Hi everybody,
I am fairly new to brewing but love the idea of a keg for my brews. Can anybody tell me what are the stuff i need to buy to have a keg set up at home? and roughly how much it might cost me?
A friend told me i needed to get everything but the gas cylinder cause i can rent it for 20 dollars a year or smth..
if anybody has any clue please let me know.
setting up a keg
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Oliver
- Administrator
- Posts: 3424
- Joined: Thursday Jul 22, 2004 1:22 am
- Location: West Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Hi Stekins,
See this thread, which deals with kegging and the associated costs.
http://www.homebrewandbeer.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=34
Cheers,
Oliver
See this thread, which deals with kegging and the associated costs.
http://www.homebrewandbeer.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=34
Cheers,
Oliver
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Dogger Dan
- Posts: 3168
- Joined: Thursday Aug 26, 2004 10:43 am
- Location: Lucan, Ontario, Canada
I have done it and I love it. The big cost is a fridge, the rest is relatively cheap. I suggest you don't get a Cobra Tap, what a piece of junk and spend the dollars on a good counter pressure tap. You will buy one eventually so just cut to the chase.
I can help you in setting up if you want, not much help on Costs as I am in different country
Dogger
I can help you in setting up if you want, not much help on Costs as I am in different country
Dogger
"Listening to someone who brews their own beer is like listening to a religous fanatic talk about the day he saw the light" Ross Murray, Montreal Gazette
thanks Oliver and DD for the reply.
looked around the internet on associated costs.. most palces sell a keg set up which includes everything except the fridge and the gas bottle ( the taps are gun ones ) i don't know how good that is...
it will be great DD if u let me know which is a good way to start with the keg... what should i not buy that would be a compelte waste of money.. and what is better...
let me know .. thanks
looked around the internet on associated costs.. most palces sell a keg set up which includes everything except the fridge and the gas bottle ( the taps are gun ones ) i don't know how good that is...
it will be great DD if u let me know which is a good way to start with the keg... what should i not buy that would be a compelte waste of money.. and what is better...
let me know .. thanks
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Dogger Dan
- Posts: 3168
- Joined: Thursday Aug 26, 2004 10:43 am
- Location: Lucan, Ontario, Canada
Ok,
So You want to keg. Like I said it is great and there are more than a few ways to do it.
First you have to figure out what sort of system you want. There are at least two available.
1. Shankie: This is the system used by breweries over here. They kind of guarentee that you don't need a CO2 cylinder to make the system work and don't give a lot of explanation so I made the assumption that the beer is over carbonated and you use it up through the course of the keg. From what I have seen at University keg parties this is the case
2. Cornellious kegs (or some such spelling) These are the cylinders that coke and pepsi used to come in but know they have switched to bag in the box things are changing so I guess get the used ones while you can. You put your beer in, turn on the CO2 and shake it up and guess what, carbonated beer. Cool. This is the route I went see pic below. The big decision is Coke or Pepsi Fittings. I could only get pepsi so the decision was made for me
Note the two nipples on the canister. One is in, the other out. Don't dick it up otherwise the fitting is pouched. See the reg on the CO2 tank, that's what small people with 2 Litres of pop can do to your system if you are not paying attention.
So what to do. Well brew normally. When clear transfer it into the tank and carbonate. No tricks it is that easy. There is some complicated math to work out how much CO2 you need but at 40 deg F I use about 15 PSI and this delivers my beer to the tap at a rate of about 1 oz a second. This takes a bit of playing and if you get the dreaded Cobra tap I think you will be disappointed. I have attached a few other pics which also clear up a few things.
1. If you don't want to drill through the fridge (I did) you don't have to, mount the tap in the fridge.
2. I don't put the CO2 line through the fridge because I like to carbonate the beer prior to drinking and if I want to do that in 15 mins or so then I need to shake things up so as you can see I keep things separate. I am currently changing this system to a smaller fridge (note ice around freezer, this thing is on its last pins) so things are not that fancy. I suppose running a CO2 tree and doubling up on the fittings would stop me from going in the fridge but it isn't that big a chore.
If there are any other questions that I can help with let me know
Dogger
PS I note the pics haven't come through. Can anyone tell my how to get around this?
Thanks
DD[/img]
So You want to keg. Like I said it is great and there are more than a few ways to do it.
First you have to figure out what sort of system you want. There are at least two available.
1. Shankie: This is the system used by breweries over here. They kind of guarentee that you don't need a CO2 cylinder to make the system work and don't give a lot of explanation so I made the assumption that the beer is over carbonated and you use it up through the course of the keg. From what I have seen at University keg parties this is the case
2. Cornellious kegs (or some such spelling) These are the cylinders that coke and pepsi used to come in but know they have switched to bag in the box things are changing so I guess get the used ones while you can. You put your beer in, turn on the CO2 and shake it up and guess what, carbonated beer. Cool. This is the route I went see pic below. The big decision is Coke or Pepsi Fittings. I could only get pepsi so the decision was made for me
Note the two nipples on the canister. One is in, the other out. Don't dick it up otherwise the fitting is pouched. See the reg on the CO2 tank, that's what small people with 2 Litres of pop can do to your system if you are not paying attention.
So what to do. Well brew normally. When clear transfer it into the tank and carbonate. No tricks it is that easy. There is some complicated math to work out how much CO2 you need but at 40 deg F I use about 15 PSI and this delivers my beer to the tap at a rate of about 1 oz a second. This takes a bit of playing and if you get the dreaded Cobra tap I think you will be disappointed. I have attached a few other pics which also clear up a few things.
1. If you don't want to drill through the fridge (I did) you don't have to, mount the tap in the fridge.
2. I don't put the CO2 line through the fridge because I like to carbonate the beer prior to drinking and if I want to do that in 15 mins or so then I need to shake things up so as you can see I keep things separate. I am currently changing this system to a smaller fridge (note ice around freezer, this thing is on its last pins) so things are not that fancy. I suppose running a CO2 tree and doubling up on the fittings would stop me from going in the fridge but it isn't that big a chore.
If there are any other questions that I can help with let me know
Dogger
PS I note the pics haven't come through. Can anyone tell my how to get around this?
Thanks
DD[/img]
"Listening to someone who brews their own beer is like listening to a religous fanatic talk about the day he saw the light" Ross Murray, Montreal Gazette
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Oliver
- Administrator
- Posts: 3424
- Joined: Thursday Jul 22, 2004 1:22 am
- Location: West Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
DD,
Send me the pics and I'll arrange for them to be posted (I'll put them on another server so they don't eat up space on http://www.homebrewandbeer.com).
Email is oliver@homebrewandbeer.com
Cheers,
Oliver
Send me the pics and I'll arrange for them to be posted (I'll put them on another server so they don't eat up space on http://www.homebrewandbeer.com).
Email is oliver@homebrewandbeer.com
Cheers,
Oliver