New to kegerators and cornies - a little advice required

SamT · Post by **SamT** » Thu Nov 27, 2014 12:31 am

Right - warning, long post with a shit-tonne of questions

Sick of bottling,so I'm getting into cornies

Got 4 cornies, and picked up a reg, two sets of disconnects, 4 JG fittings for 3/8 beer line, a party tap with a metre of 3/8 line, and a couple of metres of 3/8 beer line (all from maltmiller)

The intent is to end up with either a 2 keg larder fridge, or a 3 keg mid-sized fridge as a kegerator (looking at a chest freezer as well, but it depends on what comes up secondhand at the right price)

Basics

I assume I need to strip these kegs and clean them out - I was going to scrub them with barkeepers friend, strip them down, oxiclean them, reassemble, relube and then starsan them prior to use. Right thing to do?

I've heard both 7/8 and 11/16 as sized for post spanners - for ball lock kegs which one is it? how deep does it need to be? does anyone have a good source for them?

Filling cornies

Ok, pre-kegerator, I'd like to get these cornies in use before Christmas.

Once they're sanitised, how do I fill them?

I assume it's a case of pop the lid, purge with CO2, and fill from primary?

Then I fit the lid, connect the gas post to the gas and pressurise, to seal the lid?

The beer will be cold as I tend to chill to drop out yeast etc at the end of fermentation, as it's cold, I'm intending to force carb, as it seems simpler than priming with sugar. How does this work?

Initially the kegs will be in the cellar - the temperature is pretty consistent, and cool (around 14C)

Say for example, I've made an APA, that I want to serve at 2.2 vols at say 14C. I assume I apply 13PSI and leave it for a week (or go for the quick carbonation method of gassing to 20PSI shaking it up, settling for 24hrs and degassing to serving pressure, and serving)

My concern is I only have a metre of 3/8 line to my party tap, and I want 1-2PSI at the tap - how do I manage a beer a 2.2 volumes getting to 1-2PSI before the tap? what pressure should the keg beer

Lastly

Best source of taps for a kegerator? anything near perlick quality for less money? do I need tap flow control?

If I were to use a font from the top of a larder size fridge, what's good?

Cheers in advance!

AnthonyUK · Post by **AnthonyUK** » Thu Nov 27, 2014 9:22 am

I'll make a start

All the cornies I've bought have been refurbed so I have only ever put Starsan through them. I'll probably strip one down soon and see if they need a deep clean but I haven't had any issues with off flavours or contamination so I assume they are OK. I would say the MM ones are good to go and don't need stripping.

I have never primed a corney which is part of the attraction.
There are pressure/temp charts available to help work out your carbonation. I would say though that 2.2vols at 14°c with a party tap is a bit optimistic. You are likely to get a lot of wastage through foaming.
You can use most pub taps such as Dalex, etc which you can pick up on ebay or even a beer engine if you use a cask breather of something similar. Celli are pretty good too.
I have perlicks (650ss) and whilst on the expensive side are really good. The flow control is great on short lengths of tube. The QC on the Chinese copies means it will be a bit of pot luck whether they drip or not.

SamT · Post by **SamT** » Thu Nov 27, 2014 9:34 am

Cheers - yeah, these cornies still have stale cola sloshing in the bottom of a couple so they'll need a thorough clean prior to use (I went through a spate of infected batches so I sent to be a bit of a clean freak)

I assume inserting a length of 3/16 prior to the party tap won't work to balance the pressure, as when the beer steps back up to the 3/8s on the party tap it'll foam like mad

IPA · Post by **IPA** » Thu Nov 27, 2014 11:43 am

The QC on the Chinese copies means it will be a bit of pot luck whether they drip or not.

and where are Perlicks made? I have got all Chinese and have never had a problem. The only thing I don't like is the fact they do not have a removable plastic spout. In my opinion the best taps are ZERFASS SK 196-002. Not only do they have a flow control and a removable plastic spout they have a push action foaming to put a head on the beer if you like it served that way. The only drawback is they are not available with long shanks which you need for a keezer. You can find them here
http://www.candirect.de/Kompensatorscha ... 35-mm-lang

byronb · Post by **byronb** » Thu Nov 27, 2014 11:46 am

No problem running 3/16" then stepping up to 3/8". I did that with ~3m 3/16" from keg to maxi chiller, then around both 3/8" coils and out into a short length of 3/8" tubing before the party tap. With the keg at 30psi the party tap did tend to leak and after closing I needed to rotate the part you push down on until it stopped. I've just replaced the party tap with Alumsac taps which have a 3/16" John Guest connection.

roscoe · Post by **roscoe** » Thu Nov 27, 2014 3:59 pm

Norm of cornie fame does the Perlick 650 SS with compensator inc long shank for around same price.
Its stainless steel rather than chrome, nice very nice

IPA wrote:
The QC on the Chinese copies means it will be a bit of pot luck whether they drip or not.
and where are Perlicks made? I have got all Chinese and have never had a problem. The only thing I don't like is the fact they do not have a removable plastic spout. In my opinion the best taps are ZERFASS SK 196-002. Not only do they have a flow control and a removable plastic spout they have a push action foaming to put a head on the beer if you like it served that way. The only drawback is they are not available with long shanks which you need for a keezer. You can find them here
http://www.candirect.de/Kompensatorscha ... 35-mm-lang

AnthonyUK · Post by **AnthonyUK** » Thu Nov 27, 2014 4:07 pm

roscoe wrote:Norm of cornie fame does the Perlick 650 SS with compensator inc long shank for around same price.
Its stainless steel rather than chrome, nice very nice

I bought mine from him. Highly recommended

The Perlicks may be made in China but Perlick QC appears to be good.
Most people will agree that they are quality items.

