How do you keep track of how much is left in your keg?

[dierythmus]

Is there a way to do this? I have one corny keg in my back fridge and it's always such a letdown when I reach the end. Is there a way to measure how much is left? Maybe keep it on a scale of some kind?

 

[yewtah-brewha]

reason 429 of why I hate kegs, I would get a marking system, when you pull one talley it up

 

[aeviaanah]

I estimate by weight and the movement of beer in the keg.

 

[goodgodilovebeer]

Just in case you're not familiar with metric; 1 litre = 1 kg

 

[RmikeVT]

I've seen on here someone use chips/pennies/whatever to count pints. Figure 5gal * 128 oz/gal = 640oz/16oz pint = 40 pints. So 40 pennies/counters in a bowl and every pint you drink you move one out to another bowl. You get the point.

I can generally put my hand on the side of the keg and tell where the liquid level is. It is a little more of an art than a science, but the volume of the keg with the liquid will cool your hand off much quicker than the volume without the liquid.

 

[Pratzie]

Pull the little handle. If it shoots out foam, its empty

Other then weight, u could try one of these. not sure how accurate they are though, but they aren't too expensive...
http://www.micromatic.com/draft-keg-beer/liquid-management-pid-SS100.html

 

[ArcaneXor]

It's easy to tell by the level of condensation on the keg. Doesn't work well as an indicator in a chest freezer, but works great in a fridge. Just leave the door open for a couple of minutes. In a chest freezer. just open the lid and look into it, then reseal, purge and pressurize.

 

[STEVESKI]

Pull the little handle. If it shoots out foam, its empty

Other then weight, u could try one of these. not sure how accurate they are though, but they aren't too expensive...
http://www.micromatic.com/draft-keg-beer/liquid-management-pid-SS100.html

That thing actually has pretty decent reviews. I think I'll pick one up. Thanks!

 

[RatchetBrews]

I soak a wash cloth in extremely hot water and rub it down the side of the keg. After 30 seconds or so, I can tell the level by the condensation on the side.

 

[RuffRider]

Pull the little handle. If it shoots out foam, its empty

Other then weight, u could try one of these. not sure how accurate they are though, but they aren't too expensive...
http://www.micromatic.com/draft-keg-beer/liquid-management-pid-SS100.html

I have a couple of those and they work pretty good. You just need to make sure the water you spray on there is fairly hot. Warm water is not good enough. Otherwise, the warm water will cool fast enough when it touches the cold keg/strip that you cannot get an accurate reading.

 

[STEVESKI]

I have a couple of those and they work pretty good. You just need to make sure the water you spray on there is fairly hot. Warm water is not good enough. Otherwise, the warm water will cool fast enough when it touches the cold keg/strip that you cannot get an accurate reading.

Can you just wipe it down with a hot, wet paper towel?

 

[WileECoyote]

Pull the little handle. If it shoots out foam, its empty


This ^ is what I do.


Other then weight, u could try one of these. not sure how accurate they are though, but they aren't too expensive...
http://www.micromatic.com/draft-keg-beer/liquid-management-pid-SS100.html

I have those and you have to squirt hot water on it every time to get a reading, more of a pain in the arss than they are worth, with 4 kegs in my kegerator I have to remove the 2 kegs in front to even see the 2 kegs in the back.

Cheers

 

[DrunkleJon]

Pull the little handle. If it shoots out foam, its empty

Other then weight, u could try one of these. not sure how accurate they are though, but they aren't too expensive...
http://www.micromatic.com/draft-keg-beer/liquid-management-pid-SS100.html

I too enjoy a game of Tap Roulette. And have a house rule. Whomever gets the foam, has to help change out the keg if I have a spare waiting.

 

[dryboroughbrewing]

I've been thinking about using load cells and an arduino, but it's sitting on my project backlog... my long long project backlog.

 

[RuffRider]

Can you just wipe it down with a hot, wet paper towel?

I tried that and it didn't work for me...not enough hot water to warm the strip enough. The paper towel cools quickly believe it or not. A sprayer with hot water worked the best. However, I would tend to side with those that say that it's more of a pain in the butt than it's worth. Now that I think on it, I haven't used those strips in a very long time. I just gently lift the keg and see how heavy it feels. You know, calibrated arms!

 

[Desvio]

Been a while since I was kegging, but my solution to "how much is left" was to ALWAYS have a backup keg ready.

You'll know when she blows!




^where my signature came from.

 

[Clonefan94]

That thing actually has pretty decent reviews. I think I'll pick one up. Thanks!

Those are what I use and they work really well for telling you beer level. You just have to make sure the water is really hot when you spray it on.

I've actually switched to just filling up a cup with really hot water, then I dip a paper towel in that and wipe it on the strip and that clears it all to white, then the beer level appears.

 

[BansheeRider]

That thing actually has pretty decent reviews. I think I'll pick one up. Thanks!

I have one on both of my kegs and they work great.

 

[MuddyCreek]

Easy poor-man's system. Get an analog bathroom scale (with the knob for calibrating weight) put the empty keg on it. Calibrate it to zero pounds.

There ya go.

 

[daveooph131]

Check this digital inline gage out.

http://www.keg-meter.com/

Anyone use this before? My only concern would be the possibility of excess foam from the T in the line is that valid?

 

[jbaysurfer]

reason 429 of why I hate kegs, I would get a marking system, when you pull one talley it up

LOL...I didn't realize there was now a movement to "hate" something as useful as a keg. LMAO...Edit: maybe not movement, but I guess I find anti-keg vitriol amusing ;-)

If you can reach the keg, tap it with your fingernail from the top toward the bottom. Tap tap tap. When the tone changes, that's your beer level. If you can't reach the keg, then you'll have to ballpark it. If you can see it, leave the fridge door open for a few minutes. A condensation line will form on the keg where the beer level is.

Somebody DID do a trick setup with a scale, but he was way more electronically inclined then me. I googled it, but didn't find it right away...

 

[glockspeed31]

I manage a 27 tap growler bar and have to weigh the kegs that are showing in the computer as being on the short side. I pull the keg and weigh it on a shipping scale. Calculate the difference from what an empty keg weighs to what I have on the scale, and it gives me a pretty close number to work with.

 

[RmikeVT]

Agree with the person that sound keep one ready to go. As soon as it blows swamp it out.

 

[sputnam]

not quite ready to spend $130 per tap just yet, so I came up with a rough guesstimate way to track my beer. (I have 6 to monitor so paper towels, hot water and scales are not good options for me). I use a fridge with freezer on top as kegerator. The freezer door doubles as dry erase board. I do 3 gallon kegs. thats 32 12 oz pours. I put 32 tic marks, dots, whatever under beer name. whenever i drink 12 oz's, i remove a tic mark. Not deadly accurate but it works for me.