First time with cornie keg

[paulgough]

My Dad was given some homebrew kit as a retirement present.

Part of the set was a keg with some small CO2 bulbs.

I've never used kegs before so have no idea how to fill, prime, carbonate and dispense the beer.

He's just finished secondary and is ready to keg this afternoon.

Any advice appreciated!

 

[Fil]

hi,

in oredr to force condition/carbonate you will need a fair few of the diddy bulbs AND some method of reading the internal pressure. google conditioning/carbonation charts for the pressures and temps for variouse styles of beer

you can however condition naturally just like you would in a botle or PB by adding sugar to prime when kegged.

the down side of this with a corny is due to the bottom draw so you will suck up a pint or 2 of dirty beer to start with.

imho while you could survive naturally conditioning/priming and just topping up with the small bulbs to serve, if you get on with the keg, the best solution is a big bottle with a regulator..

 

[IPA]

hi,you can however condition naturally just like you would in a botle or PB by adding sugar to prime when kegged.the down side of this with a corny is due to the bottom draw so you will suck up a pint or 2 of dirty beer to start with.
..

If you have more than an egg cup full of cloudy beer when you first open the tap you need to review your brewing proceedure!

 

[Megaross]

Cornies can't do bulbs AFAIK.

Do you mean a pressure barrel by any chance?

 

[Dave1970]

Cornies can't do bulbs AFAIK.

Do you mean a pressure barrel by any chance?

You can use a Corny with bulbs and one of these.

I have one and it's great for maintaining dispensing pressure if you take a keg away from home. I wouldn't want to use it for force carbing though.

As Megaross says it seems much more likely your dad was given a plastic pressure barrel, these often come with bulbs but the bulbs are used for topping up not carbonating. You carbonate by adding priming sugar to the keg and leaving somewhere warm for a couple of weeks. If it's plastic it's a pressure barrel if it's stainless steel it's a corny.

 

[paulgough]

It's definitely a keg.

It came with an adapter where the bulb is inserted, attached to the keg and CO2 is released by pulling a trigger.

I will advise a bottle and regulator for next time.

Went for priming this time. We'll see how it goes.

 

[PD]

Is it one of these...

http://www.hopandgrape.co.uk/public/det ... OR20164735

 

[Dave1970]

Your trigger adapter sounds like what I linked to a few posts back...one of these

If it is, it's really only used for maintaining pressure to serve not for carbing. Carb and serve at home from a big bottle, the thing picturedis a very useful bit of kit if you take a keg away from home.