit caps of napisan into keg
> Fill to about 7 litres with warm water from tap
> Shake and leave for a while (varies depending if it's urgent but at least an hour)
> Shake whenever I go by the keg
> ...



Stuff me! I'd have given it up long ago if it was this much work :lol:

1. When keg blows, rinse with tap water a few times, put a couple of litres of water in the keg with a teaspoon of Sodium Percarbonate and shake. Leave with a sodium perc label for a few days.

2. Tip out Sodium Perc and rinse with tap water a few times, put 2 litres of NoRinse Sanitiser in the keg and store away with a Sanitiser Label until required.

3. Fill from fermenter with gelatine solution in the bottom.

4. Put on Gas

5. Serve after a week 

Screwy


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## Ironsides (13/9/13)

1. Soak in 'cleanskin' (96% sodium per carb from the wine industry) for some time.

2. Rinse with Citric acid and PMS solution. Or peroxide. Or Phosphoric acid.

3. Flush with CO2

4. Fill with beer

20 minutes excluding soaking time.


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## Cocko (13/9/13)

Keg blows..

Leave until needed - its full of C02, so why stress.

Need to fill said keg - release pressure, hose out with hot water. Visually inspect, if needed, hit with Perc - if not, just hit with Starsan and up-end to drain.

Fill.

The 2 parts, usually take 10 minutes, so 20 mins max.

IF/WHEN keg needs soaking, do on a different night then kegging night.

Most will argue but 6 years in and no infections [touches jyo's wood] - Why change the procedure.

Find your own method, that works - if you are having issues, change it. If it is working, well if it aint broke etc...

2c'ing.


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## bradsbrew (13/9/13)

Cocko said:


> Keg blows..
> 
> Leave until needed - its full of C02, so why stress.
> 
> ...


Exactly the same as this except I put a kettle full of boiling water in and shake with the lid on and run the boiling water through a bronco tap instead of starsan. If its not going in the fridge after filling I give it a rinse with starsan after the boiling water.

Cheers


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## Mr. No-Tip (13/9/13)

Hmm. This thread makes me think I might be getting complacent on the keg side of things.

I starsan or oxonia my keg, and fill. Ideally down the dip tube through a santised hose into a QD.

I clean kegs with PBW most times I finish, but not every time. Every few empties I use caustic.

Maybe 'not every time' could be a problem....no keg infections so far though...


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## Cocko (13/9/13)

bradsbrew said:


> Exactly the same as this except I put a kettle full of boiling water in and shake with the lid on and run the boiling water through a bronco tap instead of starsan. If its not going in the fridge after filling I give it a rinse with starsan after the boiling water.
> 
> Cheers


I knew jyo was cheating.


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## Natdene (13/9/13)

I do almost the same as Cocko, only thing different is I take the posts off to clean and sanitise, and also when keg has been put back together and has sanitiser in it I give it a blast of CO2 and then push down on the out post so to push sanitiser back up the dip tube. Never timed it but reckon max 30min's


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## dougsbrew (13/9/13)

I'm able to get my arm in through the opening, wipe the inside with a sponge with a splash of starsan on it and rinse. 
Top up with half a litre of water and some starsan, 5 psi co2, purge out post, and store. 5 minutes.
Come beer time, shake corny, take off lid, sit upside down(1 minute), drain out post, ready to fill.
I do recommend a thorough clean say every 6 months ie dismantle posts etc(depending on amount of use/abuse).


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## Thefatdoghead (13/9/13)

Cocko said:


> Keg blows..
> 
> Leave until needed - its full of C02, so why stress.
> 
> ...


Yep same as this. I put boiling water through out post as well and just hit the lot with starsan before I filter into the keg. Too easy.
Oh and the keg is left full of Co2 until used. Time to pull all 6 keg apart actually.


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## Cocko (13/9/13)

dougsbrew said:


> I'm able to get my arm in through the opening,



WTF? Are you actually a cartoon character?

Dude, eat.



Edit: Too late to edit main post - but YES, pay attention to posts...


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## bradsbrew (13/9/13)

Douglas was born without elbows Cocko.


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## Cocko (13/9/13)

Sorry, was un aware of this, thanks Brad.

Douglas, please focus on growing elbows and less on kegging beer. We are all here for you.




You freaky c%nt.


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## Natdene (13/9/13)

I to can fit my whole arm inside the keg, makes for easy cleaning


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## Cocko (13/9/13)

What the hell!

Are you guys actually confused between a Keg and a Bucket?

We are talking cornies yeah? With the little lid?


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## treefiddy (13/9/13)

Cocko said:


> What the hell!
> 
> Are you guys actually confused between a Keg and a Bucket?
> 
> We are talking cornies yeah? With the little lid?


I reckon if you try real hard you could get it in there.


