Filling and cleaning commercial kegs at home PLEASE HELP

[Davidjosh]

Hey Folks,

What a forum, so much info and helpful threads. Top stuff

I searched before posting this so please, if i missed a helpful topic please send me the link

I am ready to move away from bottling and move into kegging.

I have just ordered a hybrid ice bank system, regs, couplers, flooded 4 tap font and a pallet of Franke 50lt kegs (A-type), Oh and the correct line flushing and cleaning chemicals.

Now, my question is, without removing the spear, or buying a expensive filling machine what is the best method for filling these kegs with my cider? Is it a simple coupler attachment? Is it as simple as filling the keg through the outlet of the coupler? sorry for my ignorance.

And last - cleaning the kegs, is that once again as simple as filling with say a hot water solution of costic soda, then tartaric, then PMS then starsan? or is there a better way?

Thanks for reading, I look forward to getting to know you all, Ill post some photos of my bar build, my home made bulk pasturizer and other brewing do dads.

Regards, josh

 

[mr_wibble]

Why do you not want to remove the spear?

I clean my kegs (ex soft drink kegs) with sodium percabonate, then star-san to sanitise.

I've seen a few builds of upside-down keg cleaners, and last time I clean 4 kegs at one, so have been thinking about building one of those.
Basically it's a submersible pump with a stick-up nozzle. You sit the keg over it, cleaners (or rinse-water, or sanitiser) is sprayed up inside the keg.

 

[mb-squared]

Hi Josh, welcome. You've got yourself a *pallet* of 50lt kegs? Wow, are you starting a commercial brewery?

I ferment in 50ltr kegs and I rarely ever remove the spear. I use a 3/8" tailpiece on my coupler (http://morebeer.com/products/tailpiece-38.html), which allows me to go straight from my pump on the brewrig to the keg. I vent the keg during filling (and fermenting) by running some tubing from the "gas in" tailpiece to a tub of starsan. After pushing the fermented beer out, I push hot caustic soda in (from a pressurised corny keg), slosh it around, then push it out. Repeat process with hot water and/or starsan.

The only time I remove the spear is to add hops when dry hopping.

Hope that helps.

 

[Davidjosh]

Thanks for the reply mr wibble, great idea I'll look into a cleaning jig like that also if I do decide to remove the spear.

An mb, thanks for taking the time to post that, exactly what I was after, now all I need is a smaller transfer pump to pump from my tanks into the kegs., any ideas? I assume you fill them right up.

Yep 27 kegs on a pallet, same cost to ship 9 or 27. I'm starting a small cider company down here in Tassie. Wish me luck!

Once I fill them I'll have to read up on how to carbonate them. I assume I need to chill them to zero or 1 ish like when using a spagni carbonator?

Such a great forum, cheers guys

 

[Davidjosh]

Oh sorry I forgot to say, It's not that I don't want to remove the spear, I was just wondering if there is a less time consuming filling / cleaning method. How ever in saying that I'll most likely remove one just so I can see the process. Cheers

 

[mb-squared]

An mb, thanks for taking the time to post that, exactly what I was after, now all I need is a smaller transfer pump to pump from my tanks into the kegs., any ideas? I assume you fill them right up.

If you can pressurize your tanks, then you can use CO2 to push the cider into the kegs. If not, and gravity isn't an option, then you'll need a pump.

Yep 27 kegs on a pallet, same cost to ship 9 or 27. I'm starting a small cider company down here in Tassie. Wish me luck!

Best of luck with that. Sounds very cool.

Once I fill them I'll have to read up on how to carbonate them. I assume I need to chill them to zero or 1 ish like when using a spagni carbonator?

Can't you just hook up your CO2 to the kegs? I don't know what a spagni carbonator is, so can't help out there.

 

[Davidjosh]

My holding tanks are 215 lt, and are 900mm off the ground. I'll use gravity to fill the kegs as you suggested, thanks.

Sorry for the confusion, my carbonator is for bottles, 330ml-200ml. 4 at a time. I found they carbonate better at a cooler temperature so I'll continue this practice with my kegs. One at a time in the fridge at just above freezing.

I just purchased a Bracton Two Stage CO2 regulator. From what I understand you simply come out of that and into the keg. I see some people like rolling or shaking the keg, what is the preferred method for 50lt kegs?

Sorry about all these questions

 

[fcmcg]

Davidjosh, you certainly are spending a lot of coin on equipment.
Do you have a bright tank ? Do you plan on batch priming , force carbonating or connecting a few kegs up to gas and gasing at serving pressure , over a week ? These are some questions you need to answer , yourself...
In my opinion , Rolling and shaking 50 litres (50 plus kilo's) is getting get pretty tiring fairly quickly...
Good luck with your venture...but all the coin your investing , maybe contact 7 sheds or two metres tall or moo brew and ask if you can spend some time there for free , seeing how it's all done...especially from the kegging side...it might provide some valuable insight

 

[Davidjosh]

Hey there, thanks for the reply

As far as spending money i saved for quite some time before I started spending, most of my gear to date has been home made or second hand such as my pasturiser, chilling system and fermenting and pressure vessels.

I have two bright tanks, how ever my chilling system is not up and running yet so regulating the tempreture would be difficult at this point, so I plan on just carbonating in the keg for now.

Yep great idea, I spent a little time at 2 meter tall doing some stainless work a few years ago now.
Working full time plus a two year old at my feet limits the time I have to spend away learning, so I feel jumping on here is the best way for me at this stage.

Cheers guys