Can You Half Fill Kegs?

[benf]

This might be a silly question but better safe than sorry.

I have 28 litres coming ready for kegging. A corny keg takes 18 - 19litres. I have two empty corny kegs. Do I fill one up full and then put remaining (lets say 10 litres) into the other. Can you carbonate up a half full keg OK. What do you need to do differently (eg do you need to burp longer to get rid of O2 etc)?

Simple question, hopefully there is a simple answer.

Cheers

B

 

[Jace89]

Of course you can.

You carbonate it the same way you would normally buts it's going to require more CO2 to fill the empty space. If that's not a problem with you then go ahead and do it. You don't need to increase the pressure or do anything else differently, burping the keg abit more won't hurt also

 

[Liam_snorkel]

for the keg which is going to be 1/2 empty - I would first fill it with water and push that out with CO2, to make sure there is no 'air' in the headspace at all.

EDIT
also:
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=54827
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=66695

 

[QldKev]

I do it all the time.

I always brew/ferment over a kegs vol. I also ferment more than beer at a time. So the excess from the fermenters get mixed into a Mongrel keg.

QldKev

 

[Nick JD]

An advantage to half-filled (or not full) kegs is when you force carb them by lying them on their side and rolling, there's a huge surface area so they carb up really quick.

Also, you need to take this into account if you are force carbing.

 

[stux]

I find a smaller volume carbs quicker if you use high pressure (ie 300kpa), so whereas it might take 24-36 hrs to do 18L, it only takes 12-24 hrs to do 9L

 

[Steve@PMF82]

for the keg which is going to be 1/2 empty - I would first fill it with water and push that out with CO2, to make sure there is no 'air' in the headspace at all.

EDIT
also:
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=54827
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=66695

Could not agree more, unless you want the flavour of your beer to go downhill very quickly.

 

[katzke]

Being from the USA I guess I am kind of weird. But hey CO2 is cheep here as we need to get rid of as much as we can.

I always purge the empty keg with CO2 before filling. Then burp it several times before force carbing.

I also only brew enough to put in a keg. If I brewed a one and a half batch I guess I would keg the one and then bulk prime and bottle the rest.

 

[chefeffect]

I do it all the time.

I always brew/ferment over a kegs vol. I also ferment more than beer at a time. So the excess from the fermenters get mixed into a Mongrel keg.

QldKev

Never heard of a mongrel keg, did a quick search and I am keen as mustard to start doing this in my 10lt!!

 

[adryargument]

Could not agree more, unless you want the flavour of your beer to go downhill very quickly.

Never had an issue with half filling kegs. Simply burp them a few extra times with a short wait in between... CO2 is heavier then air and all air should be easily burped.
Waste of time flushing with water imo.

 

[Nick JD]

Never had an issue with half filling kegs. Simply burp them a few extra times with a short wait in between... CO2 is heavier then air and all air should be easily burped.
Waste of time flushing with water imo.

+1

I virtually always have less than 19L in my kegs and don't have oxidation issues. I fill them with a hose through the lid and purge the headspace (which is probably 100% CO2 anyway that's fizzed off the beer during the transfer).

 

[Truman42]

To save on Co2 why dont you force carb up your full keg with C02 but use sugar to natural carb your half full keg. Assuming your not going to need them both at the same time your naturally carbed keg should be ready to go by the time you've drank your full keg.

Once you've filled your corny see how many litres you have left for your other keg and bulk prime it.

 

[adryargument]

To save on Co2 why dont you force carb up your full keg with C02 but use sugar to natural carb your half full keg. Assuming your not going to need them both at the same time your naturally carbed keg should be ready to go by the time you've drank your full keg.

Once you've filled your corny see how many litres you have left for your other keg and bulk prime it.

That just sounds way to dfifficult
Who wants to try and calculate how much extra fermentables to add with the increased air space? Simpler to spend the 80c to force carb.

 

[Vitalstatistix]

for the keg which is going to be 1/2 empty - I would first fill it with water and push that out with CO2, to make sure there is no 'air' in the headspace at all.

EDIT
also:
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=54827
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=66695

Could not agree more, unless you want the flavour of your beer to go downhill very quickly.

Me too, but I use starsan instead of water.

 

[Truman42]

That just sounds way to dfifficult
Who wants to try and calculate how much extra fermentables to add with the increased air space? Simpler to spend the 80c to force carb.

80C is that all..**** why didnt someone tell me...

 

[Maheel]

theres never any head space in my kegs it's always full of starsan foam

 

[Liam_snorkel]

When I used to sanitise my filter with starsan, the beer would go cloudy after a while.
Do you guys have a similar problem?