Can we talk kegging in this thread?

So I just started my first brew Sunday.

I am thinking of skipping bottling because when I get my Man Cave/Bar done I will have a keezer setup so why not just jump right into kegging.

Who/where do I get the most inclusive kit from? Something like this? http://www.cornykeg.com/catalog.asp?prodid=718752&showprevnext=1 ?
I want to get everything I need in one shot if there is such a thing.

That looks OK, if you are going with pinlocks.

Needs more kegs, though. I have 18 (14 five gallon and 4 three gallon) and still need more.

It says that it is ball lock. Although I don't even know the difference at this point?
I have to start somewhere. I hope to have a few once I figure it out.


Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile

I'm tagging this, because my ass is building a bar one of these days out of a Chest Freezer.

I have nothing but good things to say about beveragefactory.com. When I built my kegerator, these guys answered all of my questions. After talking with them I was able to order what I needed with confidence. Their selection is huge and I found their prices quite reasonable (among the cheapest when on sale). I'm the type of person who will pay a little more for excellent customer service though.

Not sure on your set up, but if you are getting tight with the internal height, I would recommend a low profile tap if you plan on putting 1/6 kegs in there next to your homebrews. Be sure to let us know how your homebrews turn out! Hopefully better than mine...

Edit: Almost forgot, you are making a very smart choice going the kegging route off the bat. Part of me wishes that you would try bottling once, but that's the really mean part. And CO2 bottles last forever, don't go overboard if space is limited in your fridge.

The pic is of a pinlock keg, and pinlock disconnects.

Regarding the pin lock vs ball lock; ball lock seems to be the standard, so much so that people turn pin locks into ball locks by changing the connectors. Whichever you go with, stick with that one style.

I have only two corny kegs (ball lock) and I am in need of a lot more. So if the funding is there, I would say make sure you pick up some extra kegs. Also, Co2 tanks are retardedly expensive.

Here is a good place to get your kegs.

Keg Connectiion

+1 for keg connection, that's where I got mine from and am completely happy.

+2 for keg connection. Bought my setup there. Flat rate shipping to.

Just picked 2 of the converted pin lock kegs.

So is this a good setup to start with?

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/brew-logic-triple-tap-draft-system-with-3-way-gas-manifold.html

I am re-doing my room to have a little bar space with a keezer.
All I would need to do is abandon the 3 handheld taps and get a tower once I get it built and setup, right?

Also, how long does 5lb of gas last? would I be able to serve all 15 gallons on one tank?

Sorry for all the seemingly dumb questions, but I live out in the sticks more than an hour from my local brew supply store, and their inventory isn't terribly vast, so most of my purchases will be online.

That setup looks good if that's the cheapest you could find it. For a keezer you'd probably skip the tower and just find faucets to mount; I guess you could do a 3 tap tower.
5lb of Co2 will last quite a bit longer than what you posted. I've had my kegerator for a year now and I think I've only filled it up twice, maybe three times, and I drink a lot of beer.

I just watched "Intro to Kegging" on YouTube by Midwest Suppplies, and I have a better understanding how kegging goes together, and the difference in ball and pin lock connectors.
Now I am confident that I can simply buy parts and plumb it myself if the kit is much more than buying the pieces separately.


You are right, I misspoke. I am going to do my bar like I found on another forum, and construct a "tower" with faucets on the keezer itself.
Similar to this setup:

Also, From kegconnection.com, the 3 keg ball lock kit is $130.00 plus $150.00 for 3 kegs, plus $60.00 for CO2 tank. That is $348.00 shipped.
From Midwest Supply, it is $344.00 shipped.

Ok that makes sense now... try a google search for "coffin keezer," that might give you some ideas.

Fyi, I ordered my kegs from keg connection when they were on sale for $35...I think they were the $40 kegs, and they work just fine.

I just went and looked at those. I know the main difference between those and a "real" ball lock keg is the lack of a user operable relief valve.
Have you ever had the need to relieve the pressure on a converted pin lock and not be able to?

