Over the holiday's my wife bought me a kegging system, so now I'm upgrading from bottling to kegging. The only problem is that I have a small "dorm" sized fridge which won't work to keep the kegs cool. So, I'm on the hunt for a cheap fridge that I can use to store the kegs as well as have some shelving room for bottles. I've been scouring craigslist and freecycle looking for the fridge. There are options available on craigslist, but nothing that I quite want - side by side, large ones, overpriced, etc... My problem is that I've got a spot in my garage where the fridge will go, so the dimensions have to be right. I guess I could go buy one....
Anyway, I decided this weekend to brew a beer with the sole purpose of kegging it, thereby giving myself a 2 week timeline to pickup a fridge. I've been reading up on all the things todo for kegging so here's my checklist. Yes, I also plan on filling a growler from the keg to take and share with some friends. What I'm most concerned about is that my be too young, since with a keg system you could drink in 3 days (full carbonation) vs. the 2 week's required to carbonate bottles. Perhaps, I'll just sample after full carbonation, if it requires aging, then wait a week and sample again (rinse, repeat).
Checklist
- Fridge to store keg in
- Thoroughly clean and sanatized keg
- Fill CO2 - if you don't know where you can do this in your area, I recommend asking at your local brew shop. For me there were 2 options, a store that fills paintball guns and store that handles fire equipment
- Pressurize at 25 PSI for 3 days
- Reduce pressure to X
- Crack first one for taste testing
Check back for my update after kegging and tasting has been completed.
A follow up...
ReplyDeleteEven though it was a pain to get the regulator working, I was able to carbonate my beer and enjoy it. It was quite delicious and oh so nice to be drinking ~3 days after kegging. However, as I suspected the beer may need to age a little more before being optimal, but still delicious.
As to the regulator issues, you'd think that with a brand new one it wouldn't be that hard, but.... I had to take it all apart to find and fix gas leaks. Then after reassambling it, I had to disassemble the gas export valvue and take a hammer and awl to it as it was frozen shut preventing the gas from flowing out. I did go to my local home brew store to have it looked at and my guy after spending some time loaned me a temporary one to use. Later is when I brought out the hammer :)
On the cooling front, I still haven't bought anything, but I figure bottles age/carbonate at room temp, so my Keg can do the same in my garage until I get something. I now know what I'm getting, a nice little freezer, which I'll convert into a keezer, that should be able to fit 3 kegs (giving me room to grow) and has a shelf that I can put bottles on.
Enough writing, back to drinking my delicious honey nut brown.