Plan to move to a keg

[Jimmy1]

Hi everyone,
I am sick to death of washing bottles every week and I am planning on moving to a keg system.
I was thinking it might be worth my luck on seeing if anybody has or knows of a system they are willing to sell.
Also what size keg,
Brand new or reconditioned,
And if I need to go the new path, which are the better companies to deal with for service and price.
Thankyou

[maheel]

i dont have kegs but from all the reading i have been doing im preparation i reckon you should go for 2nd hand ball lock corneys

people talk about the new SS kegs from the likes of "keg king" and other LHBS as not being of very good quality... the seams are not well welded etc
nothing wrong with keg king stuff but more where the kegs are made in china etc with lower QA

get them from a good supplier like craftbrewer and when looked after should last forever.

http://www.craftbrewer.com.au/shop/details.asp?PID=1043

[Nardy]

Agreed. I bought all mine through craftbrewer and never had a problem. Buy a seal kit with the keg though as the seals will no doubt be a bit buggered and impregnated with some stink from the soft drink that used to be in the keg.

[R-sole]

You'll never regret going to a keg based system. No time spent bottling, washing bottles etc. the beer is more consistant, the carbonation is even and you're drinking it in a couple of days instead of 6 weeks.


Funny timing, you're not too far away from me and i will be selling my keg fridge within the next month or so. It holds 4 kegs, has two taps, CO2 regulator, gas and beer disconnects to run two kegs at the same time and works a treat.

You would only need a CO2 bottle and some kegs. Best place for you to buy your gear is Marks Home Brew in Newie.

I'm upgrading to a six keg freezer based keg system and the old one will be surplus.



Click on the pictures to get a full view

kegfridge1.jpg

kegfridge2.jpg

I'll be looking for around $400 ono

[MacStill]

Click on the pictures to get a full view

This has me pulling my hair out, been trying to fix this for 3 weeks and getting nowhere with it :( :( :(

[Jimmy1]

Thanks Maheel, I will make sure I use that style of keg.
And thanks 5Star I will keep that fridge in mind, let us know when its up for sale, I will catcth up with mark and find out how much he can get kegs in and how much his gas is.
What is a good amount of kegs to keep a continual supply of beer to my ever increasing gut :lol: :lol: :lol: I have heard somewhere that 6 is a safe amount to rotate and have different styles of beer at the same time.

[busman]

It's an addiction Jimmy, I have a mate who started with a two keg setup from the brew shop, I think he's up 8 or 9 now :lol:

[R-sole]

How many cartons a week do you go through?

A keg holds 19-20l, which is a bit over two cartons, say 50 stubbies. It takes 7 days minimum to quickly brew beer if you don't go to the trouble of secondary or dry hopping, racking ect.
It takes tw days to force carb a keg and cool it down to drinking temp.

So a single 23l fermenter will just not quite keep up with a 50 beer habit.

It's just as easy to brew a double batch (kit or allgrain) as a single batch, extra 10mins kegging. If you are a 50-60 a week beer man (including your bludging mates and family) this will give you a chance to get ahead if you brew every week, or a chance to have a week off every now and then if you don't. A 4 keg system lasted me for years and i drink well in excess of that.

As far as more than one or two beers on tap, then the extra kegs will start counting up :?

[Jimmy1]

Well I do drink at least 3 largies a day now (more on weekends :lol:) so I reckon that would call for four to start with... but with a tap calling my name that number may increase dramatically ;)
Tell me about it being an addiction, I now have 6 30L and 3 100L fermenters getting used regularly and I will not give any of it away, but if I stopped brewing now I would make it to next winter without missing out lol :lol: :lol:

[Nardy]

I started with 2 kegs, which was impossible to manage. Unless you coordinated your drinking with your brewing, you inevitably had empty kegs waiting for beer. Then I moved to 4 and loved it, then got 8. 8 was good when I always had mates dropping in - I could have plenty of beer on tap for everyone, plus some specialty beers for beer snobs like me (stouts, porters, wheat beers, strong IPAs etc). But then I found that I always had empty spare kegs just sitting around, so I sold 4 of them.... Then 6 months later realised that 4 wasn't quite enough and bought 2 more when they came up cheap just recently.

