Charlottesville Area Masters of Real Ale

I'm planning on hooking up my corny keg tomorrow evening (Tuesday March 11th) and have been reading up on sanitizing, keg purging, and all the stuff that I should do to get it working properly. Sounds easy enough but it does seem like there's a bit of a learning curve.

I'm going to be force carbonating my mild and have put some time into designing a balanced system versus speed carbonating. I'd like to take the slower method instead of cranking it to 30 psi and shaking my keg. In theory I want to carbonate at the serving pressure which will yield drinkable brew in around a week or so while using a short beer line to match the mild's low level of carbonation.

Any keggers wanna led a hand? I'm sure I could handle the project flying solo although its nice to have some know-how around to make things flow a bit smoother.

I'll supply the beer and billiards--just let me know if anyone's up for giving me a tutorial on my kegerator's maiden voyage.

Thanks!

I certainly don't have any keggin experience, but would love to see your set-up.  I bottled a ton this weekend and it is making me consider moving into the keg world (right now I never want to see a empty bottle again).  When were you thinking?  I could come over after work, but probably not stay too late, as I have a long drive home.  Where do you live?  I work over in Pantops.

I would keep the beer line at 4 to 5 feet.  The shorter it is the less CO2 you have to use.  The lower the temp, the less CO2 you have to use.  I set mine at 40 degrees F. I have 4 feet of beer line, and on average, once the beers are carbonated I seem to like having about 11 PSI on the gauge.  However, when I am carbonating, I have the CO2 up around 15-18.  It takes about 3-5 days to really become drinkable.  I also take the keg out everyday and mix it back and forth for a few minutes.  When the beer is carbonated to where I want it, I drop the pressure back to around 11 PSI.  For your Mild, you could just drop the PSI back to 7-9 after it is carbonated.  The carbonation will equilibrate over a few days down to the 7-9 PSI level.  Does that make sense?

Hey Tom:
I'm on "daddy duty" until 7pm tomorrow; I can understand if that's too late for you. I live off of 250 East about 15 minutes from Pantops heading away from C'ville. If tomorrow doesn't work we could always see what we can come up with for another day earlier than 7pm. Anyhow, I'm determined to get that keg system set up smoothly tomorrow.

Thanks Doc for the kegging know-how. It seems like one of those activities that once you've done it once or twice, its totally easier to regulate. I guess I could have tried out the system on a brew that calls for a standard 8-12 psi..oh well!

When I condition my British brews, here's what I do:

First off, I use threaded disconnects on my kegs. Normally I use the grey for the "gas in" and the black for the "liquid out".

Set your pressure to about 12 psi and connect the "gas in" line to the black "liquid out". What this does is burp the gas through the beer rather that just rest on top.

Set the side of the keg on your knee and gently rock the keg back and forth. You will hear the tank hiss in new gas. It's great if you can do this for 30-60 seconds.

Put your setup in a cool place and let it rest. That night/morning, lift up on the relief valve and gently "burp" the keg once.  Do that for a few more times. (I usually do it before I go to work and when I get home, then again before I go to bed.)

After a day or two, and THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT - with no lines connected, burp the keg to releive the pressure. I then lower my regulator to about 5-7 psi and reconnect the gas lines. I switch out my connects so that the gas is in the "gas in" and the tap is in the "liquid out". If you don't burp the keg and relieve the higher pressure, you will get beer in your gas lines and that really, REALLY sucks and is bad. You could get beer in your regulator that that's even worse.

I then check my brew every day or so and see how it's doing. The carbonation is soft, barely noticeable and provides a dense, thick head.

Your Mild may need to condition for a few more weeks. My Mild was green for quite a while and definitely improved after about two months. Before then I thought it was weak and watery. Over time, everything melded beautifully and was a completely different brew from when I first kegged it.

Good Luck (and have patience!)

Tips a plenty. Thanks! Can I just say that I hate packaging beer? Yes, I truly do. Mismatched American and European shanks that don't fit, loose C02 quick disconnects, and sore hands. Next time I invite anyone to help me with a project like this just slap me. Or maybe ask if you can lend a hand changing my car's oil or even volunteer to scrape out my septic system. What a complete pain in the tail.

Enough ranting. Have any of you had difficulty with your grey CO2 disconnect? I can't for the life of me get that thing to house snugly on the body connect. I've got a corny half full of Star San (OK to be left soaking overnight?) and am beginning to run a tad short on patience myself. Ah, the joys and relaxing character of hobby choirs such as beer packaging.

How high should I crank my regulator to push out my 2.5 gallons of sanitizer? Suggestions please!

I did manage to gracefully consume the better half of an Anchor Liberty Ale six-pack so the evening wasn't thoroughly ill-spent. 

Rally up my virtual kegmasters! I need your input!

Here's my kegging steps: 1) lightly grease all the rubber fittings, including the big O ring for the opening, with food grade grease as my kegs have some wear on them and it helps seal them.  Over the years I would notice that sometimes my CO2 was going down faster then it should. I determined that I would sometimes get a keg with a slow leak in it, greasing seems to have solved the problem, 2) rack beer into keg, 3) seal top, 4) I have dual regulators on my CO2 tank, one for the kegs in the cooler set at 10 psi and one to pressurize my kegs after racking.  On the keg pressurizing line I have a LIQUID connect. Set the gauge to about 5 to 7 psi. Put the liquid connect on the keg, and if all goes well the keg will pressurize. 5) lean the keg so the gas fitting is at the highest point and release the pressure from the keg by pressing down on the valve in the gas fitting, 6) after the pressure goes down, release valve and let the keg re-pressurize, 7) repeat steps 5 and 6 - 2 or 3 more times, 8} after the last out-gassing, I set the pressure to around 30 psi and let it pressurize, 9) remove liquid fitting and put keg into cooler if there is space or just leave it out until room is available, 10) check keg after a week or two and re-pressurize as needed.
So why the repeated re-pressurizing?  I do it to remove any air that remained in the keg when the lid was put on.  By doing it 3 to 4 times the air has been totally replaced by CO2 and reduces the risk of oxidizing the beer.  I have found that too much pressure (ie 30 psi) really has no effect on my beer at room temps and usually when they go into the cooler, they have lost pressure. Some are even flat, but after a few weeks in the cooler on the CO2 line they are ready to drink.  The cooler is set at 45 F.

It's interesting to hear different ways of doing this. One thing to keep in mind is that there is no one "correct" way. Some through trial and error.

In my experience, and this is just me, I found that with my setup, if I pressurize higher than 20psi, I get an astringent, biting flavor form the excess C02. If this happens, I reduce the pressure, burp the keg regularly and that fixes it within a few days.

Hey Guys,
I really appreciate all the tips and know-how. I'm waiting on a few parts I didn't know that I was missing...so I'll keep you updated as my kegerator comes together.

Please do! If you can, take and post some photos too.

The draft tank is up and running. Nothing like that first pint at 3pm. As far as carbonation goes, I decided to take the simplistic route: Turn the kegerator's dial to the appropriate temperature (44F), crank the CO2 to 14 psi, and simply wait a week until my draft system balances out at 2.47 volumes of carbonation. According to JZ's specs I'm falling within the stylistic confines of 2-2.5 volumes of CO2, and the brew tastes mighty good. Now if I could only get my iBook to add photos...

Fantastic!  Now I only have to find an extra source of revenue to get the equipment so I too can have a nice draft set up.  I do need a larger boil kettle and that is on the list first, though.

Tom, I think I spent close to 400 bucks total for this setup.  BestBuy here in C-ville has the fridges in stock.  I have the drill bit and extras needed to make the unit.  You are welcome to them. I can even help you make it.  There are some corners to be cut, and things not to do, of course from my experience.

http://www.absbrew.com/index.php?act=viewDoc&docId=11

That is a great offer, Doc.  Thank you.  I will definately keep it in mind when I get to kegging.  The kettle is the first thing I need, then I am going to start saving my pennies for a keg system.  What I need is an appropriately themed piggy bank.  My kids actually have little ceremic pigs.  I might have to look into a miniature keg to act as my bank.

I've got a used carboy that you can use...if you don't mind your pennies smelling like decomposing mouse.