Okay I Know I Sound Dumb But ... Help!

[achy02]

Alrighty,
I can't get my head around this kegging thing. I feel like a dumb sh*& but I just can't figure it out ...
I have two kegs filled with ale. I have a grey connection which I have hooked up to my reg (micromatic) with an inline safety doodad. I have a black connection with a picnic tap on the end of about 1.5m of 4mm beer line. I intend on using a sodastream bottle for my dispense and I have naturally carbed (been about 3 weeks) since kegging. So do I just push on the connections' (grey on 'in' black on 'out'), screw in the sodastream bottle and set the reg at about 1.5 bar?
Once connected do I need to leave the keg to carb for any length of time?
Is it usual for the connections to be very hard to get off?
How do I know if the gas is going in?
I know I sound like I havent researched, truth is I have. This is really my second go at kegging and my first go was a dud. I have asked for advice from my supplier and he was very helpful but I honestly feel like I have some sort of impairment when it comes to figuring this biz out. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. I know sodastream is not the best way to go but I am in a transition phase and a small CO2 bottle is on the horizon (if I can figure out the rest).
Cheers
achy

 

[glaab]

1.5 is too high, try about 1.0 or a bit less. Has the keg naturally carbed?, does gas come out of the relief valve with pressure? I'd connect it up and burp it then wind it up to about 0.8 bar [12psi] and adjust it from there

 

[achy02]

1.5 is too high, try about 1.0 or a bit less. Has the keg naturally carbed?, does gas come out of the relief valve with pressure? I'd connect it up and burp it then wind it up to about 1 bar and adjust it from there

Yep one is fully carbed and ready to roll, one has gone flat with my bungling attempt to connect and reconnect it. By burp do you mean, release the pressure valve for a blast? Once it is sitting at one bar, do I leave for any time or just adjust to get the flow right?
Thanks for your info :icon_cheers:

 

[cozmocracker]

i dont know how basic you want it but this might help,



helped me when i started.

 

[michaelcocks]

Alrighty,
I can't get my head around this kegging thing. I feel like a dumb sh*& but I just can't figure it out ...
I have two kegs filled with ale. I have a grey connection which I have hooked up to my reg (micromatic) with an inline safety doodad. I have a black connection with a picnic tap on the end of about 1.5m of 4mm beer line. I intend on using a sodastream bottle for my dispense and I have naturally carbed (been about 3 weeks) since kegging. So do I just push on the connections' (grey on 'in' black on 'out'), screw in the sodastream bottle and set the reg at about 1.5 bar?
Once connected do I need to leave the keg to carb for any length of time?
Is it usual for the connections to be very hard to get off?
How do I know if the gas is going in?
I know I sound like I havent researched, truth is I have. This is really my second go at kegging and my first go was a dud. I have asked for advice from my supplier and he was very helpful but I honestly feel like I have some sort of impairment when it comes to figuring this biz out. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. I know sodastream is not the best way to go but I am in a transition phase and a small CO2 bottle is on the horizon (if I can figure out the rest).
Cheers
achy

half a bar or less ! Should be all you need the beer should just fall out of the tap , not spray over the other side of the room
so you are naurally carving rather than force carving ? Any particular r eason ?

Yep move up to paintball cannister for 50$ or less asap refills are 5$ and the cannister is 20 fl ounces so bigger than sodastreM the fittings are the same

 

[achy02]

half a bar or less ! Should be all you need the beer should just fall out of the tap , not spray over the other side of the room
so you are naurally carving rather than force carving ? Any particular r eason ?

Yep move up to paintball cannister for 50$ or less asap refills are 5$ and the cannister is 20 fl ounces so bigger than sodastreM the fittings are the same

i have been naturally carbing to reduce the gas usage. Im thinking of going whole hog to the 2.6kg bottle but the p/ball cannister is another option...

 

[Screwtop]

G = Grey = Gas
B = Black = Beer

Gas posts on the keg are different, they will have a different nut, a grooved nut or a mark, or dimples or bumps or chuncks out of the rubber top adjacent the post. Sometimes they even have IN or GAS IN printed near the post, weird :lol:

Beer needs to be carbonated, either naturally (sugar or something in the keg plus time at room temp to allow secondary/tertiary fermentation/conditioning, this should be around .8 Bar. Carbonated beer needs to be chilled and then pressurised to be moved out of the keg, in a balanced system the pressure required to move the beer without driving Co2 out of solutions is the same .8 Bar, easy eh. If using short line length or a picnic tap serving pressure (pressure required to move the beer) needs to be lowered during serving (as low as .2 Bar depending on serving system) this can be done by dropping pressure on the reg and relieving pressure using the keg's PRV. After serving jack the pressure back up to carbing pressure to maintain Co2 level.

