Carbonating A 50l Pub Keg

[Bats]

I have acquired a 50L Lion Nathan (Tooheys) keg with a keg spear purchased from KegKing.

I have all the beer/gas lines and coupler to fit the keg.

Going from Corny kegs to a 50L keg my questions are:

What is the best way to carbonate using couplers?

What is the best way to purge unwanted oxygen?

At what Kpa and how long to charge up (so to speak) before dropping down to pouring pressure?

With my Corny kegs, I used to purge a few times at 200Kpa, and carbonate at 300kpa for 48 hours if keg is warm or 26 hours if already at fridge temp. This seemed to give me my desired Co2 level.

Any tips or tricks are appreciated.

Cheers.

 

[ekul]

I think i remember reading that people purge the keg by putting it upside down and then pumping co2 into it via the gas in, whilst venting the liquid out part. Then they fill it (still upside down upside down) via the gas in. Do a search, pretty sure i read that on here.

I reckon the 50L keg is a great idea if you can do it.

 

[Batz]

I have acquired a 50L Lion Nathan (Tooheys) keg with a keg spear purchased from KegKing.

I have all the beer/gas lines and coupler to fit the keg.

Going from Corny kegs to a 50L keg my questions are:

What is the best way to carbonate using couplers?

What is the best way to purge unwanted oxygen?

At what Kpa and how long to charge up (so to speak) before dropping down to pouring pressure?

With my Corny kegs, I used to purge a few times at 200Kpa, and carbonate at 300kpa for 48 hours if keg is warm or 26 hours if already at fridge temp. This seemed to give me my desired Co2 level.

Any tips or tricks are appreciated.

Cheers.

I'll be interested in how this is done as wells Bats

Cheers Batz

 

[Maheel]

if you push gas down the beer tube it will escape up the gas in tube / hole at the same time

can you seal the gas "in" tube / screwthread thing with a ball valve on the coupler and just push gas in the beer tube and then vent through the ball valve ?

then take the the coupler off swap the fittings and pour beer ?

 

[Fents]

You should be able to purge it by just putting gas in and letting it out again through the gas in connection. (like using a PRV but instead using the actual gas in connection, get a screwdriver and depress it)

For carbing i've found 24hrs @ 300KPA at serving temps works good just like a normal keg.

 

[Malted]

With my Corny kegs... and carbonate at 300kpa for 48 hours if keg is warm

Really?? Is it common place to force carb the beer whilst it is warm?
I have naturally carbed warm - of course! since it is a fermentation temp for secondary fermentation in the keg - but then I have not had to force carb it. Just serving pressure carb.
I crash chill/ cold condition my beers. So when I put it into the corny keg from primary or secondary, it is at or below serving temperature. I have never force carbed a warm keg of beer.
Interested to hear about other ways people do it.

 

[Thefatdoghead]

I just did it the other day and it was pretty easy. All you have to do is cool the keg to 3 degrees C You could just purge the keg by taking the stem off and blowing co2 in the keg then replacing the stem. I didn't bother.

All I did was hook the gas to the "beer out" line and had a non-return on the "gas in" then set the gas pressure to 3 bar (300kpa) and just tipped the keg on it's edge as the gas is going in and rock slightly. I went for about 1.5 mins first then switched off the gas bottle and keep rocking keg on it's side until the reg pressure comes down and stop's. It should stop around 140-160kpa.

Then you can drink it. I wait a few days for a bit of carb bite to go and it is perfectly carbed.


EDIT: If you want to purge just have gas on "beer out" and take off non-return on "gas in" and slowly open reg on a low pressure. I have not tried this yet but can't see why it wouldn't work.

 

[Bats]

Haven't kegged my latest as yet but conducted a few experiments today when cleaning my 50L keg out.

I bought some fittings to attach to the beer/gas connections on the coupler similar to JG fittings but stainless steel.

I connected up the keg as per usual and attached a plastic picnic tap to the beer out. Pumped it full of gas and pressurised the keg. All I had to do was switch the gas off at my manifold and dsiconnect the gas in. The keg purged itself. Easy as.

The only problem I had today was my coupler was leaking gas. I went down the hardware and bought new O rings and it is now good as new.

My fermenter and keg are both CC'ing in the fridge at the moment and I will be kegging tomorrow. Will force carbonate @ 300Kpa for 26hrs as I normally do.