First Time Kegger

[Hop Me]

G'day All! I' haven't been on in awhile, in fact my brewing has been at a standstill for the last few months. I'm back though, and to ring in the occasion I went down to Ross's shop and gave him a bunch of money for some kegging gear. I'm quite excited about it and have a brew to add bubbles to in the next few days.

I know there are guides on the site somewhere, and I will go looking for them as soon as I'm done posting this, but I was hoping someone could shorten my search and send me to a guide they know works. I got a big bottle and the standard hoses, fittings and regulator(?). I have a few corny kegs and one of those bottle charger adapters which I JUST CAN'T GET TO WORK! Cheers, Dave.

 

[Hop Me]

Aha! Looks like I found the only guide. If anyone has anything to add, tips and the like feel free. Thanks

 

[Scruffy]

Hi Dave...

Jees, feels like an AA meeting...


what have you brewed & how did you want it dispensed? there's a whole dispensing world out there...

 

[Hop Me]

G'day Scruffy,

I've got a hybrid lager kit ready to go after a 3 week secondary ferment. It's sitting in the fridge at 11C right now. That guide didn't reallt tell me much other than kegging is cool. I need to know about setting up the gear, connecting it, and how to dispense and stuff.

Thanks
Dave

 

[JestersDarts]

G'day Scruffy,

I've got a hybrid lager kit ready to go after a 3 week secondary ferment. It's sitting in the fridge at 11C right now. That guide didn't reallt tell me much other than kegging is cool. I need to know about setting up the gear, connecting it, and how to dispense and stuff.

Thanks
Dave

G'Day mate -

have a look at this thread
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...p?showtopic=235
this will
1.Get you excited about kegging
2.Allow you to see how people hook up their gear
3.make you spend even more money on shiny things

Transferring beer to keg, search: racking

As far as the carbonation goes for now - search: Ross Guide to keg forced carbonation
dispensing a draught system balancing spreadsheet
Balancing draught system
etc
and decide for yourself which way you would like to go about it. Personally, i started by building a balanced system, then applying the correct pressure on the bottle for the volumes of CO2 I required, then leaving it until it balanced out, about 5 days.

Once you have it all hooked up, you'll learn pretty quick.

JD

 

[flano]

A couple of tips ...I am only fairly green to it all .

find out what your regulator is ..PSI or KPA.
Mine is the opposite of what all the instructions on here are..and I gassed the christ out of my first batch.

If Like me you have a PSI regulator ,just google psi to kpa converter to find out what level to set your gassing and pouring pressure at.

Only fill your keg to the weld line at the top , otherwise your first couple of beers will be all head and you will freak out thinking that the gas is too high.

once you have filled the keg...put the seal/lid on and connect the gas line. Then purge it 3 times.
purge means to pull that little ring thingy and let a bit of gas out.
Then take gas line off and sit it in the fridge for a day to get cold.

Then when gassing up ...good luck .
I do mine at 43 PSI (on my reg dial) for 24 hrs.
The most common regulators would be around 300-ish KPA for 24 hrs. ( using my technique).
Heaps of different ways to do it.
leave at pouring pressure for 1 week is one way.
Rocking the gassed up keg to force carb it is another .

It was all a bit daunting for me at first but I have enough of a grasp on it now to pour beers for mates that are pub quality.
I am on brew 9.

My only real advice is once you get it right ...keep doing it that way.

 

[hsb]

Slight hijack - sorry. One of my sponsor-supplied kegs has a different nut connecting it, it's flower-shaped rather than hex/octagonal like the others. Can't get it off with my wrench, don't have socket set, will it come off if I buy a socket set (grr)? Can't find a picture of one but it has lots of little edges that make a wrench pretty useless.


My only tip would be to make sure and give everything a big clean before use, then practice/clean your lines & kegs by gassing up a bit and running Cleaner then Sanitiser through everything.

That and don't drink it all on the first night!

 

[Pennywise]

Slight hijack - sorry. One of my sponsor-supplied kegs has a different nut connecting it, it's flower-shaped rather than hex/octagonal like the others. Can't get it off with my wrench, don't have socket set, will it come off if I buy a socket set (grr)? Can't find a picture of one but it has lots of little edges that make a wrench pretty useless.

Go buy youself a set of ring spanners, you'll be sorted then

 

[hsb]

Thanks - just wanted to be sure. Got ring spanners already, nice metric ones that don't fit. Will have to reinvest, the little things sure do add up with brewing.