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Any regulator that you want. Run the output from the regulator into something like this, and then run a line off of each of the outputs from it. You can have a keg carbing and a keg serving at the same time. This is if you want them to be at the same pressure. If you are wanting higher pressure on one keg than the other, you would need something like this. edit - Man, you guys are fast. Imasalmon fucked around with this message at 20:31 on Feb 7, 2013 |
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Feb 7, 2013 20:28
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Mikey Purp posted:Hmm, so let me get this straight. If I'm not force carbing and thereby requiring two different pressure settings, I would just have both kegs connected to the manifold and the regulator set to my serving pressure. In this way, my carbing keg would be brought to the proper serving carbonation over the course of a 2-3 weeks without touching the pressure, right? Well, it IS force carbing, no matter which pressure you use. When I rack beer to kegs, I just chuck it in the serving fridge at serving pressure, and yes, wait a couple weeks for it to come up to full carbonation. It's lazy but it always works. If you wanted to carb at a different pressure than serving, you'd need a 2-body regulator, or two tanks and two regulators. If you do that, I think you will find that you will need to to some fine tuning of your carb levels after the high-pressure carbonation session is over. It's certainly faster and easier to leave the gas hooked up, but you could give it a shot of gas daily or whatever - some would get absorbed into the beer and the pressure would drop over time. Again, my lazy method is to hook it up at serving pressure and leave it alone until it's carbed, and then also until I drink it all and pull the empty keg from the fridge.
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Feb 7, 2013 20:29
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Jo3sh posted:Well, it IS force carbing, no matter which pressure you use. When I rack beer to kegs, I just chuck it in the serving fridge at serving pressure, and yes, wait a couple weeks for it to come up to full carbonation. It's lazy but it always works. I usually just leave the serving pressure low if I want a low level of carbonation. It pours slower, but it doesn't really make a difference (although I have a three-body secondary regulator). Jo3sh posted:I do that with a CO2 injector - I took 2 kegs for the annual wasted weekend in Vegas. It's a little pricy but not too terrible. Maybe one of these days I will switch to a 20 oz paintball tank or something, but for now, the 12 gram carts are working fine. For the rich man that wants only the best: 
Angry Grimace fucked around with this message at 20:53 on Feb 7, 2013 |
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Feb 7, 2013 20:47
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Angry Grimace posted:For the rich man that wants only the best: I use an older version of this, that uses 12g carts instead of 16 (way cheaper): http://morebeer.com/view_product/18306//CO2_Injector_W_1_Co2_Cartridge
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Feb 7, 2013 21:27
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When I need to carbonate I'll just invite over a couple politically polar friends, say "Obama", and use all of the hot air.
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Feb 7, 2013 22:24
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Jo3sh posted:I use an older version of this, that uses 12g carts instead of 16 (way cheaper): What makes that one so expensive is the fact that is has an actual CO2 regulator on it so you can keep pressure at some particular amount of CO2. It's like $150. You could buy the entire keg system for what it costs, including the kegs.
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Feb 7, 2013 22:26
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And while I have not looked recently, those large CO2 cartridges ain't cheap either as I recall. It's definitely not worth it for a weekend trip, IMO. I use the "when it pours slowly, give it another quick toot of gas" method, which works fine for my needs. EDIT: Yeah, Morebeer sells the 74g carts that the regulator one takes for $17. That's 23 cents per gram of CO2. When bought in bulk, 12g carts can be got for 45 cents each, or less than 4 cents per gram. Plus the injector costs $20 rather than $150. Not feeling too bad about my choice at this point. Jo3sh fucked around with this message at 22:31 on Feb 7, 2013 |
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Feb 7, 2013 22:28
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Jo3sh posted:I use the "when it pours slowly, give it another quick toot of gas" method, which works fine for my needs.
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Feb 7, 2013 22:35
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Pretty sure drinking homebrew in Vegas is more fun than huffing nitrous in a car. vvv Good point. Jo3sh fucked around with this message at 22:54 on Feb 7, 2013 |
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Feb 7, 2013 22:49
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At least not while you have guns pointed at you.
