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?

[denimglen]

Stuff lagers, just do psuedo-lagers.

In my dream world I'd have 3 chest freezers - one for fermenting ales, one for fermenting lagers and lagering and one for serving.

At the moment I only have two - one for fermenting and one for serving, and for the odd time (ie once) I do a lager I ferment in the chest freezer at about 10C then just set the serving fridge down from it's usual 8C to 4C and suffer cold beer for a while I'm lagering.

[Reviled]

I agree, 3 is the optimum amount of fridges lol, I have a chest freezer for my kegs and a fridge that fits a cube for my lagers, but my ales just get fermented at room temp in the bar, which is probably why ive come to use S-05 most of the time ;o)

And I reckon a good crisp lager is awesome and try to have a lager fermenting most of the time!

[vdog]

Question on conditioning in corny kegs - has anyone had a crack at priming and conditioning that way, or do you all force carb? Would natural conditioning create any problems if you did it that way?

Planning to pick up kegs and fridge this weekend but will have to wait for a reg, bottle and other stuff to arrive from overseas so figured I'd see whether I can keg the latest batch anyway and just let it condition on its own. Alternatively, would just kegging it, sealing it up and leaving it create any problems?

[denimglen]

I've naturally carb'd in a keg before, same situation as you - when I first got my set up but didn't have gas yet and needed to transfer some beers of the trub.

It works well, but you do get a bit more sediment. Make sure you use beersmith or similar to calculate your priming addition, IIRC you use less than bottles (to get the same level of carbonation).

Also kegging it and sealing it up wouldn't be any dramas, would be better if you could purge with CO2 but not 100% necessary - no different than transferring to a secondary fermenter.

[vdog]

Might try a comparison with the next batch - condition one 'naturally' and force carb the other. Be keen to see what difference it makes, if any.

Finally bit the bullet and ordered regs etc from the US - now just have to wait til they arrive before I can hook things up! Only thing not sorted is a gas bottle, still thinking of going Sodastream but using the big (alco2jet) bottles - anyone know where I can pick those up? Will also need an adaptor (craftbrewer) but want to make sure I can get the bottles first. If not I guess I'll go the regular co2 bottle way and just deal with it being more spendy.

[jt]

condition one 'naturally'

So how many people do prime their kegs rather than force with co2 ?
I've considered it several times but never made the leap of faith

From those that've treied both, what are the pros & cons ...

[Horace]

Clear beer from forced, yeast in bottom of natural. This can be over come by cutting dip tube short, placing something underneath it to stopsuccking off the bottom, or having the keg on a permant tilt so yeast settles away from the dip tube. Sometimes it is only the first few pints that have a lot of yeast in though. With forced carbonation I find it easier to maintain a closed system - i.e. less O2 pickup. I don't believe that the yeast at that stage will pick up much (if any) of that O2

Some people think the bubbles in naturally carbed beer are smaller - I'm not convinced though (but I have not tried a side by side comparison)

[denimglen]

Some people think the bubbles in naturally carbed beer are smaller - I'm not convinced though (but I have not tried a side by side comparison)

I've heard this too but don't really buy it. CO2 in solution is CO2 in solution as far as I can see. AFAIK bubble size has more to do with your glass and the alcohol/FG/density/viscosity of the beer itself.

[Barry]

Exactly. The number/density and size of nucleation sites.

[Stu McKinlay]

and temp, I'd guess.

[vdog]

Anyone heard of/used Tank Test Ltd for gas bottles? Just found them by a random google search and phoned to check what their deal is - $220 for a recond 6kg bottle with new valves/seals, a new 5yr test and a fill of food grade CO2. Seems a pretty good deal, from what looks like a reasonable-sized commercial outfit?

[Barry]

Never heard of them but yeah that sounds like a great deal alright! get in there!