Kegging set up for festivals

[AndrewF]

Currently I just bottle from a 15 BBL brite.

I have some festivals coming up and want to set up to clean and fill a couple of 1/2 bbl kegs every 3 or 4 weeks.

Is there a simple kegging set up that will not require a big investment of equipment - time is not a huge issue?

Will the coupler filler head sold on GW Kent clean the keg or do I need a spear removal tool?

As always I am torn by all the new stainless steel equipment versus being practical and buying only what is needed.

[Yellowbeard]

You can fill a few kegs pretty cheaply

I'm sure others will have better ideas, and I've never used the GW Kent fobbed filler heads. But at least I can tell you something that works - and you might not need much at all in the way of special parts because you *can* use a standard Sanke coupler.

First, remove the anti-backflow/check-valve devices from the beer & CO2 connections on a normal sanke coupler. The CO2 side is often integrated to also act as a washer and if so just replace it with a standard beer washer. The beer side will probably be a ball and retainer that you can simply remove. Now you can flow in either direction from both sides of the coupler.

- Pump or siphon a couple gallons of cleaner into the keg through the liquid port... allowing the displaced air to breathe out of the gas port.

- Remove the coupler and shake the keg to clean it.

- Use air or CO2 to pump out the cleaner as if you were dispensing beer.

- Repeat with water to rinse (optional but recommended)

- Repeat with sanitizer

- Repeat with water unless you used a no-rinse sanitizer

- Purge the keg with CO2. If you're dead set on a perfect purge you can simply fill it with water and then push it all out with CO2.

- Pressurize with CO2 up to your BBT pressure.

- Run a line from your BBT to the coupler beer "out" port... but it won't actually flow much due to the counter-pressure CO2 charge in the keg.

- Attach a small bleeder valve (ideally a needle valve, or tiny ball valve in a pinch) to the coupler's CO2 port and slowly bleed off the keg's head pressure. I keep a needle valve on a 6-inch long piece of CO2 hose and use a beer tailpiece/wingnut to attach it.

- Bleed slowly enough and the beer will fill with minimal foaming. It depends on how cold and how carbonated your beer is but I'd try to take at least 5 minutes to fill the keg.

- When beer foam comes out the bleeder you're probably done but you can weigh the keg to make sure you didn't get an excessively foamy fill.

[foestauf]

There are some cheap DIY keg washer builds floating around on the forums here. Some PVC pipe, valves, CO2 connection, filtered water connection, standard sanke connector with check valves removed, and a pump from harbor freight and you'll be in business.
The GW Kent keg filler with FOB works great, the FOB actually works as intended by stopping the flow of beer once it fills up.

[admin]

DIY Keg washer

DIY plans here

http://www.probrewer.com/library/keg-washers

[jebzter]

#1: always rinse after the cleaner is pushed out, it can react with the sani, and probably contains things that you wouldnt want in the beer.
#2: always use a no rinse sanitizer, if you rinse after sanitizing you have just recontaminated your keg.

Your best bet is to find a brewery near you that you trust, and have them wash a few kegs a month for you. Most will be happy to do it, around here, the going rate is $5/keg to wash for someone.

[AndrewF]

Thank you for the advice - this is just what I needed.

[AndrewF]

Would the GW Kent Proline with FOB work for both cleaning and filling?

[Noble31]

Foxx equipment has one that we use for cleaning and filling kegs. Just a Stainless sanke coupler with the guts removed and 2 ball valves. 99 bucks works great for both just have to babysit it when filling.

Chris