My Cornelius Keg adventure

[Crystal_Ball]

Ive gone brought some new shiny equipment! I have taken the plunge and purchased a Cornelius keg setup. I got the gas (7L) earlier in the week and the rest of the equipment delivered today from The Malt Miller. Only slight problem is that they sent me a screw gas in instead of a push fit, but they are sending it out today so hopefully royal mail will get it here tomorrow!

I have a Brewdog beer ready to keg so am chomping at the bit to go with it!

Currently setup with a party tap, but the plan eventually is to have a fridge with 2 or 3 taps on the front of course! I have a BBQ planned for 3 weeks time so might be the target date!

 

[Godsdog]

Ive gone brought some new shiny equipment! I have taken the plunge and purchased a Cornelius keg setup. I got the gas (7L) earlier in the week and the rest of the equipment delivered today from The Malt Miller. Only slight problem is that they sent me a screw gas in instead of a push fit, but they are sending it out today so hopefully royal mail will get it here tomorrow!

I have a Brewdog beer ready to keg so am chomping at the bit to go with it!

Currently setup with a party tap, but the plan eventually is to have a fridge with 2 or 3 taps on the front of course! I have a BBQ planned for 3 weeks time so might be the target date!

Well done,now the kegging journey begins.good luck and enjoy

 

[marlon]

Big investment, but you won't regret it. (well...I don't think you will ). Soon you'll need more corny's of course, - to go inside the keezer you're planning - and a 'splitter' for your gas line - and a few more odds & sods, but hey...! What else is there in life? I tell SWMBO that I don't smoke, gamble or chase women, what else can I do to relieve the boredom? :whistle:

 

[Crystal_Ball]

Big investment, but you won't regret it. (well...I don't think you will ). Soon you'll need more corny's of course, - to go inside the keezer you're planning - and a 'splitter' for your gas line - and a few more odds & sods, but hey...! What else is there in life? I tell SWMBO that I don't smoke, gamble or chase women, what else can I do to relieve the boredom? :whistle:

I know im already planning the additional taps, whether to have a 3 way regulator to have separate pressures for each keg. Oh yeah and of course the other 2 kegs im sure will fit in my larder fridge!

 

[Godsdog]

I know im already planning the additional taps, whether to have a 3 way regulator to have separate pressures for each keg. Oh yeah and of course the other 2 kegs im sure will fit in my larder fridge!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Coke-Co2-...612554?hash=item1a2b2e6d0a:g:TJMAAOSwcgNZCO65
here you go matey jump on this a bargain I have the same one and paid �£80 for it on collection,they retail at £160

 

[Crystal_Ball]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Coke-Co2-...612554?hash=item1a2b2e6d0a:g:TJMAAOSwcgNZCO65
here you go matey jump on this a bargain I have the same one and paid ��£80 for it on collection,they retail at �£160

Goodness that looks a bit complicated at first glance! I assume it can handle 3 different pressures? What are the other connections at the bottom for?

 

[JapanBrew]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Coke-Co2-...612554?hash=item1a2b2e6d0a:g:TJMAAOSwcgNZCO65
here you go matey jump on this a bargain I have the same one and paid �£80 for it on collection,they retail at £160

That looks way cool.

 

[m_rawdin]

I've got exactly the same set up at the moment with the party tap. I only started kegging around a month ago and haven't regretted it. I was bottling before and was getting pretty sick of it, kegging is a million times easier and more convenient.

 

[Godsdog]

Goodness that looks a bit complicated at first glance! I assume it can handle 3 different pressures? What are the other connections at the bottom for?

Piece of pizza m8 the two from the right are what I use to force carb and can get up to and above 40 psi and the 4 from the left are what I use for serving.the serving can be lower in psi than the two from the right but impossible to set higher,this really is the rolls Royce of regs and if you intend to build a bar is great to fix to the inside of it like mine,as I said earlier that price is a steal for this reg

 

[GlentoranMark]

Make sure everything is sealed correct!

I lost a full bottle of CO2 because I didn't have the top of the corny sealed properly. A full bottle of CO2 should last you years, not 6 months in my case!

I love shiny's!

 

[Godsdog]

Make sure everything is sealed correct!

I lost a full bottle of CO2 because I didn't have the top of the corny sealed properly. A full bottle of CO2 should last you years, not 6 months in my case!

I love shiny's!

