Kegging Advice

[BREWsmith]

Now that I have a CO2 tank, I'm giving thought to buying a couple corny kegs. Which type work best, ball or pin lock?

[Chris Alvey]

I think they work equally well. Ball locks seem more widely available in stores/ebay and I know the majority of the club's keggers use ball.

[Don]

I find ball lock a lot easier to find. I got two more tonight, from and old brewer who is getting rid of his equipment. His loss my gain..

Just put the word out, When you give your friends a beer and they want to know what you want for it, tell them what you are looking for.
(Cornys, old coke regulators, carboys, 1/2 barrels left over from a party) and you will be rewarded.
I got a whole lot of my equipment this way (the beer barter way)!

Barter with beer ... The american way!

Don

[john mills]

I use ball locks. So i might have a biased opinion.
Other than being more available, ball locks have the advantage of maintaining a seal while allowing your hose to piviot in endless 360 degree turns with the post. Pin locks don't allow such movement. I've heard of accidents involving spewing beer while rearranging the kegerator.
An advantage of ball locks for me is force carbonating. I lay the keg on it's side while hooked up to the co2 tank and rock the keg back and forth with my foot. I can hear the gas going into solution. When it slows - stops. I know I'm carbed up and ready to drink.

[BREWsmith]

Ball locks it is! I'm hoping I might be able to pick up a couple at the GABF later this month so as to avoid shipping charges. I appreciate the advice.

[BREWsmith]

Along with kegging comes the inevitable question of refridgerating the kegs. Has anyone had any problems with refrigerators in unheated garages during the winter?

[sirgiovanni]

Only when my garage door is open and my neighbors know there is beer tapped in there. But I have that problem year round.

[BREWsmith]

Only when my garage door is open and my neighbors know there is beer tapped in there. But I have that problem year round.

I imagine you do! But seriously, no problems with items freezing during really cold days?

[sirgiovanni]

nope

[Don]

My son keeps two in his garage (unheated) and he hasn't had any problems.
One for serving and one for fermentation.

[john mills]

There are many compounding factors affecting the freezing point, ie. alcohol content, sugar content, pressure, etc. Most beer in the 5% range will have a freezing point about 29 degrees F to be safe. Our average low in Evansville Dec- Feb. is 29 F. The fridge acts as a thermal insulator by design, or else it would be very hard to keep things cool in the summer, thus keeping your beer temporarily warmer than the ambient air temp. The thermal mass of your beer helps keep it warm until our normal daytime highs of about 40F.
I don't think there is any problem unless there would be some kind of lengthy artic clipper.
An insurance policy would be to put a heating pad hooked up to a temp controller programmer to turn on at say 26F and turn off at 28F.

[Chris Norrick]

Or just make Eisbock!

[BREWsmith]

It's kegging time this weekend and I'm getting a bit anxious. I've been picking the brains of a couple of our resident brewmeisters (thanks John and Jim), but I have a couple more questions. First, Mr. Wizard of BYO fame states that it's preferable to carbonate in the fridge. That's fine for my first couple kegs, but my kegerator only has a two keg capacity. Assuming I don't buy a garage refrigerator, do I have other options if I need to use a third or subsequent keg? For example, can I carbonate and store a keg at room temperature? Should I carbonate cold and then store at room temperature?

The other, more pressing, concern is how to fill the keg. I read that you should first purge the keg of oxygen and then fill through the Out post. Can someone walk me through these steps? Thanks.

[Don]

"can I carbonate and store a keg at room temperature? Should I carbonate cold and then store at room temperature?"

It's usually between 64 and 70 degs is my brewery. I have kegs that have set for 6 to 8 months at room temperature before I put them in the cooler to drink. I also can store 16 kegs in my cooler and have had some in there for over a year. Kegs are just like big bottles treat them the same. They say if you can keep your beer at a constant cooler temperature it will hold up longer.
I will carbonate my keg for a couple of days (lift the top a couple of time during the charge to purge any air) then remove it and set it aside until I'm ready to drink it.

"The other, more pressing, concern is how to fill the keg. I read that you should first purge the keg of oxygen and then fill through the Out post. Can someone walk me through these steps? Thanks."

When I fill my keg I hook up the co2 to the in and take the top off , add co2 for a few second to push out any air , then fill through the lid, close the lid and purge the air out a couple od times.
Keep it simple.

[john mills]

I carbonate at room temp often. Just follow a carbonation table for your ambient temp, and volumes of co2 desired to get your regulator pressure setting. Leave at that pressure for a couple of weeks, or longer. I'll often have several kegs hooked up to co2 waiting for space in my fridge. You could even serve the room temp beer if your beer line was the correct length to prevent foaming.

As far as kegging process; I store my kegs with a bit of star san under co2 pressure. I hook up my cobra tap to the keg, empty a bit of the sanitizer out to coat the inside of the dip tube, remove the cobra tap, shake the remaining sanitizer around in the keg, then releave the pressure from the keg with the valve in the lid and then just remove the lid, and dump the remaining sanitizer.
I fill the keg with beer just by siphoning beer from the fermenter into the keg just like filling any other vessel. Just don't splash the beer as best as possible.
Co2 is heavier than air and will create a pillow that will rise as the beer level rises. Once the keg is full, replace keg lid, and purge with co2 a few times. Then carbonate to your liking.
Works for me.