I just use something, pick/screw driver, to push the plunger to release the pressure. I'm going to be doing this tonight when I get home; I have 5 gallons of Apfelwein under 30psi at the moment. Just press the center and it releases the pressure, no problem. They do make a couple things you might be interested in though; they have a ready made corny lid with a pressure release, they also have a drill and bolt on pressure release valave you can buy (I think it's like $8 or something).

So far, no problems relseasing the pressure...no problems at all withought the easy blow off valve.

OH, one other thing. Make sure you have your kegs under some sort of pressure (ie. 4-5 psi or more) before you shake or tilt the keg. The lids seal unpressurized but not completely, they need the pressure to push that rubber o-ring on the lid. I did that the other day cleaning one keg out, filled with starsan; it leaked down the side of the keg as I shook it up.

The kegs will/should come pressurized from the store, so you will have to release the pressure one way or another before you pop the top.

Awesome! Thanks for the help.
I like the converted pin locks because the shorter height will help me fit them in the 7 CuFt freezer I need to buy, hopefully w/o needing to make a collar at all.


Are you "force carbing"?




Now all I need to do is get my Honey-Do list finished this weekend, and I will start work on my Man Cave (I hate that term)/Bar/Brewing Room.

My initial kegging setup was a dual regulator, two keg system from Midwest. Since then, I have added about 16 kegs, and have three kegerators (factory kegerator modified with a three tap tower, a portable dual tap, and my old refrigerator kegerator).

5lb of gas lasts me about 3 to 4 months. That is carbing about 4 kegs a month, and serving about 40 pints a month. YMMV

Yup, force carbing the Apfelwein...the wife loves it and she gets angry when she doesn't have it...you wouldn't want to see her angry
Just hit the keg with 30psi, shake it up, you'll hear more Co2 going into the keg and/or feel it going through the manifold. Let it sit under 30psi (in the fridge) for two days, take it out, release the pressure then represurize at 12psi (my serving psi) and you're good to go

Cool thanks.

18 kegs, huh? I don't know if I have even tried 18 different beers in my lifetime.




I'm taking notes.

I finally got my Wife drinking beer about a year ago. She is hooked, which will make this whole process that much easier.
Not that she cares what I do anyway, but if I am doing something she is interested in as well, it seems to get done much faster for some reason.

I know the feeling. My wife doesn't like most beers, but she loves that apfelwien, more so than her store bought wine. She's also a cider fan, that's why I tried making cider. I've got 3 gallons in the fridge cold crashing, OG was 1.070 and I pulled off 3 gallons when it hit 1.025. The other three gallons I'm going to let ferment out and try backsweetening...hopefully that goes well.

I wish I had known this before I bought a new C02 tank. But the local gas suppliers do a bottle exchange. Meaning they take your gleaming new bottle and give you a full one from thier stock of bottles. They were nice enough to pick out a newer one for me The upside, I never have to worry about hydro dates.
They will fill your C02 tank, but it takes a few days to turn it around.

The price for the bottle from the supplier was about 20% cheaper than my lhbs.

Also, a good source for cornies is craigslist. They seem to pop up every couple of months. I have found used for $25 a keg.

I am glad you mentioned that.

Well, it looks like I am bottling my first brew. I checked it this weekend and it was down to 1.014, so it is getting close.
Plus I'd like to get the room finished before rushing out to get a freezer, build a keezer, and get all my kegging stuff setup.

I'm gonna start 5 gal of Apfelwein, and figure out what beer is next. Probably be one more extract kit with hop additions before I even think about partial mash.
Plus, I would nee all that equipment too.

This is going to be an expensive hobby.

Partial mash isn't that much different than an extract brew, it just takes longer and you have the sparge water to make (heat a little amount of water to 170 degrees).
So if you have a collander and an extra pot you can fill with water, you're set for mini mash.

I'm assuming you're not talking about Coopers or Muntons extract...if you are, never mind! The "full extract" kits you get from AHS have grains, the mini mash has more grains less extract.

Keep in mind that CO2 will not disolve readily into liquid above 40 degrees. Get it cold, over pressure it, shake it, repeat as necessary. This does not take two days, it takes a few minutes. I have seen me do it.

