Keg Newbie questions #1 - 3 : Transfer; Fridge?

[Victor Churchill]

Greets All,
So I have my new shiny keg from BKT which I am about to be sterilising and filling Real Soon Now (about a week).
I came into this thinking "a Keg will be a great alternative to bottles"; I have the behaviours of a bottle brewer and I have a beginner's keg kit of keg + reg + sodastream + pipes + tap. What I do not have is a fridge nor a place I could immediately put one or permission to get one.

Q1 : transferring and to prime or not to prime - when bottling I would gently transfer with autosyphon to a botling bucket, batch prime, then wand-bottle. I kind of thought I would be syphoning straight into keg from primary FV and still batch priming, not venturing into force carb yet until I get a big boys' CO2 cylinder. Pressurise after filling to seal, leave to condition, pressurise to draw off with tap - is that sound?

Q2 : can I use a keg if I don't have it in a fridge? I had thought it might just sit in the utility room like I used to do with a PB back in the day. It could go into the garage which is colder but then I'd be going out into the dark and who knows what might happen.

Q3 : Someone on Gumtree had a small freezer - presumably a freezer and a fridge are the same except for the temperature settings, so I could (if I was allowed and made space) put a keg in a 'freezer' under InkBird control?

I feel a bit bounced by reading that a fridge seems almost mandatory for kegs... I am not that keen on cold beer, especially this time of year!

Thanks everyone for all your help, past, present and future!

 

[Rodcx500z]

Hi Victor, i did mine like this, i got the gas first then i got the keg kit from BKT i still had no fridge so i thought sod it i filled the keg and hooked it up at 20 psi, it took about 3 or 4 days to start carbing all this was about 18c, i found out later at higher temps it takes a little longer and uses a bit more gas you can prime a keg with sugar but you need gas to seal the lid, so you could prime and use a soda stream to seal and then serve using a party tap, hope this answers some of your questions

 

[BackToBasics]

This reminds me of getting my first keg. Thought it was the best thing ever but was completely baffled by it. Good news is that it's actually really easy.

1. I've not primed in a keg but what you are suggesting sounds fine. I'd suggest purging the keg with CO2 before filling to reduce the chance of oxidisation. Applying some pressure (maybe 10 psi) to the keg after filling may speed up carbonation but it shouldn't be necessary if the keg is reasonably full.

2. Yep. Fridge is just for temp control. Using without means force carbonating will require higher pressure and conditioning may take longer but other than that it just means you'll have warmer beer.

3. A chest freezer works well with an inkbird. As long as you can get the keg into it I'd assume an upright would work as well. I've not don't a full keezer conversion yet (i.e. don't have taps on the front) so just pop the lid and use picnic taps. I've been doing this for about 18 months now and I'd be happy to keep doing it if I hadn't been gifted some taps and fittings.

 

[GeorgieV]

Hi Victor,
Your method for carbonation seems fine. So on Q1: yes. Q3: yes - there's plenty of online tutorials. Q2: generally yes. The only problems you might have would be at the serving stage.
First is obvious - nobody likes worm beer. Second, warm beer makes a lot of foam and can't keep the CO2 dissolved. If you can solve these two, you'll be fine.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Note: I assume from what you've said that you have a Corny keg? (stainless steel job with a removable lid). If instead you've got a plastic pressure barrel, then you can disregard what I'm saying about seating the lid.

Q1 : transferring and to prime or not to prime - when bottling I would gently transfer with autosyphon to a botling bucket, batch prime, then wand-bottle. I kind of thought I would be syphoning straight into keg from primary FV and still batch priming, not venturing into force carb yet until I get a big boys' CO2 cylinder. Pressurise after filling to seal, leave to condition, pressurise to draw off with tap - is that sound?

Yes you can do it like that: i.e. prime by doing a secondary fermentation in the keg, and it will work fine. However you'll have to wait for the secondary fermentation to complete and settle out before you can start drinking. Also remember that the keg draws off from the bottom, so you'll waste some of the beer drawing off the sediment from the secondary and you'll have to be careful about moving the keg to avoid disturbing more.

Don't be put off by the technical-sounding nature of "force carbonation" and you'll be absolutely fine doing that with a Sodastream cylinder. I know exactly what you mean, it all sounds intimidating but in reality It's an absolute doddle. I suggest you use the 'set and forget' method:

1. clean, sterilise and rinse keg (obvs.)
2. fill from FV, using a siphon or just a tube from the bottom tap
3. fit lid
4. connect regulator, turn on gas and increase pressure to 30psi in order to seat the lid properly
5. turn off gas and pull pressure release on keg (to expel air from headspace)
6. (optional) repeat a couple of times depending on how paranoid you want to be about flushing oxygen from the keg
7. turn gas back on and set regulator to 12psi
8. leave gas connected for a couple of weeks - the beer will gradually absorb CO2 as it conditions.

NOTE: you'll need to make sure the lid is properly seated even if you're batch priming - otherwise your beer will go flat. This is seldom properly explained... so as you'll need to be using the cylinder anyway, you might as well carry on and carbonate that way too IMHO.

Q2 : can I use a keg if I don't have it in a fridge? I had thought it might just sit in the utility room like I used to do with a PB back in the day. It could go into the garage which is colder but then I'd be going out into the dark and who knows what might happen.

YES definitely. Despite what you might read there is no requirement for a fridge, although it's useful in the summer. Even then it's more useful for fermentation than for keg storage/conditioning unless you're making lager. I used kegs for at least a year before I got a fridge. Especially at this time of year there is no problem at all if you can keep them in the garage or a shed.

Q3 : Someone on Gumtree had a small freezer - presumably a freezer and a fridge are the same except for the temperature settings, so I could (if I was allowed and made space) put a keg in a 'freezer' under InkBird control?

Yes - you can do that. I wouldn't rush into it though. Search on this site for 'keezer' (or 'kegerator'). I think the refrigeration system of a fridge is probably better suited to keeping kegs at normal temperature than a freezer though. Also be aware that chest freezers aren't usually deep enough to take a keg, so you might need to make a collar to fit round the top which is a bit of a faff.

 

[Victor Churchill]

Thanks all for your very helpful and reassuring replies. I was getting a bit concerned about whether I would be using all my CO2 too quickly if I didn't have the fridge setup. (Still trying to find local CO2 supplies in bigger bottles, but that's another story)

I think I will put the keg in an unheated summerhouse quite close to the back door, and bring it in a growler at a time.

I'm looking forward to this ...

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Thanks all for your very helpful and reassuring replies. I was getting a bit concerned about whether I would be using all my CO2 too quickly if I didn't have the fridge setup. (Still trying to find local CO2 supplies in bigger bottles, but that's another story)

I think I will put the keg in an unheated summerhouse quite close to the back door, and bring it in a growler at a time.

I'm looking forward to this ...

No worries :-)

You’ll actually use less CO2 if you don’t chill the beer, because gas solubility is increased as the temp reduces. The main difference you’ll notice is that the beer carbs up more quickly/easily at low temperatures.

 

[eyuptm]

If you're a regular at a pub, ask the landlord to request a n extra co2 cylinder from the supplier- I got one foc, and it costs about £12 for refill...

 

[Victor Churchill]

That's a great idea eyuptm but sadly I haven't seen the inside of a pub in ... I don't know how long. The MrsVC doesn't like pubs :-(