Two Kegs For One Beer - Possible Advantages

[PistolPatch]

Found this thread very hard to title and the idea won't apply to many brewers. I also have a nagging feeling that there is a fatal flaw in it but I can't find it yet and I've been pondering it for several days now so...

Let's say that you have limited fridge space but go through one of your beers quite quickly. Here's an idea that I think, if you are prepared to buy an extra keg and the fittings, will...

a) allow continous flow of beer without any delay in keg changeover.
b ) eliminate forced carbonation.
c) allow a great time flexibility for racking and...
d) possibly enable the elimination of 'hands-on' filtering.

The System

Basically all you need is an extra keg, liquid dis-connect, gas dis-connect and some beer line. You also need to brew in advance - in other words, you need to have a full or almost full keg of beer that is carbonated plus a fully fermented batch.

If you have this, then you will have 'KEG A' in your fridge and it will be carbonated and hopefully full.

You will also be able to create 'KEG B' by racking your beer from your fermenter into this KEG B. KEG B is always warm (it stays outside the fridge) and is connected to KEG A in the usual 'jumping' manner.

So, what we end up with is the warm uncarbonated beer from KEG B flowing gradually, as each beer is pulled, into KEG A.

Now unless you are going through more than a half a carton of stubbies a night, I can't see why the gradual flow of warm, flat beer will not become cold and carbonated beer????

Another option (even more expensive!) would be to put a filter between the two kegs enabling bright beer as well.

The Disadvantages

Besides the obvious disadvantage of expense, there is a flaw in the system as KEG A and the filter would theoretically never get cleaned. Of course, practically, that would not occurr. We all have slack times and can 'jump' beer from one keg to another. Or there are times when we will have time to force-carbonate. In the latter instance, we make the force-carbonated keg, KEG A.

Just thinking back to the fatal flaw I mentioned earlier. Would it be a problem if KEG A was only say half-full? Can't see why it would be but in my pub days we always kept the full keg at the front of the bank.

Spot ya,
Pat

 

[danbeer]

Hmm.. Seems like a god idea - the thermal mass of most of a keg would quickly chill a pint or two of warmish beer as it's drawn out.

Only thing I could think of as being a problem, is that no two of my beers ever turn out the same... could lead to some interesting blends

Found this thread very hard to title and the idea won't apply to many brewers. I also have a nagging feeling that there is a fatal flaw in it but I can't find it yet and I've been pondering it for several days now so...

Let's say that you have limited fridge space but go through one of your beers quite quickly. Here's an idea that I think, if you are prepared to buy an extra keg and the fittings, will...

a) allow continous flow of beer without any delay in keg changeover.
b ) eliminate forced carbonation.
c) allow a great time flexibility for racking and...
d) possibly enable the elimination of 'hands-on' filtering.

The System

Basically all you need is an extra keg, liquid dis-connect, gas dis-connect and some beer line. You also need to brew in advance - in other words, you need to have a full or almost full keg of beer that is carbonated plus a fully fermented batch.

If you have this, then you will have 'KEG A' in your fridge and it will be carbonated and hopefully full.

You will also be able to create 'KEG B' by racking your beer from your fermenter into this KEG B. KEG B is always warm (it stays outside the fridge) and is connected to KEG A in the usual 'jumping' manner.

So, what we end up with is the warm uncarbonated beer from KEG B flowing gradually, as each beer is pulled, into KEG A.

Now unless you are going through more than a half a carton of stubbies a night, I can't see why the gradual flow of warm, flat beer will not become cold and carbonated beer????

Another option (even more expensive!) would be to put a filter between the two kegs enabling bright beer as well.

The Disadvantages

Besides the obvious disadvantage of expense, there is a flaw in the system as KEG A and the filter would theoretically never get cleaned. Of course, practically, that would not occurr. We all have slack times and can 'jump' beer from one keg to another. Or there are times when we will have time to force-carbonate. In the latter instance, we make the force-carbonated keg, KEG A.

Just thinking back to the fatal flaw I mentioned earlier. Would it be a problem if KEG A was only say half-full? Can't see why it would be but in my pub days we always kept the full keg at the front of the bank.

Spot ya,
Pat

 

[bugwan]

Pat, your idea certainly has merit, and as Danbeer notes - it would work very well for brewers who can produce a product that is either identical to the previous batch, or mixable.

I worked at a pub in my youth (sounds so long ago!) and we regularly daisy-chained up to four kegs per line. The gas would force beer from keg 4 to 3 to 2 then to the primary keg (closest to the tap). The setup was designed to minimise 'blown lines' in the days before the Cellarman changeover valves came along. You could run a week's worth of beer (per tap) through one keg! Of course, we rotated more often than that h34r: . Your idea here uses the same theory.

I think if you can produce a consistent drop and are short on storage space, you would benefit from this idea. My concern would also be how the CO2 goes with the warm keg. I guess it would be low, serving pressure though, so you shouldn't get foaming issues...

Keep those lateral ideas coming, they're all gold - even if they spark off a related idea.

Cheers
Dave

 

[PistolPatch]

I realised what the fatal flaw was this morning. Keg B won't absorb CO2 and when it gets to Keg A, there won't be enough CO2 there after a while to be absorbed.

I think I just have to face facts and get another fridge. Is 4 fridges too many for an apartment :unsure:

 

[FNQ Bunyip]

Pat old mate , Keg B will absorb CO2 but you will need higher pressures . So it might just be a case of topping KEG A every night befor bed..

Cheers mate