Beginner’s Guide to Kegging Homebrew

Hey everyone, Joe here.

For the first post of the home brew series I thought I would start out with a relatively new task for me: putting my newly finished beer into kegs instead of bottles. Though it may not be the most difficult task you can face in your homebrew experience, I decided to write this post as kegging beer can be intimidating for a new homebrewer since there is a lot of new equipment and a little know-how required to start. But before we get into that, let me discuss why I decided to start kegging my beer.

Reason #1: It’s pretty awesome to walk up to your homemade kegerator (stay tuned for a future post) and pull a pint of beer that you brewed.

Reason #2: I started running out of fridge space for the bottles I was producing.

Reason #3: Force carbonating is faster than bottle conditioning (although it can be argued that bottle conditioned is better for some styles).

As you can see, the main reason I started kegging beer was out of convenience (other than the cool factor of having draft beer at home) and with my preferences out of the way we can jump into the required equipment.

Required Equipment:

• Kegs – standard homebrew kegs are cornelius (AKA corny) or old soda kegs, either ball or pin lock style (The picture above is a standard ball lock corny keg)
• Some freshly fermented homebrew of your choice
• Racking cane/auto-siphon
• CO₂ tank and pressure regulator
• Gas lines – usually 5/16″ inner diameter (ID) vinyl tubing
• Liquid lines – usually 3/16″ ID food grade vinyl tubing
• Either draft system taps (tower or shanks) or picnic tap

With some searching, most of these items can be purchased used from Craigslist or Facebook marketplace for much cheaper than new. However, you will likely want to purchase new liquid lines from your local homebrew shop as these can become “flavor stained” and degrade with time.

Step 1: Prepare your beer for transfer

Try to move your beer to where the transfer will take place about 24 hours prior to racking your beer (I do this for bottling too). This lets the sediment settle back to the bottom of the fermenter after you shake it up when carrying it between locations.

Step 2: Clean, clean, clean

Make sure all of your equipment is beer clean and sanitized before transferring your beer to the keg. Old soda kegs or used homebrew kegs can sometimes be filled with some funk (as I found out the hard way when testing the fit of my shiny new liquid side components). When sanitizing, be sure to hit all components that will touch beer.

Step 3: Rack your beer from the fermenter to your keg

Using your sanitized racking cane or siphon, transfer the beer from the fermenter to the clean and sanitized keg. When transferring the beer make sure to splash as little as possible and keep the flow on the wall of the keg to avoid excess oxidation when transferring. Oxidized beer = bad beer. If you are feeling fancy, check out the plethora of closed system beer transfers on youtube, like this one by Short Circuited Brewers.

Step 4: Pressurize the keg and void the headspace of air

Hook your gas lines to the “in” side of your keg, turn the pressure on your regulator to around 10 psi, and vent the keg several times. This removes any oxygen that is in the headspace of the keg and replaces it with beer friendly CO₂.

Step 5: Chill and carbonate your beer

Chilling is easy, but carbonating your beer can be done via several methods and deserves a discussion of its own. However, the simplest way to carbonate your beer is to set your CO₂ regulator to your desired PSI and forget it for a few days. The CO₂ will slowly dissolve into the beer gradually carbonating it. Your serving and carbonating PSI will be determined by several factors such as temperature and style of beer. This article by Draft Beer Made Easy explains this in further detail.

If several days isn’t quick enough for you there are a few methods for quick carbonating that can get your beer up to snuff in just a few hours. They often involve a cold crashed keg, putting the keg on high pressure, taking it off the gas and vigorously shaking. Like I said, carbonating beer can be a topic of its own and will likely be highlighted in a future post. In the meantime there are several videos out there such as this one by Clawhammer Supply.

Step 6: Connect your liquid side lines, and enjoy your fresh draft beer

Now for the best part of the process, drinking your homebrew. The liquid side of the keg is the side with the long dip tube that reaches the bottom of the keg. The liquid is pushed up through the dip tube by the CO₂ and the connect on the top of the keg is usually denoted by a stamped or embossed “OUT.” Getting your beer out of the keg can be accomplished in a few ways but generally involves a picnic tap (think of the little lever valve from your keg party days) or a draft line and tap. To get the beer out simply connect your liquid line to the keg and open your tap. The trick is figuring out what to do when your beer comes out too foamy. This generally involves warm beer, over carbonation, or imbalances in your draft line system. Stay tuned for a future article on draft line balancing.

I hope you found this quick how-to guide informative and useful. Let me know in the comments if you have any questions or suggestions. Happy drinking!