So in a nutshell: I think 6 kegs is a perfect amount. But I don't drink very much - probably a beer a night and maybe 3-4 on Fridays after work and if I'm home on the weekend maybe 3-4 each day. But with 6 kegs on tap I can do a brew a week/fortnight and keep supplies up quite easily and can afford to miss a week or two here and there.

Having more kegs allows you to keep beers on tap for every occassion too - bland beers for those who know nothing about beer but love drinking and really hoppy or malty beers for the beer snobs.

[Jimmy1]

[quote="Nardy"] But I don't drink very much - probably a beer a night. [quote]
I wish lol. So would the wifey, she might stop saying how fat I am getting :lol: :lol:
It is sounding better the more I read about them. How do you go about sanitising the kegs is it extra work to get things like the seals clean and do you need to give them a good scrub out.
Also do you need to clean the lines out every night/time you have a frothy one, or are they safe assuming no oxygen can get back into the lines from a sealed tap and not feed bacteria.

[Nardy]

But I don't drink very much - probably a beer a night.

I wish lol. So would the wifey, she might stop saying how fat I am getting :lol: :lol:
It is sounding better the more I read about them. How do you go about sanitising the kegs is it extra work to get things like the seals clean and do you need to give them a good scrub out.
Also do you need to clean the lines out every night/time you have a frothy one, or are they safe assuming no oxygen can get back into the lines from a sealed tap and not feed bacteria.

Cleaning kegs is a piece of piss. Once empty, rinse with hot water to remove most of the yeast sediment, then wipe out with a soft cloth and rinse again. Clean all around posts and hatch, then do outside of keg. Spray inside with starsan (or other no-rinse sanitiser) and let sit with lid on until next use. Next use just tip out sanitiser, give another fresh spray of sanitiser and then tip and fill.

Line don't need regular cleaning, maybe flush them with sanitiser once every 6 kegs? To do that, just tip a bit of sanitiser in empty keg, top with gas and hook up to lines and pour.

To clean and fill and keg takes me about 15 minutes tops. And that includes force carbonating.

[Jimmy1]

FIFTEEN MINUTES :shock: :shock: :shock: fucken sold, I'm investing in them as soon as the council approves my shed, they say six weeks... just got to contain my excitement until then.

[MacStill]

Hmmmmmmmm

Top of the line pot still :)

Beer fridge :D

New shed :mrgreen:

Party at Jimmy's :lol:

[Nardy]

FIFTEEN MINUTES :shock: :shock: :shock: fucken sold, I'm investing in them as soon as the council approves my shed, they say six weeks... just got to contain my excitement until then.

Yep. And I usually turn the temp down on my fermentation fridge at the end of fermentation and leave it to chill for at least 2 days before kegging. So the beer is ready to drink after that 15 minutes too.

[Jimmy1]

I have a ferment freezer which I drop the temp down to clear them as well.
Party at my house, everyone is welcome at my house if they want a shindig lol maybe except for the policia... they may not like the style of fuel I put in my "ride on mower" :lol:
Thanks for the still Mcstill friggen five times quicker to strip than the ultra pure still I have... now I need to move the concept to the wifey to get her to strip as quick :lol: :lol: :lol:

[The Pope]

Kegging is the way to go (although I still bottle certain types)
Here is my latest set up. 5 kegs (4 tapped), counter pressure bottle filler, crown cap opener with cap catcher & whiteboard for writing whats inside.



PS, My brother inlaw wants to sell his set up.
It's a single tap fridge with gas & beer lines (no gas bottle or kegs). I also have 50L cub kegs available and a sanke disconnect to suit...

[R-sole]

Yep, just finnished my setup over the last couple of weeks. My old freezer that i turned into a kegerator immediately died :angry-banghead:

So a brand new 300l one replaced it.

I'll take some piccies with the new tap handles i got from the states during the week, later on.

kegfridge11.jpg

kegfridge12.jpg

kegfridge13.jpg

kegfridge14.jpg

I also have my old two tap fridge for sale. Comes with all but the gas bottle.

[The Pope]

Hey 5Star,
I was going to build a 6 keg keezer but read alot about freezers not lasting long due to the thermostat control.
Although a freezer has better insulation etc they just can't handle the on & off switching like a fridge can. Several members over at "Aussiehomebrewer" have gone through 2-3 freezers in just a couple of years...

[Nardy]

My chest freezer (with collar and 4 taps) has lasted me over 3 years so far with no problems.