Kegging

[mark]

Anyone running a keg system for forcing carbonation on their homebrew beer, wine, or mead?

 

[DrumsAndBeer]

Anyone running a keg system for forcing carbonation on their homebrew beer, wine, or mead?

Yep. Some force carbonation, and some conditioning. All depends on the beer. It's been a while since I have brewed though (back surgery).

 

[scotties22]

I want to. But, until my husband finishes his man cave and gets his kegerator I'll just keep bottling. I am working on getting my tools clean now so I can brew a batch of Pale Ale this evening.

 

[mark]

I gave up on the bottles and I'm looking to move up. I'm thinking these cornelius kegs will solve a lot of problems and save a ton of time.
I've had a few bottle bombs making sparkling mead and storage becomes a problem. I need to find a mini fridge big enough to hold a pair plus the co2 tank/regulator, but tripping over cases of bottles will be a thing of the past.

 

[DrumsAndBeer]

I gave up on the bottles and I'm looking to move up. I'm thinking these cornelius kegs will solve a lot of problems and save a ton of time.
I've had a few bottle bombs making sparkling mead and storage becomes a problem. I need to find a mini fridge big enough to hold a pair plus the co2 tank/regulator, but tripping over cases of bottles will be a thing of the past.

I have both Cornelius ball fit and Firestone pin fit kegs. Cornelius kegs are easier to find parts for although the prices for kegs and parts have really gone up quite a bit over the last 10 years. But yeah, your bottling problems will be solved. I still bottle here and there, but I use a counter pressure bottling device that allows me to bottle from a keg. With this device you can easily bottle a few brews here and there for friends. I am hoping to get back to brewing sometime soon, but heavy lifting is out of the equation for me and home brewing is 95% janitorial work and heavy lifting.

 

[mark]

. I still bottle here and there, but I use a counter pressure bottling device that allows me to bottle from a keg. /quote]


I'm not familiar with a counter pressure bottling device. Is this something new? Are there advantages over a beer gun?

I thought I'd over carbonate the keg and use a Blichmann beer gun to bottle.

 

[DrumsAndBeer]

I'm not familiar with a counter pressure bottling device. Is this something new? Are there advantages over a beer gun?

I thought I'd over carbonate the keg and use a Blichmann beer gun to bottle.

Mark - I have no experience with the beer gun. The counter pressure bottler allows you to stream CO2 into bottles purging them of oxygen, and then gently move beer from your kegs with very little exposure to oxygen. If you're bottling for an event and the event is that evening, the O2 contact may not matter all that much. But if you're bottling for competition or for giveaways to your judgemental beer snob friends (we all have them), the counter pressure filler is a good thing to have. That said I don't know how it compares to the beer gun.