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So I've got 2 kegs in my mini kegerator (cornys). I'm trying to figure out a way so that I don't end up in a situtation where I pour off the last pint of a keg and then have to wait for a batch to finish before I have more on tap. Some weekends reek havoc on my beer stock... I like to share! I'm trying to avoid the nightmare of dry taps!

What I'm thinking is that I buy 2 more cornys, brew batches for them both, apply a good amount of CO2, and store them in the back room (celler temp) until one in the fridge empties. Swap it out, and get another batch going right away.

Anyone see any issue with doing this, as long as there's enough CO2 pressure to keep a good seal on the lids?

Sounds like a good plan. You can also just naturally carb with sugar in the keg, that way you don't have to use up your C02 to carb.

You can try to have a carboy of finished beer ready for the blow out. Then transfer and force carb and your good to go in little time. A third corny wouldn't hurt either.

Sandy

Just be careful with temperature... I worked in a bar for a few years, and any time you'd tap a warm keg it was foam city. I imagine home brew keg set ups are similar?

Two Wheeler wrote:Just be careful with temperature... I worked in a bar for a few years, and any time you'd tap a warm keg it was foam city. I imagine home brew keg set ups are similar?

+1

I usually allow my kegs a full day in the fridge to adjust to temps before I even start force carbing

Stead: you're just gonna have to build a keezer brother

LiverDance wrote:Sounds like a good plan. You can also just naturally carb with sugar in the keg, that way you don't have to use up your C02 to carb.

+1 As LD says, naturally carb with sugar and you are always ready to go.

Thanks all. Great feedback!

I guess I should have clarified that I didn't really mean that I would just swap in and serve. Just meant that I have no real way of telling how much I have left in a keg, and don't want to have to guess when I should start my next batch. I don't want to end up dry for 2-3 weeks each time I run a keg dry. I don't mind 2 days for cooling/carbing.

I think I'll try naturally carbing in keg, and put it in storage. If that doesn't work out, I'm sure someone around here will take my extra cornys off my hands.

Bluenose: I'd love to have a full sized keezer, but I have nowhere to put it. That's why I built me the mini -- fits nicely behind my bar.

When I'm all grown up and have a bigger house, I'll have those suckers integrated with my bar.

mstead wrote:What I'm thinking is that I buy 2 more cornys, brew batches for them both, apply a good amount of CO2, and store them in the back room (celler temp) until one in the fridge empties. Swap it out, and get another batch going right away.

Absolutely. I usually have up to 4 full warm cornies.

mstead wrote:I think I'll try naturally carbing in keg, and put it in storage. If that doesn't work out, I'm sure someone around here will take my extra cornys off my hands.

DIBS!

Nothing better than having a back up corney ready to go...But what I did before I had spare corneys was weigh an empty one and a full one to get your base weights and once in a while I would weigh the corney to know where I was...Just a thought...

I seem to recall seeing sticky thermometer type things that are the length of a keg. The temperature difference between the empty part of the keg and the part with liquid showed up on the strip so you could see the liquid level.

Jimmy wrote:I seem to recall seeing sticky thermometer type things that are the length of a keg. The temperature difference between the empty part of the keg and the part with liquid showed up on the strip so you could see the liquid level.

I think morebeer carried them. You had to spray down the strip with either warm or cold water IIRC.

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