Help Me Setting Up My Kegging System

[Bandito]

So far I have installed one of my three taps in the front of the keg fridge. Also soaked 2 kegs with napisan, and have pumped it through both kegs and the tap for about 3 hours.

I have 3 taps total, 7 kegs, and two fridges. Unfortunately, crash chilling the fermenters resulted in them freezing and am defrosting them at the moment.

So firstly, I trust soaking and pumping naipsan through the kegs and tap is the correct first step?

Next, I am about to fill a keg with starsan and pump that through. I also have saniclean (the low foam version), but I think that the foaming version would be better so it sanitises the whole keg.

Second question is about the beer line. Those that know me know whats coming.... yes, teflon beer tubing! So I only have about 3 meters left - is this long enough to start with? (in terms of ballancing the system)?

There are a few more questions, but will ask them on the morrow.

 

[Bandito]

I'm now pumping saniclean through the two kegs and tap, but I am getting some dominant rubber/yeast fart smells, where the hell is this coming from?

These kegs were second hand from a fellow brewer 6 months ago. The two being cleaned were pretty damn nice to start with. Is there any reaction between starsan and napisan? Perhaps the rubber seals?

 

[Thirsty Boy]

You've never used these kegs before??

I strongly recommend you don't just CIP them - you pull them to bits and scrub/sanitise them while disassembled. I'm assuming the seals etc don't smell like the syrup seeing as they have come from a fellow brewer - but I'd be checking them all anyway, for wear, soil and anything else. A good total clean and check-up, a bit of keg lube on anything thats rubber, a squirt of sanitiser and back together. That little routine can potentially save you a bunch of trouble down the track. Taps too. Nothing spoils your day quite like looking forward to a nice cold pint, but instead finding an empty keg, an empty gas bottle and a hell of a lot of beer on the floor.

If you plan in future on primarily CIPing.. then I also recommend a purchase of PBW. Nappisan/percarbonate is an OK cleaner... but PBW kicks its arse and going for a no scrubbing solution I would head for the best detergent I was able to buy.

Sorry, no help with the rubber smell... I've done the nappisan/starsan combo in the past without experiencing it, so I don't think its that.

Need the inner diameter of the beer line before anyone can help you with balancing the system. Typically, 3 meters might get you going on one tap depending on how lively you like your beer. Give it a shot, the worst that will happen is you need to muck about a bit to pour a beer while you buy more line.

 

[Bandito]

Thanks thirsty, never used these or any kegs before. I didnt think of taking out the posts and the seals, I tried but the posts are very tight and will need to use a hammer to crack the thread open.

I'm listening to Brew strong podcast on cleaning, link and Jon Herskovits from Five Star Chemicals said PBW is bad for teflon :huh: . He referred to pbw taking the teflon coating off a frypan, so will have to test it on a small length. Also mentioned teflon tape on threads, but they said that it was more to do with the pbw removing the adhesives rather than damaging the teflon. Some tests are needed to determine the bursting pressure of of the tube. The super smooth wall should make cleaning easier and reduce bugs in the line.

The beer line is 1/4" ID 6.35mm with 1/32" 0.8mm wall thickness. I found the wiki 'balancing a draught system' and looking at the spreadsheet.

Is PBW the same as brewcraft pink stain remover?

The brown deposit in on the inside of the tap has gone and is looking like brass (not sure if thats a good thing). I spose I should take that apart too and clean the seal. I pushed 1" silicon over the font and recirculated using a peristaltic pump, which worked really well.

