Kegging

[Falco]

Looks good @obscure thanks for the pic

 

[Banbeer]

anyone else have an opinion on the best dispense method for a mini Cornie in a kitchen fridge?

Click Here (link), you get a balanced line so should give less/no foam, I have a kegerator so have taps fitted and not tried this method.

 

[Jules61]

As others have said there is a fairly large initial financial outlay for Kirby kegs but the cost is well worth it. I struggled with leaking plastic kegs and on a few occasions ended up tipping the whole batch on the garden. Since going over to Korny’s the quality of my beer is fantastic right to the last drop. I now use a couple of old brewery 5 litre kegs for the excess brew as bottles are a pain to clean and fill and I ended up with variable quality. 12 grams of sugar in a 5 litre keg seems to generate enough pressure to keep the beer flowing for a week.

 

[Kye]

I've recently started kegging. It's great. It's not an insignificant outlay for the equipment (keg itself, gas bottle deposit and regulator being the three big expenses). There are other parts you can spend on (thinking tap).
Personally I use balanced lines. I see a lot of people having carbing pressure and then a serving pressure, but to me they are one and the same. That way, I set the desired pressure when I first hook it up and then don't need to fiddle untill the keg is empty. I'm also patient enough to wait a couple of weeks while it carbs up (set and forget method), and I gather this is more reliable in terms of carbonation level than burst carbing (shaking keg at higher pressure).

totally with you on this, I switched in the summer and it's an absolute game changer. reduces packaging time from about 3 hours to 40 ish mins and the beer is totally consistent. also agree on the balancing. I stick all kegs on c 15 psi with 6 ft of 3/16 line and it seems just right. on a new keg I'll whack 30psi in it for 2 days (and disconnect the other kegs for that time) then reduce back to 15 so I can sample. still takes a couple more days to fully carb but I think its overall quicker if you need it to be.

I would say its a bit harder to control consumption though, especially on a fri/sat night at about 11.30 when I go "ooh I can just pour a half" and come back from the garage with a full pint!

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

I would say its a bit harder to control consumption though, especially on a fri/sat night at about 11.30 when I go "ooh I can just pour a half" and come back from the garage with a full pint!

Yep. Sometimes I even fill it up, take a few mouthfuls then top it up again and return with a full pint

 

[-Bezza-]

From my experience.

Pros

• It's show-offy and far more satisfying
• Can pour as little or as much as you want
• Much quicker than bottling. Like, seriously.
• Cleaning is easier
• Beer keeps a long time in kegs
• Beer pours clean - no sludge in the bottom like with bottles
• I find it easier to be patient and let the beer condition properly
• Can be drinking a wheat beer within 2-3 weeks of brewing.
• More control over carbonation
• Opens up to a whole "under pressure" sort of brewing and transferring
• You'll be able to filter beer properly, if that's your thing

Cons

• Initial cost (Kegs, connectors, regulator, manifold, line, taps, keezer, CO2) - but once set up, it's cheap
• You'll want a keezer
• Finding CO2 can be a pain at times
• Balancing lines and getting a good pour is a pain (I'm still not there)
• Tubes can get blocked by hop matter, requiring a dismantle of the tubes and a clean, after which it might get blocked again (a long cold-crash prior to kegging can solve a lot of this).
• You can get leaks (gas rather than beer, normally)
• Kegs are heavy when full and the whole set-up is pretty bulky
• You'll need to dismantle and clean taps from time-to-time which can be a bit fiddly (but really isn't that bad)
• You can't take your beer with you as easily (unless you get a growler contraption)
• it'll often be in a shed or garage rather than conveniently in the fridge
• I find bottling from the keg to be a pain
• Have to scale back recipes slightly
• Your keg is fully tied up right until the end of the beer, so you're not freeing up space/bottles to get on with the next brew
• You'll want more kegs

 

[Kye]

Once you have the regulator and paid a deposit the ongoing costs are much cheaper than bulbs. I am hoping to pick a refill of a 6kg tank up today for £10. I have had my last one for a year and although it has not has run out yet I think it is low and for the small cost of a refill I don't want to risk it running out over Christmas

On the subject of CO2, does anyone in the Watford/Herts area have any tips for sourcing it at a good price? I'm still on my 1st bottle, a 3.15kg bottle and it's going to be £18 for a refill inc VAT, which sounds expensive given some of the posts I've read?

 

[xozzx]

On the subject of CO2, does anyone in the Watford/Herts area have any tips for sourcing it at a good price? I'm still on my 1st bottle, a 3.15kg bottle and it's going to be £18 for a refill inc VAT, which sounds expensive given some of the posts I've read?

That is fairly pricy but I go for convenience over cost. Im paying £35 for a 6.5kg bottle but this can last upto a year. Even if I could get a fill for £20 thats a saving of about £1/month. Im not going to search around and travel further to save £1.

 

[MickDundee]

That is fairly pricy but I go for convenience over cost. Im paying £35 for a 6.5kg bottle but this can last upto a year. Even if I could get a fill for £20 thats a saving of about £1/month. Im not going to search around and travel further to save £1.

Yeah I’m the same, there’s petrol costs to think of too.

I could travel 60miles for a £20 fill up or I could travel 5 miles for £35 (although I travelled 30 miles for my first one because the Dundee Hobbyweld agent hadn’t reopened after COVID, luckily they were open 3 weeks later when all my gas leaked out).