Hope this helps,

Screwy

 

[glaab]

Yep one is fully carbed and ready to roll, one has gone flat with my bungling attempt to connect and reconnect it. By burp do you mean, release the pressure valve for a blast? Once it is sitting at one bar, do I leave for any time or just adjust to get the flow right?
Thanks for your info :icon_cheers:

If your keg is naturally carbed and holding more than 0.8 bar you need to burp it with the pressure valve.
Each time you adjust it it will probably take an hr or so to settle. Try to adjust as few times as possible.
The fridge temp will make a difference too. 0.8 bar at 3C will give you 2.6 times CO2, just right for most ales. When you get a bigger gas bottle I find the foolproof way is to set it to 0.8 bar and let it carb for a week- 10 days then serve without changing the reg, I haven't touched the reg for months doing it this way.

 

[bradsbrew]

Hey Achy which side of the river are you there are plenty of keggers that can give you a demo, sometimes these demos may take a few beers to show pressure drop over time in use . If your on the Nth side AI can offer both my kegs, gas and liver to give a demonstration as to how it works*.

*Disclaimer Brad is working away and a bit pissed and is only offering his liver as per his own beer filtering device and in no way is offering his liver in any other way :icon_drunk:

 

[achy02]

If your keg is naturally carbed and holding more than 0.8 bar you need to burp it with the pressure valve.
Each time you adjust it it will probably take an hr or so to settle. Try to adjust as few times as possible.
The fridge temp will make a difference too. 0.8 bar at 3C will give you 2.6 times CO2, just right for most ales. When you get a bigger gas bottle I find the foolproof way is to set it to 0.8 bar and let it carb for a week- 10 days then serve without changing the reg, I haven't touched the reg for months doing it this way.

Fantastic info guys. Thanks heaps. Im going to have another crack and I can already see a few fundamental errors with what I have been doing wrong (none that I care to mention but rest assured overcarbing may have something to do with it). Im also going to check my fittings. I literally have to pry the little suckers off with pliers. I see on the you tube vid (thnaks cozmocraker) that they should just pop on and off. This is def. not the case and I may have put the stainless steel connection on the wrong side (or some such nonsense). I have also noticed that my O ring inside the adapter has split. Any suggestions on how to fix this one, or am I going have to order a new one.
Once again I thank you for your help.
aches

 

[michaelcocks]

Fantastic info guys. Thanks heaps. Im going to have another crack and I can already see a few fundamental errors with what I have been doing wrong (none that I care to mention but rest assured overcarbing may have something to do with it). Im also going to check my fittings. I literally have to pry the little suckers off with pliers. I see on the you tube vid (thnaks cozmocraker) that they should just pop on and off. This is def. not the case and I may have put the stainless steel connection on the wrong side (or some such nonsense). I have also noticed that my O ring inside the adapter has split. Any suggestions on how to fix this one, or am I going have to order a new one.
Once again I thank you for your help.
aches

make sure you use lube, you can split your seals pretty easy without it

 

[Pennywise]

If your kegs dont have an "in" & "out" stamped where the posts are, then have a look at the lip where the quick disconnect fits ove, the bigger one is beer and the smaller one is gas. When I first started kegging I got a keg that had no markings and completly f**ked a disconnect trying to get it off. I know this wont solve your carbing issues but may help if you have a keg without any markings, so you dont root your connections like I did the first time round.

 

[achy02]

yeah, um i think i have them on the wrong side. Back to the old drawing board...

 

[pokolbinguy]

if you cant work out which post is which just remember

Grey, Gas, Groove...

All the gas posts I have seen had a groove of some description in it...normally in the part of the post where you would put a spanner to remove it (on the head).

So if no groove...then beer..and black...

 

[hoohaaman]

make sure you use lube, you can split your seals pretty easy without it

ouch,I found a water base one right next to the condoms :unsure:

 

[achy02]

Hi all,
Thanks to everyone who has given me advice. It has been an enormous help. I have discovered one of my major problems - I had the posts on the wrong way around. This would explain the hell of a time I had getting the connections on and off. This solves one problem but opens up another one. How the hell do I change the posts on the naturally carbed keg? Will it matter if I degas the beer and change the posts? Can I force carb with a sodatream bottle?
Also with regard to my split O ring on the sodastream adapter can I just use a normal rubber O ring or is this special. I wanted to get my beer on this weekend and dont fancy a drive to craft brewer for a 90 cent O ring.
I once again wanted to say thanks I have been holding off posting for ages and I have learned heaps in short time with thanks to you guys.
aches

 

[achy02]

Hey Achy which side of the river are you there are plenty of keggers that can give you a demo, sometimes these demos may take a few beers to show pressure drop over time in use . If your on the Nth side AI can offer both my kegs, gas and liver to give a demonstration as to how it works*.

*Disclaimer Brad is working away and a bit pissed and is only offering his liver as per his own beer filtering device and in no way is offering his liver in any other way :icon_drunk:

Mate thanks for the offer I am Southsider unfortunately, although I am sure you will still perform keg draining exercise without me. God bless our livers.... :icon_cheers: