Kegging

[Mike Neilson]

Looking at doing a keg set up, Is it cheaper and easyer to go with the brew craft setup or designing your own set up, and getting the bits from the likes of Craft brewer, etc?
Whats your thoughts?

[JackoNZ]

Another newbie kegger here. Just recently got my kegging setup off trademe, existing setup including fridge freezer, 3 kegs, tap built into the door and gas line coming in through the back, split up into 2 lines and a Harris dual gauge reg.

Got a couple of questions that people might be able to help with.

Do you really need temp control for the fridge? Will it not be quite stable at about 6c usually?

My reg looks like an older Harris model than you get on craftbrewer. Looks like the last guy just screwed the reg to the gas line but I'd like to put in one of those safety valves, are they pretty easy to fit? Do they go on right at the regulator or further down the line?

I have the two gas lines but likely to have 4 kegs eventually. Can I hook the gas up to two kegs at serving pressure until they are done then unhook and hook up to the other two whilst drinking from the first two? Do you just need to give the first two a squirt of gas once the pressure drops enough to stop the pour?

Is there anything I need to be aware of safety wise that might blow me or my kegs up?!

[Barry]

Temp control is only necessary for the fridge if you want to maintain "cellar temperature": 10-14 degrees celcius - for english ales. Most fridges won't run that warm even if you wind the dial right up so you need a temp controller to effectively stop the fridge from working. I run my fridge at it's warmest and it's around 6-7 deg. For my english ales I'll just let the pint sit for a bit before drinking, or I have been known to zap my pint in the microwave for 10 seconds, TRUTH :)

Those harris's are a good unit, I used to have one. The safety (one way non-return) valve is a must. Stick a short (10cm) piece of beer line on the regulator and stick it on there. Then do your standard beerline setup from there. The John Guest ones that craftbrewer sell push neatly onto the beer line, can't speak highly enough of John Guest fittings generally.

You can pour beer from a keg without the gas hooked up, you'll just need to top up the pressure often to maintain enough to pour.

Safety wise, just use common sense. Don't let your gas bottle fall over, don't leave it in the sun, be super careful with the regulator end of the system (eg, if you break off the wrong bit you could end up with a 5kg high speed missile). If you crank the gas up to force carbonate make sure you handle that safely - turn the bottle off, disconnect all hoses, bleed excess pressure off the keg etc.
The high side of a co2 bottle is a LOT of pressure, the tank will happily blow through the side of your house without flinching.
Oh and don't do what I've done lots - disconnect the wrong end of the hose first. You lose a bit of beer floundering around trying to get the other end off quickly.
Also, don't overfill your kegs. I've accidently "blended" 2 beers because one was filled above the end of the inlet dip tube.

[JackoNZ]

Thanks Barry, some excellent stuff there. Can you explain the last two points a little though?

Which hoses are you referring too, and which IS the wrong end first!! Gas hose? Am I right that the disconnects have a lock on them so the gas bottle could be on, disconnects not hooked up to anything and no co2 would be coming out?

When you overfilled, beer got in the air line and then that got pushed through to another keg hooked up? Is that what you mean?

[Barry]

the wrong end.
If you have disconnect the gas line from the bottle end before disconnecting the disconnect at the keg end, and there's pressure in the keg, it'll empty out of the (still) connected line. DUH! I hear you say, but the basic physics of pressure often fail me when mucking around with the lines.

Overfilling, yeah you got it. When I force carb I obviously only have that one keg hooked up. I disconnect and bleed off the high pressure, connect it back up at serving pressure, then go and hook my other already carbed kegs back up. You get a rather rapid transfer from the overfilled keg back into the others through the gas line. Thank god for my non-return valve or my regulator would have suffered a worse fate.

[Nick T]

What Barry said, plus yes you can run all four kegs at the same time. Just get a two way splitter / tee for each of your gas lines. If you get John Guest fittings (why bother with anything else?) you can get a little plug to block up the splitter if you happen to only be using one keg on that line. Ultraflow.co.nz seem to have good prices. If you use 5/16 or 8mm line then the one-way valves are their model 5/16SCV , splitters are PM2308S and plugs PM0808. You will also need a bunch of equal straight connectors (model PM0408S). If you get some 8mm tube, get it with a 5mm minimum internal diameter otherwise it is a pig/impossible to fit onto the barb fittings on you regs, taps etc.

[jt]

John Guest fittings (why bother with anything else?)

I had a JG fitting fail on me on the back of a tap one time. I opened the fridge door and then the beer line popped off and waved around in the air spouting beer for about 1 second. I stuck the line in my mouth - no point wasting beer - and popped the disconnect off the keg to stop it

[Barry]

hahahahahahahahahaha. quick thinking rewarded with beer. now that's kiwi ingenuity eh.

[Nick T]

oops, bugger! I think you can get collett locks to stop this happening in critical locations, they keep the locking ring in the 'out' position. Then however you would need a different excuse to mainline your beer......

[jt]

Thinking about it - it's probably the very stiff hose that you get in the standard issue kegging set up that broke it.

Slight bend from the back of the tap, door opening & closing, just forcing it a little every time .. also had that hose crack or split on a gas line too ...

[JackoNZ]

Guy's, when I get my co2 tank sorted how do I go about leak testing? Do I just fill the keg with a couple of litres of water and put a small amount of gas through and then check the fittings with starsan solution? Or do I need heaps of gas, a full keg, half full etc...??

[Barry]

Spray soapy water around the connections and watch for bubbles.

[JackoNZ]

But does the keg need any liquid in, if so is a litre or so enough or do you need them full? Does it matter how much gas goes through?