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Feb 7, 2013 22:52
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I just kegged the rye IPA I got some help on some weeks ago. Had a small glass out of the bucket. It is...amazing. It is the best beer I've done yet and I think it holds up really well against Founders red. The feeling you get from really nailing a batch is tough to beat. Its like winning a sporting event or something. It is going to be torture waiting for this thing to carb up.... Also I just got two pin cornys from eBay (beverage elements) for $84 shipped. They are in great shape. Seems like a tough deal to beat.
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Feb 8, 2013 23:36
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An absolutely gorgeous day to be brewing a Mirror Pond Clone in Northern Ohio! The clone recipe calls for some gypsum, which I apparently have in my brewing supplies, but don't remember using in the last 5+ years of brewing. What does gypsum do to the beer? I know it is supposed to enhance hop flavors.
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Feb 9, 2013 20:40
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Like usual John Palmer has the answer:how to brew posted:Calcium Sulfate (CaSO4*2 H2O) a.k.a. Gypsum - Lowers pH - Useful for adding calcium if the water is low in sulfate. Can be used to add sulfate "crispness" to the hop bitterness.
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Feb 9, 2013 22:03
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Drinking my first kegged beer, a Munich Dunkel I've been lagering since October. Feels good man. Also, my first competition is tonight. Turns out a lot of people brew stouts in the winter so I'll be pretty stoked if I place.
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Feb 9, 2013 22:17
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What's a good draft tower that fit this thing: http://www.kegerator.com/Nostalgia-...CFa1AMgodFjYAug Edit: I should mention I'm looking for a one or two faucet model that's not too expensive. revmoo fucked around with this message at 00:02 on Feb 10, 2013 |
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Feb 9, 2013 23:57
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Probably all you would need to do would be to drill another hole in the existing tower and add another faucet.
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Feb 10, 2013 00:06
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Hmm I did not know that. I figured it was all cheap chinese knockoff crap and it would be proprietary. The little standoff spacer that sits between the faucet is plastic painted chrome and it snapped when I was tightening it together. Also it's leaking directly from the faucet so I figured I should replace all of it. I'm having nothing but trouble with this thing. It's taken me a week of adjusting to get the temp to a place that I'm comfortable with and the first co2 tank I bought from the liquor store ran out after a single 1/4 barrel. It was showing empty when I got it but I blamed the lovely regulator but I'm thinking it probably really was empty to begin with. I've also been chasing leaks on the tap beer line fitting. I'm pretty exhasperated and I just had to go buy a six pack after purchasing a brand-new keg of falls city.
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Feb 10, 2013 00:10
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Oh, with knockoff crap all bets are off. But with a real tower, it seems like you should be able to add a faucet. Let me ask a guy I know about the place he got his tower from.
Jo3sh fucked around with this message at 00:22 on Feb 10, 2013 |
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Feb 10, 2013 00:15
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Reminder that AHS has FREE SHIPPING all weekend. Just ordered a ton of heavy stuff I've been putting off since NB's shipping got so crappy. http://www.austinhomebrew.com/
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Feb 10, 2013 01:32
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I have one of those Nostalgia kegerators too (used) and have also had a lot of problems. I've also been considering a second tap. The tower that comes on it is 2.5" which is a pretty uncommon size. It's really tight inside and you couldn't add a 2nd tap since the tailpieces would interfere. You might be able to put a 2nd tap slightly below the first one to make clearance but it still looks really tight. The easiest way to add a 2nd tap would be to drill through the door or side and add a drip tray. Slightly more difficult but better looking would be to open the top hole up to 3" carefully and use a standard 3" draft tower. The temperature control does indeed totally suck. I spent a lot of time adjusting the internal thermostat's range screw since it wouldn't go below about 50 degrees when I got it. Mine has no middle ground between "100% duty cycle freeze your beer" and like 50-55F. I ended up adding an external temp controller. The insulation on the draft tower also sucks and I had nonstop foaming problems at first. I ended up fabricating a tower blower using a piece of tubing and a DC fan. The tube gets jammed most of the way up the tower and the fan pulls cold air from lower in the fridge, cooling the lines. It now works almost as well as a regular through the door design. Even with all the problems I like it since it's probably the most compact fridge that will hold a full half barrel keg. With the temp controller and a spunding valve it's easy to do 10 gallon pressurized fermentations, then when the beer is ready and/or lagering change the tap out for one with CO2 and beverage lines and drink directly from the primary.
