keg filling question
Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 8:09 am
by sufwrx
is there a problem putting 5gals into a 15gal keg?
I have never kegged before, but i'm about to start. My roommate is bringing back a 15 gal keg from his parents house. my problem is that i brew 5 gal batches right now. I'm fairly new at brewing (still doing extract, but soon moving to all grain) and don't want to try to make 3 batches to fill this thing. once i get a chest freezer i will be using it for dispensing. any help would be great. thanks
billy
Re: keg filling question
Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 8:36 am
by Mylo
There won't be any issues if you make sure that you purge all the air out of it before you fill it. Best way to ensure complete purging is to fill it completely with starsan, and then push it all out with C02.
Mylo
Re: keg filling question
Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 9:39 am
by sufwrx
thanks mylo. i will be getting the keg this weekend so i need to get brewing.
Re: keg filling question
Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 9:42 am
by Brew Engineer
What kind of 15 gallon keg are you getting that's usable for home brew?
Re: keg filling question
Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 12:45 pm
by Bugeater
Brew Engineer wrote:What kind of 15 gallon keg are you getting that's usable for home brew?
I've seen a couple but they are a bit large for our use for dispensing (not to mention damned expensive.
) On the other hand, one of these would make one hell of a fermenter. Perfect for 10 gallon batches.
Wayne
Re: keg filling question
Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 2:42 pm
by bub
If you think you are going to fill a "Normal" Keg "aka Sanke" and use it for homebrew, you are in for an adventure in disappointment.
Not saying it can't be done but you gotta have a lot of tools and whatnot that you probably don't have, not to mention cleaning and sanitizing something like that.
BUB
Re: keg filling question
Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 3:01 pm
by Bugeater
I wasn't even thinking about sanke kegs in my post. I had just moved my 10 gallon corny keg to a different spot and thinking about that as a serving keg. A sanke keg (the normal frat party beer keg) is useful in brewing as a boil kettle or mash tun, but would be a major PITA for a serving keg, especially for someone just getting into kegging.
Wayne
Re: keg filling question
Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 3:07 pm
by Crut
i was thinkin the same thing as bub , oh no that cant be right can it?
if you have an extra sanke tap around though, you can take out the backflow valve in it and fill it through the tap and spear. Ive done this at work before with cleaner and other chemicals that we plan to push through serving lines or cleaning coolers, and when i done want to disassemble the whole keg.
if you dont have the right tools for disassembling a sanke keg, don't try it, you'll just get frustrated and give up and have a fermenter then, but then thats not unnecessarily a bad thing
-Crut