New Keg Setup Questions

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thanme

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Hi guys :)

So I've been trawling the threads here looking for info to get me started, and now I'm starting to order stuff, I want to make sure I've got it all taken care of!

So I ordered a KegMate style Dual font Kegerator which should be here in a few days (I'm in WA).
On the weekend I'm planning on picking up a couple of refurbished 19L kegs, and then off to my local home brew place to make some beer there
Then while that's doing its thing, I'm going to decide whether or not to splash out for my own 2.4kg CO2 canister, or go down the Soda Stream route for now.
As far as I can tell, that's it? Unless the Kegmate doesn't come with disconnects for 19L kegs, but that's no big deal.
Will the CO2 regulator that comes with the Kegmate be able work 2 kegs? I kind of assumed so given that it comes as a 2 tap setup, but you never know!
Any other hints/tricks for a newbie, please lay them on me :p

Oh yeah. With carbonated kegs. What's the shelf life for the beer, and does it need to be kept cold? I'm asking because the Kegmate can hold 3 kegs, but in a perfect world, I'd like to have 4 in rotation (2 of different beers).

Thanks :D
 
Well made, sanitary beer, should have a shelf life of 6-12 months, strong belgian (8%+). barleywines etc might have 5 years or more

It souds like you are brewing at a Ubrew it place, which is not brewing, and beware many of them basically splash the beer into kegs, totally oxidizing it prior to carbonation

fill in your location for more hometown tips
 
Welcome to the board NME - good to see another guy from WA on here, the more the merrier I say.

Where in WA? I don't know about the kegmate stuff but John at Eversafe in Maddington can sort you out with a CO2 extinguisher with the dip tube removed for a reasonable price.

I've had beer from Ubrewit in my chest freezer now for nearly 3 months without any problem. Still taste as good as the day I first cracked them. Haven't been back since though as I can do it myself for a fraction of the cost.

Edit - looking at the website there is no mention that beer/gas line or disconnects are provided. Get some no rinse sanitiser like star san as it's really handy to keep things ...well sanitized.
 
Thanks for the welcome :)

Really? That long even after carbonation??

What's the difference between brewing and somewhere like U-Brew-It? I'm a long way off learning the ins and outs of brewing I think :p

So I'm in Gosnells, but I work over in Osbourne Park, so I can get all over the place during the week. I plan on going to U-brew-it in Canning Vale, and I'm going to buy my kegs from Bootleg in Maddington ($79ea)

The Kegmate does come with the gas and beer lines. Is the disconnect the same as a coupler? And how often do you recommend using a rinse sanitiser? Once per keg?

Thanks for the info :)
 
G'day NME and welcome :)
The disconnects are similar to a coupler except there are two couplers dedicated for beer/ gas as opposed to the singular coupler that deals with both items.
Picture_2.png
You can easily run two kegs of your CO2 source with one of these
I'll also vouch for Eversafe's service :icon_cheers:
Good luck with your setup !
PS pop your location into your user settings so others can give you locality based info in future threads :)
Cheers
Doug
 
Thanks for the welcome :)

Really? That long even after carbonation??

Yep, as long as it's stays under pressure of CO2 and the temp is fairly stable it lasts as long as it takes for you to drink it.

What's the difference between brewing and somewhere like U-Brew-It? I'm a long way off learning the ins and outs of brewing I think :p
U-Brew-It - they supply all the brewing equipment and can even make the brew for you if you don't want to do it, but I recommend doing it as it helped me undertand about various extracts that go in as well as the hops and other additions. You turn up and they have the kettle boiling away ready for you to add the ingredients - you measure everything out and add to the kettle at the times specified by the recipe. While doing this you can enjoy a brew or two they have on tap. At the end they transfer it to the fermenter and you walk away, come back in 3 weeks and bottle or transfer to keg. They make 50L batches so you'll need 3 kegs which pretty much get filled up evenly. Make sure to confirm you want them put into your own kegs and not a swap and then set a date for when you can drop them off and then pick them up again. Very simple but also quite expensive. Would be cheaper to buy a new fermenting kits and do it yourself than u-brew-it

Brewing yourself is very very easy and it's much more rewarding. I've done a few different brews with friends at u-brew-it which was fun, but nothing beats making up your own little recipe, checking ferment every day, tasting the differences as time goes on and then putting the stuff into your own kegs knowing you and only you controlled the entire process of the beer.

So I'm in Gosnells, but I work over in Osbourne Park, so I can get all over the place during the week. I plan on going to U-brew-it in Canning Vale, and I'm going to buy my kegs from Bootleg in Maddington ($79ea)
The u-brew-it in osborne park is the one that I've been to and the people there are pretty good

And how often do you recommend using a rinse sanitiser? Once per keg?
Once the keg is finished you'll need to clean it out which is also a handy time to clean the lines. There are a few threads around explaining what everyone does and each person has their own opinions on it. I normally take the keg outside, rinse it out, put some napisan and boiling water, put the lid on and shake it about. Open and empty, rinse. Take it back inside and put boiling water in, lid on, gas on and run boiling water through the line. Put in some no rinse sanitizer like star san (excellent stuff) in the keg, shake it around and then push that through the tap. All nice and clean.
 
Great. Thanks a lot for the help and input :)
I'll be sure to keep you posted on how it all goes, and also come back with more questions as they arise :p

Thanks :)
 
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