Step One: Kegging..?

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sluggerdog

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HEY ALL,

After a stack of all the umms and arrs I decided to start my kegging experiance by making an order to Brewers Discount for all the little bits and pieces and then buying a few kegs from the HBS down the road.

The package arrived today and now I have everything to start with my kegging experiance (except the gas.. Onto it now though).

My problem is, I have no idea where to start, what to do etc.

IS there any good examples on the net (AUSTRALIA) that can explain everything involved with kegging including how to fill a keg, gas a keg and so on.

I have no idea how to even put the beer in it in the first place. (The keg came to me re-conditioned and pressure tested)

Help or Links would be great.

Thanks
SD :)
 
Slugger, there is quite a lot of info on AHB if you poke about. I started kegging 12mnths ago and it is one of the best investments I have made.

Nearly posted an excellent post in this thread and I am now using the balanced system which makes life easy. Only point is you need to have more kegs if you are going to wait a week for it to carbonate.

I wouldn't restrict your searches to Aus only as there is some good info out there.
 
Slugger,

Sounds like you are ready to rock! Get some gas and get kegging!

There are some helpful instructions on the Homebrewers Warehouse website. Also try doing a search on "kegging" here on AHB and read it all. It's all a bit of trial and error, but if you're lucky like me, you'll get it right first time. My 2 key suggestions are:

1 - get yourself a racking cane, so you can siphon the beer from the fermenter to the keg with minimum yeast transfer (you siphon from the top and leave the yeast at the bottom of the fermenter).

2 - for gassing up your keg, refrigerate it for 24 hours first (obviously you don't need to do this if it's been cold conditioning), then gas it at 250kpa for 24 hours. This will give it perfect carbonation for most styles of beer (provided your fridge temp is stable - jgriffin learnt this the hard way ;) ). I then serve the beer at 80kpa, but this will depend on your system (i.e line length and diameter, temp, carbonation, type of taps, etc).

Good luck - you'll never look back!

Cheers - Snow
 
Is it 24 hrs at 250 kpa ...or did you mean 48 hrs, Snow?

I've been trying the rock'n'roll method of 60 shakes with gas at 60psi ...with mixed results (good for a quick keg ...but, hard to perfect)
 
Thanks for the suggestions guys, will give that site a check out very soon too.

CHEERS
 
It's 24 hours, Jimmy. If my beer is warm, I put it in the fridge for 24 hours first, then I hook up the gas, crank it to 250kpa and leave it another 24 hours. I get perfect carbonation with this method.

- Snow.
 
Probably already answered somewhere ...but I cant find it through search ...

Question is:

Does the force carbonating method work just the same for 3 gal kegs?

...so 250kpa for 24 hours on a cold keg?

Thanks very ;)
 
jimmysuperlative said:
Probably already answered somewhere ...but I cant find it through search ...

Question is:

Does the force carbonating method work just the same for 3 gal kegs?

...so 250kpa for 24 hours on a cold keg?

Thanks very ;)
[post="58271"][/post]​

Jimmy, below is my method - for 10L keg just half the times, everything else the same - this way takes out the guess work of how carbonated your keg is & is safer than leaving your gas connected for long periods...

After filling the keg (upto the weld mark just below the top) with cold beer turn pressure upto 300 kpa & rock keg back & forth on its side (inlet at bottom) for 50 seconds. Turn off gas (on main bottle) but continue to rock keg while monitoring the pressure dial. You will see the pressure full back quite quickly & then stabilise (100 - 200kpa). The goal is for the pressure to fall back to between 140 - 180 kpa depending on your preference (140 pommie ale - 180 lager). If the pressure falls well below 140 kpa, just turn gas back on & rock for another 10 - 15 secs, then recheck & repeat as necessary. I find that 60 secs is nearly always about the mark. Then all you have to do is release the top pressure valve on the keg (normally about an hour later to avoid foam flying out of the valve), connect to your gas (making sure you have set pressure back to 80 kpa or whatever you like to dispense at) & you will pour a perfect beer.
 
Thanks Ross ...

I will have a go at your method tomorrow and let you know how it all pans out.

Cheers. :chug:
 

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