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## Cocko (13/9/13)

Yeah, maybe Treefid, I am more worried about getting it out!




twss.


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## jyo (13/9/13)

treefiddy said:


> I reckon if you try real hard you could get it in there.


*cough*

Sounds painful.


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## Lecterfan (13/9/13)

Was the beer from the now empty keg ok? Yes: rinse with boiling water (shake, press down both the in and out poppets etc) and fill with new beer. No: why did you keg the beer in the first place tosslehead? - clean with sod perc and sod met mix, rinse with boiling water, maybe some starsan.

Do all that other shit every few beers regardless.

3 hours to fill two kegs? **** that.


edit: tosslehead is a rhetorical device.


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## jakethesnake559 (13/9/13)

Food grade lubricant on elbow does the trick h34r:


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## Kak (13/9/13)

1. Poor yourself a beer
2. Wash out keg
3. Sanitizer
4. Dispense some sanitizer with Pluto to clean dip tube etc
5.rehydrate yourself by having some beer poured at step 1
6.rinse out
7. Fill with beer

That's it. Did two last night, including filling in about 40 mins.


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## givemeamash (13/9/13)

Cocko said:


> Keg blows..
> 
> Leave until needed - its full of C02, so why stress.
> 
> ...



absolutely. the co2 protect from nasties and give a good clean every 3 or so brews....piece of piss


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## Mr. No-Tip (13/9/13)

Cocko said:


> We are talking cornies yeah? With the little lid?


Keg arms, man. Don't you have keg arms?


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## Cocko (13/9/13)

I am going back to bottling, this shit just got real.


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## stevemc32 (14/9/13)

I had a similar batch in the fermenter to one of the kegs that had just blown so the steps were like this.

Get blown keg out of fridge
Fill with next batch
Put keg back in fridge

I reckon it took me about 7 minutes all up including purging the keg and removing / refitting the gas and beer lines.


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## jezza79 (14/9/13)

rinse/hose scum off bottom.
starsan through keg and tubes 
fill 
forse carb
drink

20 min max


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## Neanderthal (14/9/13)

Get all blown keg that been sitting

Rinse

Strip and soak posts and hit dip tube with brush 

Per- c in, put chux on end of brush, no way in the world would I get forearm in.

Rinse with hot water

1 cup star San

Re assemble posts spraying everything with star San, replace orings every second or third time ( buy bags of 100 or eBay for a few dollar)

Shake keg with the star San in.

Purge with co2 and store until ready.

5 - 8 mins a keg, usually do 4-6 at a time depending how many are blown.

Keg day, degas, open lids , empty star San , fill, lube main oring, burp, store until needed.


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## jyo (14/9/13)

I usually do this:

1. Rinse with cold water
2. Kettle of boiling water and sodium percarbonate or keg and line cleaner. Shake.
3. Run some out the "out post" and through the taps if they need it. Leave for 10 minutes.
4. Rinse.
5. Rinse with kettle of boiling water, run some through the "out post"
6. C02 purge

Takes about 20 minutes.

It's all about finding a method that works for you and gives you good results.


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## Newts (14/9/13)

Screwtop said:


> Stuff me! I'd have given it up long ago if it was this much work :lol:
> 
> 1. When keg blows, rinse with tap water a few times, put a couple of litres of water in the keg with a teaspoon of Sodium Percarbonate and shake. Leave with a sodium perc label for a few days.
> 
> ...


Haha, yep, I do this every time.

Hmm, maybe I'm taking this a little seriously when it comes to cleaning and sanitation. I just can't imagine after waiting 4 weeks having it get infected from my keg! In saying that it seems others are far more lax than me and don't have any problems.

The above is basically what I do but I do it in one session. Seems to me that most people do what I do but don't disassemble the posts every time. I always do the posts cause I find the beer connect always has dried beer on it from connecting and disconnecting the tap. Then I figure I may as well do the lot. The other thing is every time i finish a brew I see the hose going to the tap full of dried beer too by the time I put another keg on then I figure I may as well do that too. Those two are the time consuming bit I think - posts and lines cause you gotta pull it all apart and put back together, and hook up to the keg a heap of times.

Think I'll give your method a go Screwy. Also like the sound of Cockos method - a lot of time saved there.

Been an interesting thread too. No way I can get my arm into a corny!


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## Byran (14/9/13)

I honestly have been kegging for about 3 years and have never taken my kegs apart completely or changed the O rings. Ive never had an infection and dont have any leaks.
Prob lucky but I just rinse em out with tap water and put the new batch of beer straight in, force carb and drink in 10 mins. I rinse and fill a third of the way with water , half a cup of sodium perc and run it through the lines only when they blow before I have another brew to put in there, and clean my taps out properly every time I see them getting a bit weathered.


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## Bribie G (14/9/13)

Byran said:


> I honestly have been kegging for about 3 years and have never taken my kegs apart completely or changed the O rings. Ive never had an infection and dont have any leaks.
> Prob lucky but I just rinse em out with tap water and put the new batch of beer straight in, force carb and drink in 10 mins. I rinse and fill a third of the way with water , half a cup of sodium perc and run it through the lines only when they blow before I have another brew to put in there, and clean my taps out properly every time I see them getting a bit weathered.


Basically Byran's method, I haven't had a keg infection yet - coming up 4 years. I treat them as a big bottle - rinse and shake a few times in the garden, some starsan and another shake and drain. Every few "trips" I take out the dip tube and give it a good blow through then replace. I feel that taking everything apart to the last O ring is asking for trouble. These kegs lived for many years as Pepsi syrup containers and no doubt abused, left in dark cellars or on the backs of trucks and I bet they didn't strip them down before every refill. I'd guess a quick steam clean and refill then into the holding area for next delivery.


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## QldKev (14/9/13)

My standard regime is I run 3 fermenters at a time, and I fill 4 kegs. A fermenter a keg and the left overs from the fermenters goes into a Mongrel keg. So fill 4 kegs and then get the three fermenters running again with a fresh batch of beer all up is normally a bit over an hour. But I do go pretty hard at it as I don't want open kegs and fermenters sitting open to the air for long.

Once every few months I do a full clean that includes ripping the gear down for a full service and is normally done over a couple of days. I would guess around 3 hours all up.


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## Pagey (15/12/13)

Wow I just found this thread… HAHA Maybe I should do more than what I do LOL.!!!

Release pressure
Rinse with water
10L santizer - shake - run some out the lines.
Fill with water and purge with CO2 so it's completely full of CO2.
Fill with beer.

Max 15mins…..


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## rehabs_for_quitters (15/12/13)

Just done one now, rinse it with boiling water, then fill it with about 5 litres boiling water run it through the beer line, then a litre of no rinse sanitiser shake the crap out of it run through beer line then fill with sanitised racking cane, about 15 minutes and she's done, been kegging for nigh on four years never pulled down a keg except to replace seals, never had an issue with infection in keg


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## breakbeer (16/12/13)

Rinse the crap outta the bottom with a garden hose 

Add a jug full of boiling water & some sodium perc

Shake & leave it on its side with the dip tube closest to the floor

Pour a beer

Finish beer

Empty out sodium perc/water

Rinse & spray with Starsan

Fill keg

= around 10 - 15 minutes


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## SimoB (16/12/13)

Never had a infection in a keg. Once keg finished, rinse with boiling water, sit for 10 min then upside down for the same. 
Flush beer line, effort and rinse keg. 

Time to fill keg I just do the same thing minus the line clean, then star san and fill 

Sent from my HTC_PN071 using Tapatalk


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## govorko1974 (10/1/14)

well as I have just bought a 2nd hand keg system and the other day am now totally confused as to how a should go about cleaning them before I use them for the first time. Don't know what the previous owners regime was or whether he has changed any O-rings or seals. First brew I was going to pull everything apart and wash/sanitize. but after reading this I might just rinse them quick sanitise them fill with beer.


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## Cocko (10/1/14)

No,

First time... Clean them thoroughly. Then you know they are clean.

Pull off the connects, pull out the dip tube, soak everything, GO NUTS on making sure you know they are clean...

Then, you can relax and follow the tips in this thread. Your are spot on, pull 'em apart and clean.

Seriously, can you be too safe?


No.


2c.


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## bradsbrew (10/1/14)

govorko1974 said:


> well as I have just bought a 2nd hand keg system and the other day am now totally confused as to how a should go about cleaning them before I use them for the first time. Don't know what the previous owners regime was or whether he has changed any O-rings or seals. First brew I was going to pull everything apart and wash/sanitize. but after reading this I might just rinse them quick sanitise them fill with beer.


When getting a second hand keg, I would recommend given them a good pull apart and change the o rings after that you can choose whatever regime suits you. You want to give them a good clean up because you just don't know what's been in them......could of had a wheat beer in them, you want to nuke that shit away.


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## professional_drunk (11/1/14)

Just had a keg infection. Over the last week the beer lost all maltiness. Grabbed a sample into the refractometer, 0.998 :wacko:
Tasted like soda water with hops.


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## Cocko (11/1/14)

professional_drunk said:


> Just had a keg infection. Over the last week the beer lost all maltiness. Grabbed a sample into the refractometer, 0.998 :wacko:
> Tasted like soda water with hops.


Sounds delicious!!


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## govorko1974 (12/1/14)

gave them a good clean out. pulled them all apart. didn't changed any O-rings as they looked ok. all three of them had different set-ups in regards to the dip tube


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