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Feb 10, 2013 02:25
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I'm brewing a Kolsch today as a test of some new parts on the ole brewery. My homebrew store had their mill set wayyy to tight and I ended up basically making bear from flour, which had its own set of challenges. It still looks ok but there's some really cool stuff forming in the fermenter (still waiting for it to cool to pitching temp). My hydrometer sample has already had most of this settle out, and the fermenter stuff is half cleared as well. It was all in suspension in the wort, even though I let it setting in the boil kettle for half an hour before moving it to the fermenter. What is this stuff exactly? There was a ton of gunk left in the kettle too so it isn't like I siphoned all my hot break or something.
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Feb 10, 2013 02:39
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It's hard to tell from the picture, but from your description I'm guessing you didn't get a very clear run-off because you couldn't get a grain bed going. It's likely just particles from the grain. Did you vorlauf until clear?
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Feb 10, 2013 03:08
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It's like pretty puffy little clouds of whitish stuff. Neat looking and almost all settled out but usually I just get a uniform opacity, not these cool cloud formations. I usually vorlauf because I have a HERMS which means I just throttle back the pump close to then end and let the grain bed do its work. This time the grain had become like a solid brick so the HERMS wasn't working at all. You could have built a house with that stuff. The runoff was sort of clearishy but it was a hot mess in the mash tun so I didn't have much hope for the final product. Now that it has all but collapsed to the bottom, I think it is going to be ok, I was just curious what I was seeing happen.
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Feb 10, 2013 03:45
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bewbies posted:Also I just got two pin cornys from eBay (beverage elements) for $84 shipped. They are in great shape. Seems like a tough deal to beat.  .Then, I managed to snipe a large chest freezer off of Craigslist for $60! It's a little dirty, but with a little elbow grease it'll look fine. I was thinking of maybe painting it; has anyone painted these before? Bruinator posted:The insulation on the draft tower also sucks and I had nonstop foaming problems at first. I ended up fabricating a tower blower using a piece of tubing and a DC fan. The tube gets jammed most of the way up the tower and the fan pulls cold air from lower in the fridge, cooling the lines. It now works almost as well as a regular through the door design.
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Feb 10, 2013 04:56
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Here's the place my friend likes for towers and such: http://acumetalfab.com/prod_pda.html According to him, prices are good and the people are good to deal with. He says that they make the towers a lot of places resell, and you can cut out the middleman by buying direct. I think they also do (or used to do) a "shotgun" style, which is a typical round column with a square box on top that the faucets mount on, so you they mount up parallel rather than radial.
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Feb 10, 2013 06:30
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almost fucked around with this message at 11:00 on Dec 15, 2013 |
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Feb 10, 2013 12:24
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Imaduck posted:I found a month old Craigslist ad of a guy who was trying to sell his entire kegging setup. I gave him a call, and it turned out he had sold everything except his two ball lock kegs. I asked him what he wanted for them: $25 apiece. I couldn't say "I'll take them!" fast enough My experience is with the cheapo kegerator small diameter tower above. In my case it makes a big difference for the first pour, and subsequent pours if the lines warm up before you get back to it. If a bunch of people are over and pouring beer frequently it wouldn't be an issue. My other fridge is through door and it's better about foaming than the tower even with the fan. The other reason people make collars and use towers is that chest freezers usually have coolant lines throughout and you can't really drill anywhere other than the lid.
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Feb 10, 2013 18:07
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So if I purchase a real draft tower, how do they mount onto a kegerator? My current one is just insert and twist to lock but I dout that is how real draft towers work.
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Feb 10, 2013 18:09
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They have holes for screws or bolts in a flange at the base. I think I have seen build where a piece of plywood or similar is used on the inside of the top to provide additional strength for the attachment. Of course, you'll need to be careful about coolant lines to avoid bricking the fridge.