18 months minimum for around £12 in my case

 

[Braindead]

I'm investing in a corny keg for my wedding.
Just wondering.
I'm making a DIY pallet bar and having the corny built into it. if there's a length of tubing from the corny to the faucet that's exposed and not chilled with this create pure froth?

 

[Godsdog]

I'm investing in a corny keg for my wedding.
Just wondering.
I'm making a DIY pallet bar and having the corny built into it. if there's a length of tubing from the corny to the faucet that's exposed and not chilled with this create pure froth?

If the keg and line is not chilled yes but a flash chiller will suffice

 

[Braindead]

I plan on putting the keg in a fridge but there will maybe be about a foot of pipe from fridge to faucet?

 

[Fil]

I plan on putting the keg in a fridge but there will maybe be about a foot of pipe from fridge to faucet?

budget anti fobbing (foaming) 101

#1 ANY significant change in state of the beer can stimulate a catastrophic loss of all condition, aka a foam out.

a change in temperature, pouring a chilled beer into a warm glass from the dishwasher can cause it.

a change in flow direction as caused by a kink in the beer line or even an uneven cut of tube not inserted flush into a JG fitting.

and the bug bear of many corny startups a huge drop in pressure from the keg pressure to the atmospheric level outside the dispense system.

So you can either drop the keg pressure to nominal and maybe need to unhook and vent too, to reduce the pressure difference or gradient to below a level that will stimulate the foam out, which will be a pita after the 1st pint or 2 as you may run out f pressure ..

Or use sme form of pressure reduction between keg and tap the easiest and cheapest form of which is imho a length of 3/16" microline inserted between tap and keg. this has the effect of reducing pressure by 1 to 2 psi per foot length iirc, tho thats a rough metric and it changes the longer the length gets.. but 4-6ft tends to be the sort of usefrul lengths, in my case i use 5ft and serve hi conditioned brews upto 15psi through it with about 5m of 3/8"line up n thru a chiller too.

the 3/16" line is more flexible than the 3/8" line and coils up within a 10" circumference neatly..

 

[Braindead]

Cheers fil lets hope it goes to plan or ill be having a frothy wedding
Do you have a link to where I can get the 3/16" microline
thx

 

[Fil]

https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=540

https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=541

 

[Crystal_Ball]

First kegged brew tonight. Had a lot of pellet dry hop debris so transferred to another FV and then managed to get 16L into the keg. All went fairly well but didn't watch the clock to time myself as I just wanted to get myself familiar with the sanitising and filling process.

I have set the psi to 30 to force carb. Will this drop over time as the CO2 is absorbed?

Is conditioning time any different in a keg?

I also used starsan for the first time and it was a little cloudy. Hopefully all will be well?

 

[Fil]

starsan is effective due to its ph, so a cheap book of ph indicator papers is an easy double check if in doubt when returning to starsan thats gone cloudy when stashed.

unless your tap water has a ph over 10?? i doubt you have any problems with a new solution just mixed with 8-10ml per 5l but again a ph test can tell you.

going cloudy is a rough indicator that the solution may be spent, its not a sure fire thing.. iirc a ph <=2.5 is active.. (check that..)

the co2 will get absorbed as it stands reducing the pressure and the rate of absorption until an equilibrium is reached, however with 3l of unused kegspace, you have over 10X more co2 than you would with a full keg so it should be fine and may even need venting off before the brew is overconditioned??

 

[Crystal_Ball]

starsan is effective due to its ph, so a cheap book of ph indicator papers is an easy double check if in doubt when returning to starsan thats gone cloudy when stashed.

unless your tap water has a ph over 10?? i doubt you have any problems with a new solution just mixed with 8-10ml per 5l but again a ph test can tell you.

going cloudy is a rough indicator that the solution may be spent, its not a sure fire thing.. iirc a ph <=2.5 is active.. (check that..)

the co2 will get absorbed as it stands reducing the pressure and the rate of absorption until an equilibrium is reached, however with 3l of unused kegspace, you have over 10X more co2 than you would with a full keg so it should be fine and may even need venting off before the brew is overconditioned??

Thanks for the answers. It was a fresh 10l batch of water and 15 ml of starsan. Ph papers are on the shopping list.

After 24 hours the pressure has dropped to around 14 psi which is probably what I'll keep it at now as I think that is going to be my serving pressure.