Newb advice

[Pococurante]

Howdy all - I'm gearing up for home brew (my wife is already cursing Papazian) and am looking at kits.

Here's the problem - I'm not at all handy and it's a common joke around my house I once cut myself cleaning the toaster. So I need a decent kit to last me for a few years. I'm interested only in kegging. I see what folks here have done with coolers, old kegs, and scrapped 18 wheelers - makes me feel kind of intimidated.

I was looking at this kit by MoreBeer, it's a combo of their brew and keg packages:

<a href="http://morebeer.com/view_product/15915/102142/Personal_Home_Brewery_%235_-_Kegging_Super_Deluxe" target="_blank">http://morebeer.com/view_product/15915/102142/Personal_Home_Brewery_#5_-_Kegging_Super_Deluxe
</a>
Thoughts?

It's pricey enough that I'm concerned it may include things I don't need or would do better to upgrade. For example the carboy is plastic and I keep reading that glass is the way to go.

I'm also looking at kegerators but it is not clear to me that they use the "standard" Cornelius kegs. And they are even more pricey but then being as mechanically inclined as a bag of hair I expect I'll have to bite that bullet and save up my lunch money. I was looking here to educate myself:

http://www.kegerators.com/kegerators.php

Anyway appreciate all the help I can get. My goal is to eventually get up to very potent Belgian Trippels for me and Belgian wheats (like "Blue Moon") for the missus. This is definitely a long term commitment on my part.

 

[vcasey]

Hi Pococurante welcome to the forum.
I know very little about beer except my hubby and son like to make it and I'll drink some now and then, its not wine but it'll do in a pinch. So if I had any questions regarding beer I would call Fine Vine Wines and talk the the beer guy (Brian B) and he'll help you with kits, kegs, and kegerators.

 

[Tom]

Persdonally I would NOT buy that.
I suggest you get a starter kit and BOTTLE a few batches. Thats alot of $$ to invest in something you may not want to continue.
If after you get the "process" down you can ck out Ebay and other online places where you get what you need.
I started with kits and bottling for years till I made the jump to all grain and kegging.
Have you thought what you need to DISPENSE the beer from the keg? That can be very $$

 

[Pococurante]

Thx vc and tepe.

I didn't realize that kit did not include taps - good catch. I was already looking at kegerators and even a cheap one basically doubles my investment. Bottling strikes me as a lot more work and takes up more room.

There's no doubt I'm going to stick with this as a hobby. I've been planning this for years and talking with folks who home raise beer &amp; wine. I was just waiting until I finally had extra room around the house for it where I could control conditions. I live in Texas so garage brewing isn't really doable most of the year.

 

[gaudet]

I took up home brewing a few months back. I bottled my first three batches and decided that I wanted to do this more long term. I watched craigslist and found a kegerator with 20# CO2 tank, empty keg (15.5 gallon), and tap for $350. I bought my first corny and talked with a friend that was also interested in home brewing. He had a friend that got us some more cornys for free. I have 6 of em now... Don't think I'll need any more than that, but you never know. I'm looking into all grain brewing next. It looks a little intimidating, but I'm pretty sure I can handle it. Just pay attention to craigslist in your area and you can find some great deals on equipment.

Welcome aboard and enjoy the hobby......

 

[Pococurante]

Thx goudet - yeah my neighbor is a cragislist fanatic. I'll see if I can talk her into helping me out. Do I need to powerwash the cornys or is a vigourous brushing good enough? Don't want to damage them.

 

[smurfe]

I also recommend Craigslist. Do not buy a "New" keggerator. They are pretty pricey and you find used one all the time. I would say obtain a used fridge and make your own but if you cut yourself cleaning a toaster.....................

 

[smurfe]

I also forgot to add, you can convert those keggerators to acceapt corny kegs. You have to change the tap connectors. It is basically you cut the lines or remove the clamp that holds the line on the Sanke connector and then place a Corny connector on each line. One gas in, one liquid out. It is a very very very simple job but if you cut yourself cleaning a toaster...............

 

[gaudet]

C'mon Smurfe, he can do it.............. I know he can......

As for the cornys you can soak em in pbw, oxy clean, or sun cleaner overnight. Just mix up a batch (5 gallons worth) and put it in the corny. Pressure it up if you have a co2 tank and shake it around. Get some in the liquid side riser tube. Let it sit and then drain and rinse well the next day. It should clean the inside with no scrubbing required. Always visually inspect it to make sure. You can clean it with a carboy brush on the insides if need be. Rinse rinse rinse. You can then put the lid on it and pressure it up to seal it. Store it like that until you are ready to sanitize and keg.

 

[smurfe]

Oh yeah, forgot to add about cleaning. Kegs are easy to clean. Like Gaudet says, use some Oxy Clean or equivalent. What I do is put in the amount of powder to make 3 gallons worth of cleaner. Then add 3 gallons of warm to hot water. I put the lid on the keg and give it a quick shot of CO2 to seal the lid. I let it set for a while. I then flip the keg over and let the liquid clean the other half of the keg. After that is done I hook the gas back up to it, add a connector to the liquid out side and hit it with about 5 psi CO2 and let the cleaner flow out to clean the inside of the dip tube. The Oxy CLean will clean anything. If for some reason you have a krausen ring that the Oxy-clean don't get, get a new toilet brush and use it to scrub the inside of the keg. Works great. I do the same process to sanitize the keg. Just fill it half up with sanitizer. Let sit, flip the keg, let sit, run some through the out port to sanitize the tube. Soak the lid in a bowl of sanitizer while the keg is filling. Way easy process.

 

[Tom]

gaudet




Is your new avitar really U ??

 

[gaudet]

What I do for sanitizing is to mix about 3 gallons or half the corny full of sanitizer. Pressure it up and charge the dip tube with my party tap. I used the party tap prior with the cleaner as well to get cleaning solution up the riser tube. to get the top of the corny I take a 3 gallon bucket, depressurize the corny. Remove the lid and o-ring and place in a deep enough container to pour some sanitizer over them. I take the 3 gallon bucket and invert it over the top of the corny then invert the whole thing to put the bucket on the ground and let it sit for 3-5 minutes to sanitize the top and the liquid and gas posts. Probably not a necessary step, but its easy enough to do

 

[Pococurante]

Great advice - thx folks!

Ouch I think I just stubbed my thumb hitting the space bar... ;-)