Homebrewing

[James]

Hello all! Just have a few questions, but first my situation.

Started brewing with my dad when I was 13 or so and we brewed quite a bit and have a nice recipe book I'm about to crack open. Haven't brewed anything for about 5 years so it's time. Just about to buy a new house and turn the 24' x 26' shop into our bar/lounge. In this lounge I am going to put in two half barrel kegerators which i should be able to put at least three five gallon kegs in. My question/s is this, what do i need to know about bottling into a keg instead of bottles? Hoping to have thirty gallons brewed and ready to be tapped by spring. I use glass carboys for my fermentation and only have one but will be getting at least two more. Also planning to go with a 75/25 mix of carbon dioxide and nitrogen for the creamier texture. Anyone know how long beer lasts once bottled in a keg? Should I only have enough to store in the kegerators or will it store well in the basement?

Any help is much appreciated!

 

[smokinghole]

Putting beer in a keg is like bottling only much quicker. You just need to make sure the dip tubes are clean and sanitized before filling. The cool thing is you can purge the keg with your gas mix first and then transfer minimizing oxygen exposure. As to the question about how long a beer lasts, that depends on the beer. You could make a 12% barley wine and it'd be fine in the keg for years. Or you could make a low abv, like 4%, hoppy wheat beer and that would lose its edge rather quickly.

 

[James]

Thank you, I'm going to have to do some research just thought this a good place to start. I like to use champagne yeast for my ales and stouts and run them up to about 15%. :bigeyes:

 

[AussieMitch]

Woah, that's some big beers!