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Feb 10, 2013 18:24
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Total noob question: Got a can of Coopers English Bitter malt concentrate from my son as a late Christmas gift. Any suggestions for recipes? I have one batch of dark ale under my belt, but that's it, so the easier, the better. To clarify: looking for an all-extract recipe until I get at least another batch or two worth of experience, and can pick up a bigger pot (I've got a 5 gallon pot now). a mysterious cloak fucked around with this message at 00:14 on Feb 11, 2013 |
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Feb 10, 2013 20:59
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Go to a homebrew shop and get ten bucks worth of hops and grains of your choice and a muslin bag. Crush the grains at the store or use a rolling pin at your house. Steep the grains and then add the malt extract and hop accordingly. You can skip the hops if you go for a non-hoppy beer since that extract should already be hopped. The steeping of the grains is the important part, it will give you a real malt flavor and help balance out the crap LME (liquid malt extract). Since you're just steeping grains you want to pick malts that are at least partially converted someone else should chime in on that part. It's been a while since I brewed. Also I got my kegerator running again after picking up a new co2 bottle. The faucet was leaking but seemed to stop on its own somehow once I let some amount of beer flow through it. I'm keeping a close eye on it. Still think I want to get a new draft tower. I'm not totally opposed to drilling this kegerator and it looks like the only refrigerant lines are on the back. I think I might buy the tower and one faucet, and then upgrade once I have a need for it. Oh yeah, what cleaning kit should I buy? revmoo fucked around with this message at 21:08 on Feb 10, 2013 |
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Feb 10, 2013 21:05
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Pretty sure my no-boil, no-hops sahti has a lacto infection. (Yeah, I guess I was asking for it.) On the plus side, I think it's actually improving it... here's hoping it doesn't progress to my other beers, though.
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Feb 10, 2013 21:45
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Based on the advice of Jacobey and Digitalhifi I grew a starter of S-33 and pitched it yesterday at my stalled-at-1.030 Tripel. If there's no change by Wednesday, should I grow a starter of Champagne yeast and pitch that? And, hypothetically, if the champagne or S-33 does nothing, what should I do with the tripel? Should it be thrown out or bottled as-is (based on the numbers its hovering around 7% ABV now). Edit: added right paren. Xiuhteuctli fucked around with this message at 23:36 on Feb 10, 2013 |
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Feb 10, 2013 22:22
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I'm gonna brew up a quick Irish red ale this weekend, any tips beyond standard recipes? I was figuring on like 8 lbs of Maris Otter, 0.25 lb roasted barley, maybe a bit of one of those specialty grains that improves head retention and body, plus whatever hops I have in the freezer that fit the style and a packet of Notthingham. Anything else I should consider?
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Feb 10, 2013 22:46
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revmoo posted:
Please post how you end up installing the new tower. Be careful as I'm pretty sure mine has some lines on the sides as well as the back.
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Feb 10, 2013 23:13
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I have a dark Belgian sour based on Jolly Pumpkin's Dark Dawn. The gravity hasn't budged from 1.020 for the last four months. The recipe had a lot of specialty grains and I'm wondering if it's stopped and I should bottle? I know that the bugs I added typically eat through all the sugars, but I keep thinking of those grains. Others have said that this recipe can end high.
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Feb 10, 2013 23:29
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Xiuhteuctli posted:And, hypothetically, if the champagne or S-33 does nothing, what should I do with the tripel? Should it be thrown out or bottled as-is (based on the numbers its hovering around 7% ABV now. The answer is always: taste it, and if you think you will want to drink it when it's cold and carbonated, bottle it. Only throw it away if you're sure it'll be bad even then.
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Feb 10, 2013 23:30
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Scythe posted:The answer is always: taste it, and if you think you will want to drink it when it's cold and carbonated, bottle it. Only throw it away if you're sure it'll be bad even then. Could this end in an explosion during bottle conditioning?
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Feb 10, 2013 23:36
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So I'm looking to brew a pretty hefty beer (OG 1.086) and I'm planning on reusing the yeast from a Irish red I've got in primary right now. Should I just pitch directly on the cake? Or should I pour off into glass jars? I'm planning on pitching the wort the same day as I rack the red to secondary.
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Feb 10, 2013 23:54
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revmoo posted:Go to a homebrew shop and get ten bucks worth of hops and grains of your choice and a muslin bag... As good as that sounds, I'm really looking for another extract recipe; I'd like to get another few batches under my belt before I jump into doing grains. Plus I've only got a 5 gallon pot, which is likely too small for grains.
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Feb 11, 2013 00:10
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