So I have wanted to start kegging my beer for sometime now and have made a promise to myself that I am going to build a keezer this summer. That being said, after looking over a lot of online material I still have some questions. I watched a pretty informative video on NorthernBrewer.com in which they build a keezer, this is pretty much what I intend on building. I also read a pretty good guide to kegging homebrew on MoreBeer.com. I am still unsure of a few things.. How often should the lines be cleaned and what is the procedure for that? How can beer be filtered using a keg system? And does anyone have access to a very detailed and comprehensive guide to everything about kegging and building a kegerator? I pretty much know how to build a kegerator I just am unsure about some of the conceptual aspects of actually kegging the beer. Thanks people! Cheers.
Can't speak to building a keezer as I bought mine. Regarding cleaning the lines, I do this everytime a keg kicks and use BLC solution. This averages about once every 2-3 months in my case. You can run it through an empty keg and out the beer line. However, I just use an empty 2L plastic soda bottle fitted with a carbonator cap (just make sure if you go this route you use the gas disconnect and not the liquid disconnect). I don't filter my beer and as far as I know very few people do in the homebrew world. There is really no need. If you use Irish moss (or equivalent) and cold crash your paler colored beers you should have very clear beer without the need to filter. Some here use gelatin to even further clarify their beers but I have not found the need to do that yet. In any case, I could care less if my IPA is clear as somewhat hazy. I value aroma, flavor, and taste way more.
I follow the same approach - my kegs last about the same amount of time and I rinse the kicked keg out, get it fairly clean, get some BLC in it and run that through the beer lines a few times (I hook up the keg to my air compressor for this, so I don't worry about wasting CO2 and can run BLC and then rinse water through it as much as I want/need.) I also give the inside of the faucets a good brushing at this point. Then I really get into cleaning the keg using some BLC and brushes (I'll take apart and clean the poppets if there was a lot of hop material in the keg). Once the keg is clean I'll throw some Star San in there, push most of it out using CO2 and then pressurize the keg with CO2 for storage so it's ready to for the next batch. One recommendation I'd make is to not do the shake and roll method of force carbing the first time out. I did and getting the right initial keg pressure was elusive and I was a bit tricky while also trying dial in the right serving pressure. I've since just let the cold beer sit at 25-30 PSI for one night and then dial it back to serving pressure. That seems to take some of the waiting out of the game for me but still yields the desired carbonation levels. None of this is likely perfect or efficient, but it works for me.
As for 'building' a keezer, my building process was to buy a Johnson Controls analog thermostat and picnic taps. I recommend that you start with that and get the kegging/dispensing part in order before cutting and building. There is a pdf. that I have seen, probably availalbe on one of the vendor websites, that explains the different parts of the keg. I don't have a link but I found it helpful when I started kegging.
There is a good artilce entitled "A bottlers guide to kegging" that you can download from here: http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/pages/zymurgy/free-downloads Cheers!
