Portable Kegs

[DSB]

Hi,

Apologies if this has been suggested/ asked before.

Being a caravanner and new to brewing, it dawns on me that I might just like to take some home brew away on caravan holidays. Not being really keen on bottled beer - I find it just a little too 'gassy', and preferring the natural CO2 formed at the secondary fermentation to the 'artificial stuff' I have pumped in when I have had to, it dawns on me that the following might be a solution.

My idea would be to keg in the normal way for the secondary fermentation to do its work and drink the beer until the natural gas is spent. At this point I would normally need to add the CO2 and the beer would be clear. Would it be OK if I then syphoned this remaining beer into a smaller (say 2 gallon) keg and gased it up. Presumably it would travel OK in the back of the car, and could be used 'at leisure' during the holiday. I have the advantage of drinking most of the keg 'under the influence' of the natural CO2 and then being able to have a portable keg (clear beer without the risk of upsetting the sediment produced in the secondary fermentation stage) at the time when I need to add the gas anyway.

I've just thought of another advantage too. Having transferred the remaining beer into a smaller keg, this would free up one of my 5 gallon kegs so I would be ready to keg my next brew!!

Can anyone see a problem with this. I would appreciate any feedback.

[Parva]

Yep, big problem. The problem is that a full keg has very little headspace and all of the pressure created within that headspace is quickly lost when you dispense the beer. As a comparison, I can go from 30PSI in a full cornie keg to 0PSI within a pint or two. If the keg was only half full then I suspect that you could get 5-6 pints out of it before it went flat. Back to the drawing board.

[Bryggmester]

I can quite often get through half a barrel before any extra CO2 is needed so, yes, this could be done. However, unless the beer was going to be drunk in a short space of time after transferring the brew there would be a high risk of the beer going off through oxidation.

[DSB]

Hi Parva,

Thanks for your reply. Several questions/ comments.

The problem is that a full keg has very little headspace and all of the pressure created within that headspace is quickly lost when you dispense the beer. As a comparison, I can go from 30PSI in a full cornie keg to 0PSI within a pint or two.

Yes, this is the way I understand it to be. I am aware that once the natural pressure goes you have to keep adding the gas. I can get over half way through a 5 gallon keg before having to add CO2. From then on I have to add copious amounts of CO2 'on demand'. Once I have started to add CO2, I do so when the natural CO2 has finished. This is unavoidable, and will happen at some stage. My question really refers to the process after I have reached this stage. At this point I am adding gas in any case, so would it really make any difference if I re-kegged it at this point, therefore getting rid of the sediment and making it possible to move it without the stuff going cloudy?

If the keg was only half full then I suspect that you could get 5-6 pints out of it before it went flat.

I would be interested to know how you are defining 'flat'. Now I could be completely off course here, but am I right in thinking that at the point when the beer ceases to come out of the barrel, the beer is not 'flat' as such (i.e. there is still some CO2 left in the beer, but not enough to allow it to come out of the keg). If I re-kegged, would it destroy this remaining 'natural CO2' in the beer? Would I get a completely flat beer in the smaller keg, or would the gas I add to the keg through the C30 imput/valve at the top re-introduce CO2 into the beer, or would the added CO2 just 'help the beer out of the keg' .

I do understand that I would have to keep gassing up the small keg - in the same way as I would have to gas up the large keg if I left it put!

I don't know if I'm making any sort of sense here, but as ever would value expert advice. It may just be a case of try it and see.

[DSB]

Hi Bryggmester,

However, unless the beer was going to be drunk in a short space of time.......

I somehow think that this might not be such a problem but I am fully aware of the oxydisation risk. It will probably be a case of try it and see. (I can hear you say, that's probably what he was going to do anyway...)

Thank you for your response.

[Northern Brewer]

I suspect that you're looking at this from the wrong end completely...

IMHO caravanning is incompatible with stillage, so you big problem will be how to deal with the detritus at the bottom of the keg, particularly if natural conditioning. The only solution that I can see would be to rack the beer clear into a Corny keg, force carbonate it, then leave it to settle for a few weeks before performing a direct keg-to-keg transfer, which would leave all the gunk behind. The second keg could be recharged with CO2 to get you going, but you would still need to utilise a portable gas system that involves the smaller home-brew sized CO2 containers to draw most of the beer.

[thatscolder]

You could dispense the beer from your keg into a polypin to take away with you. Provided you leave the sediment behind it should travel ok, and I'm sure you will be drinking it quite quickly before it has a chance to go off.