Keg Filling Best Practice

[Woolsocks]

In big breweries, they fill kegs in about 60 sec. immediately after cleaning them, while they're still upside-down. Fill happens through the "gas" inlet, not through the spear.

We've been casually playing around with this at our brewpub — filling them upside-down through the gas side, to see if we can speed up flow rate and/or reduce foaming.

Before I spend lots of time figuring out if it's worth the hassle of filling kegs upside-down, has anyone here done that leg work and are you willing to share the results?

[brewingnewbie]

whats the advantage?

[Woolsocks]

I'm not sure there is one, but it seems like filling from the bottom would result in less foam and/or quicker fills. If you fill from the top, beer falls through the spear and slams into the bottom (at least at first).

[Moonlight]

Speed of filling relates to pressure in the beer supply and back pressure in the keg. Bump them up and it doesn't matter one whit if it is upsidedown or other. If they are cleaned upsidedown, it is a snap to fill them the same way for time efficiency.

[TL Services]

All the information posted so far is true:

1) Cleaning upside-down helps drain the keg fully;
2) Filling upside-down saves time (= money!) turning the keg;
3) Filling upside-down can improve fill speed/fobbing.

Something to be aware of when trying to improve fill speeds, etc. is that you need to ensure you still maintain a 'black' fill (ie. that the keg fills quietly with as little fobbing/swirling as possible).

Some years ago at a brewery I worked for, the keg guys decided to improve their line efficiencies by speeding-up fill rates. Not too long after that a major customer began raising complaints about dispense problems - fobbing & wastage.

The kegs were analysed for N2 & pressure immediately after fill, the results were fine. However in trade the same results were both sky-high...hence the dispense issues!

Eventually the cause was traced to the 'improvement' in filling, where the incoming beer was entering the keg so fast it was entraining the N2 inside the keg.

This was causing minute microbubbles of N2 - invisible to the eye and very stable - that were only dissolving in the 48hrs after fill. Because they were so stable, they didn't affect the analysis that was done 'at fill', only afterwards.

We eventually filmed the process using a keg with a glass window in the side - the results were startling! The kegs were filled upside-down and the beer was coming in through the gas ports so hard it looked like a fountain...

So by all means work to fill kegs faster, just don't overdo it