As far as how long does a 5lb bottle lasts, it is never long enough and it never picks a good time to run out. Have a backup bottle, or better yet, two backups and a hand pump. This will allow you to have a portable setup for a jockey box, with a pump backup. If you are going to be king of the party, you better have the hardware. Of course a handpump introduces air and possibly bacteria, so plan on finishing that keg off quickly.

My first brew was this: http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/review/product/list/id/3203/category/81/ 1/2 gallon of LME and 2 hop additions basically. I like your pictorial thread with a partial mash. I think I want to try that next.

Another keg necessity is line cleaning. You must sanitize your beer lines to prevent bad yeast or mold buildup that will affect flavor. They make kits with a squeeze bottle for this and you can use dishwashing soap and/or baking soda to flush. I used a food grade plastic, unused mustard bottle with sanitizer and scrubbed the tapper in the cleaning solution. Flush extremely well with water and drain.

Disassemble your taps for cleaning. A Glock 9mm cleaning brush is perfect for cleaning out the beer taps, along with a toothpick to clean the small hole underneath.

I just finished this with one of mine a few minutes ago..

For cleaning the lines I use my kegs! After cleaning the keg I starsan it with a couple of gallons. I hit it up with some Co2, then hook it up to the kegerator and flush the lines out with starsan from the keg. This has worked for me so far, just another option for you.

Ok, here's 'Joes's stupid question of the day'....how do you get into the chest freezer to reload? Does it slide out? I was just wondering, because I really like the way your bar is coming together and may use it for ideas when I get around to building mine. More pics, please!!

I'm making a guess here, until OP responds, but you build a collar for the chest freezer that lifts up the lid of the freezer. You move the hinges up to mount onto the collar, cover the top with a nice wood and BLAMO, hinged table/bar top.

Sorry for the confusion, those aren't my pics. The guy made the whole top on a piano hinge that lifts up like a normal freezer lid.

Here is a link to his thread: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/bar-build-basement-overhaul-progress-tracker-164329/

for what its worth, I get all my brewing stuff from Midwestsupplies.com
not the .com so much, as they are just down the road from me.
i have their single corny keg setup with a tap coming through my garage fridge. works slick. Just make sure the CO2 is sealed well, sucks to open the door and see a pressure gauge sitting at 0

OK. This is what I am going to purchase. Please let me know if I am in error somewhere.

(3) Ball Lock Kegs
Double body CO2 regulator so I can serve and force carb at the same time if I want.

3 way air distributor
30' 5/16" Gas Line
30' 3/16" Beer Line
5lb CO2

And of course all clamps, fittings, and ball lock adapters necessary.
I am going to use picnic taps now until I finish my bar build then switch to a tower.

I can buy this setup for not much more than the Midwest 3 keg system I linked earlier, and I feel I have more control over my kegs.

Looks good, you might be a bit high on the gas line, but it's always better to have too much than not enough.

Thanks for the link, I see Keg Connection is having a black Friday sale.


Any other sites, not mentioned in this thread, worth checking out next weekend before placing an order?

I hope they have a ball-lock system on sale for Black Friday. For their preview sale they are featuring a pin lock system.

We can only hope.

What's the word on 10# tanks? Are they worth it or is it overkill?

My 5 pounder works just fine for me. Depending on what you're doing a 10 # tank might be too big? I think most kegerators (commercial) are setup for 5 #, but if you're making stuff at home you can pretty much do what you want.

I ended up with a 20# because I did not know better....and from what I understand, they are most common commercially...
It's big but I just stick it behind the refer...I hit my kegs with 12psi when needed...and 20# cost about 1/2 the price of a 5# to fill (I think?)...
Gotta have the room though, big and bulky.

I'm using the garage fridge, so it would probably fit... but the more I think about it 5# should be enough. I can always upgrade in the future.

did that....lot of work (mine was) but work good- since i dot brew much, have been putting in 1/2 barrels....thats a biiiiiiitach...

Does most CO2 meet beverage grade standards? Or is that not something worth worrying about?

I haven't had a chance to swing by the local shop yet.

Copyright © 1996 - 2013 :: AR15.Com LLC :: All Rights Reserved.
Any use of this content without express written consent is prohibited.