 

[paulwolf350]

3 metres should be just about perfect, set the reg at 100KPA and adjust up or down in tiny increments till you get a perfect pour

I currently use 2 meters and 80KPA and have to keep backing pressure off when not drinking or i get lots of foam

 

[paulwolf350]

3 metres should be just about perfect, set the reg at 100KPA and adjust up or down in tiny increments till you get a perfect pour

I currently use 2 meters and 80KPA and have to keep backing pressure off when not drinking or i get lots of foam

Just changed my single side basher tap for 3 new perlicks, had to extend beer line out to about 4.5 meters to get it to pour, so I guess it depends on your tap. Being that you seem to have a font you will probably be ok with length as per yesterdays comments. If you keep pouring foam, you need more line, you probably need to be closer to 100kpa than 80, my beers are pretty lowly carbed, I will try to rebalance mine to 100kpa in the future

Paul

 

[Bandito]

Thanks Paul, is this a side basher tap on the front of the fridge? Not sure what they are called, or if unscrewing the nut on the top will allow the whole thing to come apart to be cleaned, or where to get replacement rubber seals from.

Also, the sodastream connect that in this pic is connected to the reg, has two rubber O rings to seal between it and the sodastream bottle. I that correct? Do I need just two rings?

Thanks for the help.

 

[paulwolf350]

Thanks Paul, is this a side basher tap on the front of the fridge? Not sure what they are called, or if unscrewing the nut on the top will allow the whole thing to come apart to be cleaned, or where to get replacement rubber seals from.

Also, the sodastream connect that in this pic is connected to the reg, has two rubber O rings to seal between it and the sodastream bottle. I that correct? Do I need just two rings?

Thanks for the help.

Yeah looks like a side basher, not sure what they are called. I unscrewed as you suggested and threw it into PBW to clean it. A good home brew shop should lead you to seals for your tap, or post a close up pic on here, someone will identify it

As for your soda stram adaptor, is it new, or part of your keg purchase? Mine has a big flat neoprene washer where you have o rings, might be a home remedy. Maybe try it and see if it leaks.

Paul

 

[Bandito]

Thanks heaps for your help Thirsty and Paul :kooi:

I poured my first brew from a keg at midnight! Oh how sweet it is!

Doesnt taste like I expected, but then again, everything went wrong with this brew:

First I did it on a sunday afternoon. Mash went great, but wasnt boiling by 9:30pm, so I went to bed for a lie down. Got up at 10:30pm and it was boiling, but realised that work was more important, so turned off the gas, wrapped up the pot around the lid with glad wrap and went to bed. The next night I bought back to boil and put in fermenter.

Then a week or so into ferment the batterys in the temp controller went flat and temp raised to about 14C. Then when I crash chilled in the new fridge, it froze! Contemplated making an eis, but it was destined for the keg.

Has heaps of Sazz hops, and is currently too warm, so has heaps of aroma and a mighty head, and tastes pretty sour to be honest. But, now I have done it I cant believe how easy it actually was.

I did remove the posts from the keg - all it took was a tiny hit from a large spanner on the small spanner one around the post,
I did try the two rubber O rings in the sodastream adapter, but it leaked, so took one out and its perfect, so one O ring is the go.

Now I just have to hook up an ebay temp controller tonight to stop the keg from freezing, and make a proper brew tomorrow.

My neighbour watched me do most of setting up the keg, so we may have another convert on the way. He really liked the extract brew we drank last weekend - was better than this F'd up AG.

I'll time tomorrows brew so the neighbour can see how it done, and help while he drinks the current brew.

Cheers!

 

[Carboy]

First I did it on a sunday afternoon. Mash went great, but wasnt boiling by 9:30pm, so I went to bed for a lie down. Got up at 10:30pm and it was boiling, but realised that work was more important, so turned off the gas, wrapped up the pot around the lid with glad wrap and went to bed. The next night I bought back to boil and put in fermenter.

Then a week or so into ferment the batterys in the temp controller went flat and temp raised to about 14C. Then when I crash chilled in the new fridge, it froze! Contemplated making an eis, but it was destined for the keg.

After reading this post I totally understand why you are putting so much effort into building an automated system :lol:

Cheers
Carboy :icon_cheers:

 

[Bandito]

After reading this post I totally understand why you are putting so much effort into building an automated system :lol:

Cheers
Carboy :icon_cheers:

Exactly the reason! At least someone understands

And to top it all off the keg froze! Thermometer was about -10C this morning Will clean another keg and put the nice kit brew in it.