Last night, my wife and I were drinking some fine Brown Ale from a previous brew session.  The beer was from an experimental batch where I split the batch between two different yeasts, as you can see in the previous brewlog post. I discovered I had a beer contamination in the keg even at cold temps.

We were drinking off the WLP001 American Ale yeast keg.  The beer had aged into something fairly pleasant as it sat in the kegorator for several months.  Admittedly, the beer sat that long because I didn’t really like how either yeast had come out. I poured two pints before dinner.  As dinner was about to hit the table (hand-made Parkerhouse Rolls with Mushroom and Lentil stew) I went to the garage to pour another quick pint…. All foam!

The keg was kicked on those last two pints.  I guess that beer was better than I thought as we had worked through it over the summer.

So I hooked up the second keg from the WLP002 English Ale yeast.   I could tell something was different right off the bat with the head.  There was a lack of creaminess to it, it was more of a consistent foam.  I tasted it and there was a clear clove-phenol taste and aroma in it.  I noticed that flavor in it about a month ago and didn’t think much of it.  Back in May, that flavor wasn’t there but it slowly grew and grew as I have sampled the keg over the summer.

Interestingly, the keg has been cold since it went into the fridge in April so what ever contaminant I picked up in the keg is still active even at cold temps.  I did bottle a couple from that keg and sent it to a competition last month.  I am still waiting for the score sheets.  I would not be surprised to find out if that beer was over carbed and really phenol-ly once it warmed up to room temp and sat waiting a week or so before judging.  I hope when they opened it, it didn’t make a mess!

The WLP001 keg has no hint of that beer contamination in the keg.  When coming out of the brew kettle post chill, I filled a single carboy up with the wort.  THEN I split it in half into another carboy.  And seeing how the flavor wasn’t present post ferment, I must have picked up the contamination in the keg I racked into post ferment.  Live and learn, I guess it’s just a reminder to not slack on sanitation.  Even when you are careful, you never know.

Anyhow, I had to eat my rolls and stew with Oktoberfest.  I know it’s a tough life but as a brew dude I make sacrifices for you – the reader.

BREW ON!

In this part of our kegging series I’ll go over an easy part of the equipment but the vital pieces that allow you to put it all together, the disconnects.

I use all ball lock equipment.  I think that most keggers are using ball locks today, but there may be some secret enclaves in the country where only pin lock stuff is available.  So be sure that you know what your favorite shop carries for equipment before you start searching for kegs.

On the top of your keg there are two posts.  Most kegs will actually say on the top of the keg, at the base of each post, “IN” and “OUT”.  Simply put one is for the gas in, then other is for the beer-out.  Inside the keg you’ll see that the gas in side has a small 1-2 inch long dip tube.  The length of that tube is really sort of meaningless as you don’t do much with it (unless you want to use a carbonation stone, but we’ll talk about that at another time).  The center of each post has a small circular valve that is spring loaded, this is called a poppet.  The poppet pushes up agains the inside of the post to seal the keg off from the inside.  Getting the beer out or the gas in all happens at the poppet with the disconnect.

If you look inside a standard black or grey disconnect you’ll see a plastic pin.  That pin is what pushes down the poppet to allow that valve to be open when the disconnect is on.  Below are a couple pictures of the standard dissonnect.  Normally, the black ones are for the “out” side, or beverage side. The grey ones are for the “in” side or the gas side.  These disconnects are very simple to use.  They simply slip down on top of the correct post (in or out) and snap on.  To remove the dissconnect, there is a round collar that you simply pull up on to release the “ball lock” and then you pull the whole connector off of the post.

Basically you can use standard clear food grade vinyl tubing to go from regulator to gas-in connector, or to go form beverage out connector to your beer faucet.  There are some more specialized types of tubing but I have always used the standard tubing.  The diameter of your gas line is not all that important, however the diameter of your beverage line becomes an important consideration.  The diameter of your line, and the length of that line is important and can cause excess foaming in the beer if not chosen correctly.  In the kegging process we call this balancing the system.  It can be a difficult topic to cover, so I’ll write about that separately and stay focused on the parts here.