D4nny74 · Post by **D4nny74** » Sat Dec 06, 2014 11:38 am

Hi All

Anyone got a link to norms products , cant seem to find him

IPA · Post by **IPA** » Sat Dec 06, 2014 12:38 pm

D4nny74 wrote:Hi All

Anyone got a link to norms products , cant seem to find him

Here he is.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/normannumpa/m ... 7675.l2562

D4nny74 · Post by **D4nny74** » Sat Dec 06, 2014 1:24 pm

cheers

Wonkydonkey · Post by **Wonkydonkey** » Sun Dec 07, 2014 3:57 pm

SamT wrote:Cheers - yeah, these cornies still have stale cola sloshing in the bottom of a couple so they'll need a thorough clean prior to use (I went through a spate of infected batches so I sent to be a bit of a clean freak)

I assume inserting a length of 3/16 prior to the party tap won't work to balance the pressure, as when the beer steps back up to the 3/8s on the party tap it'll foam like mad

Hi, I'd just go for a full clean/strip down, to be safe.
Cos if they still have cola sloshing around, you will need at least a new lid seal, the seals have a habbit of picking up the flavour, and then leaving a little taste in your beer. Even if you bung the old oring in a pressure cooker, cook it for 30mins. It still will smell of soda, it did to me.

I have brought big bags of orings (100s) for all my cornies but I'm still waiting for some to arrive (China slow post) , i'm changing them over the next few months, I have had them for 5yrs. They got a full strip down when I got them but no orings changed except the lid oring. I think it's time to do it again, but others probably don't think they need it. I'm just being safe. I will also have some spare orings. So I may sell a few on here, ( I should have orings for lids, Posts, Dip-tubes & poppets)
Also some peeps take out the liquid dip tube and cut about 12mm off the end so it does not suck up yeast/crap from the bottom.

As for filling there two ways take out the lid, fill it by pouring/siphoning, or if you have a spare black liquid out, you can fill cornie with co2/flush out the O2, and then use the black disconnect to fill it from fv whilst you release the prv so the co2 can escape if you doit this way, your beer has less contact with O2
I always take the beer from the FV, put it in a pressure barrel for a wk then into the cornie, this way the yeast has chance to settle out and do any other job it should have done (buttery taste thingy). I can't crash cool the yeast out,

Lots of info out there about psi and line length, also bore size matters. I just use a flow control cos the line I use is about a 12" in length, it works for me.
I don't have room for a keezer, so I made a box with 25mm celotex so I could put a cornie inside, my temp is controlled by a 12vdc heating/cooling thing from ebay (about £2.50) and I got a electric cool box cheap off ebay, the cool box with fans in the lid, has the option of 240vac to be plugged straight in.. I cut a hole in the back of the box I made and screwed the lid of the cool box on to it. Now my beer is what ever temp I want it at, although it will not cool it down to 20c below a ambiant temp like it said on the box, it cools to around 11c which is more than enough for beer.

I have go out now, so I may write some more latter.

SamT · Post by **SamT** » Tue Dec 09, 2014 2:15 pm

Cheers wonky!

I ended up oxicleaning the keg, which kinda worked and a mates suggestion of soda crystals did the rest, didn't really have any residual cloa smell that I could detect.

I flushed the keg with CO2, then siphoned in straight off primary (which was at around 4C to crash chill the yeast out), then applied 20PSI of pressure, shook it up a bit and degassed to 13PSI

The cellar is at 12C-ish, so I think I need a bit more like 16-17PSI to get it up to 2.2 vols for a US IPA. Issue I'm then going to have is that I've only currently got a party tap on a 3ft of 3/8 to serve from :-/I think I need more like 7-8ft of 3/16ths

(the fridge for the kegerator is being picked up over the next couple of days - anyone got any experience of a beko LK5095W conversion? with an external gas bottle?)

SamT · Post by **SamT** » Tue Dec 09, 2014 2:36 pm

Also, shout when you want to flog some of those orange o rings - it's be god to have some spares kicking about and do a slow swap over

Wonkydonkey · Post by **Wonkydonkey** » Wed Dec 10, 2014 11:20 pm

SamT wrote:Also, shout when you want to flog some of those orange o rings - it's be god to have some spares kicking about and do a slow swap over

Yeh, ok, when the last of them arrive, I'll let you know.

SamT · Post by **SamT** » Thu Dec 18, 2014 4:49 pm

Cheers

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