What else would I need to start kegging?

[dave8274]

I bought a whole bunch of AG equipment from an ad last night. Included in the gear was a keg and a CO2 tank. Here is a pic of what I got, all tubes/hoses shown:

Do I have basically everything I need to start kegging other than a fridge, or is there some more gear I need to purchase?

Thanks!

 

[freisste]

Depends what you want to do. You have a gas tank, a regulator, a line from the gas to the beer, and a line from the beer to the tap. So you have a barebones setup. You could put the keg in some ice to cool and serve as it is now. If you wanted to get complicated, you could put the whole thing in a temp controlled freezer with more kegs and multiple taps, but obviously that would require more stuff.

If you tell us what you want to do, we can tell you what else you need.

 

[kh54s10]

You just need to clean the keg, make sure you have co2 gas, siphon beer into the keg then determine how to get to the proper carbonation level. You can burst carb, lower the pressure and serve, set to serving pressure and wait... I am new to kegging and have not figured out carb timing yet.

Siphon the beer into the sanitized keg and carb it and you are good to go. It appears you have all the equipment.

Next you will have to decide if you want more kegs and how you want to connect them. Also how you want to dispense them. You may want to make a dual regulator if you want kegs at different pressures.

 

[dave8274]

Depends what you want to do. You have a gas tank, a regulator, a line from the gas to the beer, and a line from the beer to the tap. So you have a barebones setup. You could put the keg in some ice to cool and serve as it is now. If you wanted to get complicated, you could put the whole thing in a temp controlled freezer with more kegs and multiple taps, but obviously that would require more stuff.

If you tell us what you want to do, we can tell you what else you need.

I really wasn't planning on doing anything just yet, but the equipment fell into my lap. I guess in the short term, I would probably get a cheap fridge for the garage where I could up the CO2 tank and 2-3 kegs with picnic taps, and then look into a kegerator later.

With what I have, could I add another keg or 2, or would I need more equipment for that?

 

[freisste]

I really wasn't planning on doing anything just yet, but the equipment fell into my lap. I guess in the short term, I would probably get a cheap fridge for the garage where I could up the CO2 tank and 2-3 kegs with picnic taps, and then look into a kegerator later.

With what I have, could I add another keg or 2, or would I need more equipment for that?

More hoses (practically free), fittings (~$25), more kegs (~$50/ea). Kinda depends on exactly what you want. If you are going to do a fridge, you might invest in better taps. What you have will work, but it isn't particularly stylish, if that's your thing.

 

[gibsonmi]

With what you have you can really only do one at a time. You would need another set of hoses, picnic tap (if you are sticking with that dispensing method) gas and liquid post for each additional keg and a gas manifold for the size of the setup. You would run a line from the regulator to manifold to split the lines, one hose to each gas post, keg, liquid post, beer line, picnic tap in that order. This would only allow one serving pressure and carbonation level, to do more than one you would need secondary regulators or a larger primary regulator which can get very expensive

 

[dave8274]

More hoses (practically free), fittings (~$25), more kegs (~$50/ea). Kinda depends on exactly what you want. If you are going to do a fridge, you might invest in better taps. What you have will work, but it isn't particularly stylish, if that's your thing.

Stylish is nice, but I don't want to invest $500-$1000 right now in it. Eventually yes, but right now I'm thinking just the basics to keg and serve 2-3 beers.

 

[freisste]

Stylish is nice, but I don't want to invest $500-$1000 right now in it. Eventually yes, but right now I'm thinking just the basics to keg and serve 2-3 beers.

In that case, I would go with a Craigslist fridge (~$50) and everything that gibsonmi mentioned. You should be able to get a diagram of the inside of the door or sidewall of the fridge you buy so you can determine where to drill to have your lines come out without hitting any internals.

You are probably looking at at least $100-150 plus fridge and kegs ($50/ea used at LHBS, maybe cheaper if you can find locals selling - good luck with that). Stuff adds up quickly.

 

[Brewergal98203]

Looks like you have everything we had when we started kegging. Keep your eye out on Craigslist and brewing supply websites. They have deals on used corny kegs often and you can build on your system without spending an arm and a leg.