The last thing you need to get (post ball locks, and tubing) is a faucet of some sort.  Beer is delivered through a faucet, not a tap.  A tap is the part of the system that draws the beer out of the keg.  In this case the “tap” is the black ball lock dissconnect.  If you were “tapping” you favorite commercial sanke keg of beer, the tap is the device that you push down onto the keg’s large center post.  Beer is delivered out of a faucet.  When you get started a standard picnic or cobra faucet is all that you need.  Here is a picture:

You deliver your beer through the faucet to you glass (or mouth!).  One key I always have to remind people is that you should fully depress or open the faucet.  Or no matter how well balanced your set up is, you’ll get foam.

I have been playing around with some of my kegging stuff lately as I am getting some of my most recent brews ready. I think that the best way to see this stuff in action is through a video.  I’ll try and get that up soon with this post.

BREW ON!

The next installment of our Kegging your Homebrew series is all about the heart of the system, the CO2 tank and regulator.  We covered Corny Kegs in our last post, in short that’s where the beer goes.  Next we need to have a way to put CO2 in the keg, get it to dissolve in the beer and use the pressure to dispense the beer (We won’t talk about carbonation levels and balancing the system here, as that will take a separate post, or more).

I took a picture of my CO2 tank and regulator as its hooked up to my kegerator right now.  You can see the gray/silver tank.  I use what’s called a 5-pound tank.  This is pretty standard.  The next size up is 20-pounders.  I have heard about 10-pound tanks, but those are an awkward size and my gas supplier doesn’t carry them.  The top of the tank itself has a valve on it which opens the tank and allows the gas to vent out to the air, if you don’t have a regulator on there.

(Opening the tank valve is not recommended without a regulator unless you are into loud hissing noises and are not prone to a little frost bite should you spray yourself or fingers with gas.)

In the picture, you can also clearly see my two dial regulator.  The regulator is used to regulate the amount of CO2 that comes out of the tank.  The gauge on the left lower side reads the total pounds of pressure left in the tank.   The gauge at the top of the regulator is the amount of pressure that is being applied through the red “exit” valve at the base of the regulator.  You can see in the center of the regulator a screw and nut assembly (sometimes this might be a small T handle or a wing nut, depends on the manufacturer of the regulator).  This nut is what you use to dial in the amount of CO2 you want to come out of the tank, read in PSI (pounds per square inch).  Lastly, all around the CO2 regulator you can see a triangular cage.  That is normally an additional purchase.  It is a protective thing that will protect the gauges from getting broken should the tank tip over.  I didn’t use one for years, then one day I knocked the tank over and busted the tank pressure gauge.  Not a big deal but eventually it got annoying to not know if I was getting close to empty.  So I bought one and you can see it installed there.   I highly recommend getting one.

A word on gas supply.  Many kegging starter kits come with CO2 tanks.  While the regulators are usually the bulk of the cost, the tank is usually a close second.  Before purchasing a kegging kit, I strongly recommend you research where you’ll be getting your CO2 from.  CO2 suppliers are often one of the following business types: gas supplier, welding supplier, fire safety/extinguisher, paintball hobby store.  Regardless of where the CO2 comes from its usually sold in two formats either via refill of your tank or by tank swap programs.  The reason this info is important is because if you buy a kegging kit that includes a tank and you can’t find anyone to fill it, you’ll have to kiss your nice shiny new tank goodbye to a swap program.  So if having a shiny new tank is important to you, be sure you have a local place that will fill tanks, not swap them.  This happened to me when I started.  There were no reasonably close filling stations near me, eventually I had to bone up and say good by to my tank.

Its not a big deal really in the end.  Eventually tanks wear out and the gas supplier is required by law to take it out of service.  If you own the tank for 10 years say, they take it and cut it open to be sure its out of service and throw it in a pile (you don’t even get to keep it for salvage metal prices).  Then your buying a new tank.  I personally like the swap program because that element of service date is on the supplier and the swap “lease” fee is cheaper than the new tank usually.  All I pay for when I go in after that one time fee for the tank is the fill up.  Which is usually $18.

One last issue on tanks.  It’s expensive to get started, but you may want to consider two tanks.  The reason being YOU WILL eventually run out of gas.  And YOU WILL run out when you have twenty thirsty friends coming over for a pig roast.  So if you have two tanks, you’ll never run out.  Keep in mind that when you first set up the system, you may have a small leak somewhere, and in your excitement to get carbonated, run your tank dry before you even get that first sip of beer.