 

[Oneflewover]

Yep. Sometimes I even fill it up, take a few mouthfuls then top it up again and return with a full pint

I absolutely do that as well, it'd be rude not to!

 

[Ned Jough]

Maybe it’s just me but I find bottle washing and filling quite therapeutic. It may take longer but isn’t that all part of the fun in home brewing? The OP said how he felt Coke tasted better from a bottle so why switch to plastic or stainless dispense. The initial outlay as well as running costs seem so much higher with kegs and it just appears to require so much more brewing paraphernalia. What’s better than a KISS approach where you stick with a couple of cases of used swing top bottles. This is of course coming from a bloke who has time a plenty on his hands and probably brews one 20 litre batch per month.

 

[Binkei Huckaback]

Quality does it lower or higher I think glass is good as in coke from a glass all ways tastes better

I'm only being half serious here, but is that because Coke in a glass bottle is very expensive, so you feel you're getting a premium product? Like people thought the Guinness brewed in Dublin tasted better than the Guinness brewed in Park Royal (reason: they were on holiday).

Though with some beers, you can taste the difference between bottle and draught as they're slightly different beers/ABV. I used polypins and a hand pull for a while and I have to say I could taste the difference between beer from the polypin and beer from bottles of the same batch. I think this was down to conditioning in bulk taking longer. I gave up on it. There's a very good thread on that in another forum if you're interested and I genuinely believe the OP gets very good results (though he doesn't use a handpull).

I'm going over to cornelius kegs not because I hate bottling, but because having a conical fermenter means I can brew lots of different styles that I believe are best served on draft.

 

[Falco]

Click Here (link), you get a balanced line so should give less/no foam, I have a kegerator so have taps fitted and not tried this method.

I was hoping to use some sort of keg mounted tap on a 9L Cornie to avoid using something like the deluxe party tap/ balanced line in the link. Are these not a PITA to keep clean and require sanitation between uses?

 

[Justin Dean]

Keg and 3l or 5l growler, fill growler from keg. Serve from indoors in your fridge etc, not garage.....cushty

 

[Justin Dean]

T piece on pet bottle with sanitiser in, you can then pressurise the bottle and flush through your lines to keep them clean.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

That is fairly pricy but I go for convenience over cost. Im paying £35 for a 6.5kg bottle but this can last upto a year. Even if I could get a fill for £20 thats a saving of about £1/month. Im not going to search around and travel further to save £1.

I don’t know if they’re available in your area but it would be easy to check if you’re interested. I use these people:

https://www.adamsgas.co.uk/product/carbon-dioxode-co2-gas-refill-6-35kg-for-home-bar/
£20+VAT for 6.35Kg and they deliver to my house for £9 so I’m paying similar money for a delivery service.

 

[DocAnna]

So I have had my kegging bits all ready to go for over a month, and not been brave enough to assemble it all. Taping the joints with gas rated PTFE is making me a bit nervous, and I'm not sure how to sanitise all the lines before connection - do you sanitise the gas lines and disconnects as well?

Anna

 

[-Bezza-]

So I have had my kegging bits all ready to go for over a month, and not been brave enough to assemble it all. Taping the joints with gas rated PTFE is making me a bit nervous, and I'm not sure how to sanitise all the lines before connection - do you sanitise the gas lines and disconnects as well?

Anna

I just fill a keg with starsan and run that through the lines. Well, I did the first time and haven't bothered since on the basis that the beer remains in the keg until serving, so it's not going to pick up a serious infection for the couple of seconds that it's in the line or tap. I tend to leave beer in the lines for quite a while too, e.g. between weekends, and either just pour enough to refresh the lines and throw it away or don't even bother with that and drink it all since it's generally a small portion of the beer in the glass. Even the black mould that grows inside the taps doesn't bother me too much now!

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

So I have had my kegging bits all ready to go for over a month, and not been brave enough to assemble it all. Taping the joints with gas rated PTFE is making me a bit nervous, and I'm not sure how to sanitise all the lines before connection - do you sanitise the gas lines and disconnects as well?

Anna

Hi Anna,

I didn’t sanitise anything as I fitted it because it was new. If it had been pre-used I would have sanitised everything.

As I used each keg, I did then sanitise the keg with Starsan by part filling the keg and shaking it. I wiped over the posts with a clean cloth soaked in Starsan, fitted the keg to the gas and beer lines, and having switched on the gas flushed the Starsan (still in the keg) through the pipes/tap stopping every so often and leaving for a few minutes. Once the keg was empty of Starsan I rinsed it out with fresh clean water and then part filled the keg with fresh clean water to flush the Starsan out of the pipes/tap. I stopped before the keg was empty of water, leaving the pipes clean and filled with fresh water.

I then emptied the keg of water, filled it with beer, sanitised the keg lid in Starsan before fitting it and connected the keg to the gas only. Turn on the gas, allow to pressurise, turn of the gas, vent the gas to purge any air, repeat this another couple of times.

Turn the gas back on and connect the beer pipe (still full of water) but don’t connect the beer line until the keg is pressurised or water in the pipe (under pressure) will flow back into your keg.

 

[Banbeer]

I was hoping to use some sort of keg mounted tap on a 9L Cornie to avoid using something like the deluxe party tap/ balanced line in the link. Are these not a PITA to keep clean and require sanitation between uses?

You can get a tap that fits onto the corny Here (link) but it is a PITA to pour as you have no line, I had one before I had a kegerator and soon switched.