Hi all, hoping for some info on the following on my NooB questions I’m thinking about buying a mini 128 oz mini keg. The beer I brew, I would like to serve it still. How do I go about kegging it? I’m assuming I just don’t add any priming sugar, but with the keg you have to use CO2 to push out the beer, would this carbonate my beer ( which I don’t want to be carbonated) even tho it has no priming sugar? Cheers
Use nitrogen, it dissolves in water at a rate on only 1% compared to CO2. Check out your local welding supply houses, generally available at a low price.
I believe nitrogen is what they use to serve wine, cold brew coffee, and cocktails on tap. If you can manage, that would probably be the best route. Otherwise, you could achieve a very low level of carbonation by using co2 but keeping the serving pressure low. You may have trouble getting the lid to seat properly if you go too low, though. For that small an amount of beer, though, why bother kegging it? You could use large format bottles (22oz) or even growlers if you plan to consume it quickly. I mean, 128 oz is only two standard size growlers or four 32 oz growlers. Biggest risk with growlers is that the caps aren’t airtight, so your beer goes flat (which wouldn’t matter here) and oxygen gets in. Maybe I’m taking a leap here, but if you’re serving this beer still, maybe it’s “big” and the oxidation/aging might be okay or even desired?
You hit the nail on the head bud, it is a big beer, so I am looking for the aging oxidation a bit, I figured it would do that anyways in the mini keg since I would turn the co2 off during session. And I wanna keg it mostly cuz it looks cool and it’s a neat little contraption to have and pour beer out of, but other than that it’s not totally necessary to me.
As stated, go with nitrogen. You will need the N regulator (it's a male thread into the tank) the bottles are bit more expensive than CO2, and a tank of N has a lot less gas than CO2 but it is easily the best solution. You can also get a regulator adapter, but I really advise against using a CO2 regulator for Nitrogen. Get a dedicated N regulator. Since nobody asked Why do you want to serve still beer? Cheers
Thanks bud I think I’ll go that route, and just to do something different. Maybe I’m in the minority but I love how beer tastes after it’s flat. I usually leave big barrel aged beers in the fridge for a few days and drink em throughout a week and the taste is very different but I like it. I feel like my stout would benefit from being served still.
Hey, to each his own. The only thing I’d say is to check on keg prices before you pull the trigger. I don’t know what price you’re expecting to pay for a 128oz keg, but in my experience, smaller kegs tend to be even more expensive than the standard 5 gallon ones. Unless you have a compelling reason to get a small one, I’d go with a standard size keg.