That’s the long descriptor for tanks and regulator parts.  In future posts, we’ll go over how to use the tank and CO2 regulator to carbonate the beer.  But first we’ll need to discuss tubings and disconnects for putting the whole system together.

BREW ON!

Continuing the series of posts for converting from bottling to kegging your homebrewed beer, here is a post discussing the cornelius or corny keg.

The major piece of equipment you need to buy if you want to starting kegging your homebrew is a keg. Corny kegs, which were made for sodas, work well for homebrewers since they typically hold 5 gallons, are easy to clean and sanitize, and their size and shape is conducive to easy storing in a refrigerator.

It’s probably worth mentioning that before you starting thinking about kegging homebrew, you should have a place to store your beer at cold serving temperatures. If you have a beer fridge, then you are all set.

There are two kinds of corny kegs – ones with pin lock connectors (made by Coca Cola) and ones with ball lock connectors (made by Pepsi). Both can be used for homebrew but they are not interchangable. I usually see ball lock corny kegs for sale.

Now you can buy new ones but if you want to save some money, you can find refurbished ones that work just as well as new. I have seen homebrew stores sell both new and used corny kegs. You can find corny kegs for sale on Craigslist too. Mike suggested that if a restaurant has gone out of business, you may be able to get corny kegs from there.

One last thing about corny kegs – I have seen new 2.5 gallon corny kegs and they are just a little less expensive than new 5 gallon ones. To me, the price doesn’t justify the halved amount of volume. You’re probably better off getting a 5 gallon one if you are starting your kegging homebrew journey.

I have been kegging my beer for about 8 years. I kicked the bottling habit and never looked back. Time and convenience are the top priority in my brew house these days (especially with two little ones to chase around). I greatly appreciate the process of cleaning out one big bottle instead of 50 or so small ones. Because kegs are sealable, I can clean sanitize and seal it up until I am ready to use it. Unlike bottles where I prefer to sanitize them the night I bottle. And there is nothing better than heading out to the garage with my favorite stein, snifter, mug, pint glass or bucket at the end of a hard day and pour a draft beer. Perfectly carbonated to your own preferences, crystal clear and cold. Not to mention after you drink a bucket worth of beer you can go back for a half bucket if you need just a little more to top yourself off. I always felt like it was a waste to open another 22oz beer when I only really wanted a couple more sips to wash down that last slice of pizza.

OK, I am making myself thirsty…where’s that bucket?

John and I are going to cover a series of posts on making the move from bottling to kegging. John is still a devoted bottler. But even he is starting to crave that convenience of one big stainless bottle. We are going to cover the basic equipment, carbonation levels, balancing your system and even adapting a chest freezer to a kegerator. We’ll going to walk through all the parts and the process.

And of-course we’ll have to pour a couple pints along the way too.

BREW ON!

Related Posts:

Corny Keg For Homebrewing

CO2 Regulators and Tanks for Homebrewing

I am going to purchase a Better Bottle carboy so I can graduate from the plastic bucket that I have been using for years now.

One of the things that I was thinking about was to buy an accessory that would allow me to move it around easily.  When it’s empty, picking it up won’t be a problem.  When it is filled with 5+ gallons of wort/beer, that’s when it will be problematic.

I was going to buy the Better Bottle Snap-on Handle.  It’s blue and it looks like this:

I was looking at the product description on Northern Brewer and there were a bunch of negative comments about it. There were a lot of people giving the handle 1 star out of 5.

What do you think? Do you have one of these snap-on handles?

Do they work or should I avoid it?

Post comments below.

I bought an aeration kit from homebrewstuff.com.  I took some photos of it:

The first photo is everything that I received today.  The second one is a close-up of the filter and the last one is a photo of the aeration stone.

It will be interesting to see if the kit will enable me to make better beer.  I am not sure how much effect my carboy shaking or splashing has had on the final product.  An aeration kit seems to be an essential tool for home brewing.  We’ll see if there is a noticeable difference with the next brew.

That reminds me…I need to order the California Common ingredients.