Building Homebrew Equipment (5 page)
Read Building Homebrew Equipment Online
Authors: Karl F. Lutzen
Okay, you’ve managed to obtain some old kegs from a soda bottler . . . what next? Now you’ve got to clean out those kegs and replace the rubber seals.
Most homebrew supply stores either have these parts or can get them. Foxx Equipment also sells all the gaskets as well as replacement poppets (spring valves inside a fitting) and other parts. Gaskets cost anywhere from about 25 cents to about a dollar each, and $5 will get you a complete set. Poppets are cheap too, usually less than $2 apiece.
Rubber gasket for the lid
Rubber O-rings for the two valve fittings
Rubber O-ring for the gas dip tube
Rubber O-ring for the liquid dip tube
1. Release any pressure left in the keg. Use the pressure relief valve if the keg’s got one; otherwise, press down with a screwdriver on the gas-in line.
2. Remove the lid by lifting up on the bail (the release handle).
3. Use a wrench to remove the two valve fittings. There will be tubes attached to the fittings inside the keg. Pull these out, too.
4. Examine the poppets. If they are damaged or worn, replace them.
5. Clean the keg with TSP, B-Brite, iodophor, or similar cleaner, as described on the next page.
6. If the liquid (long) and gas (short) tubes are plastic, consider replacing them.
7. Replace O-ring gaskets on the liquid tube and gas dip tube.
8. Replace O-rings on the outside of the valve fittings.
9. Reassemble the tubes and fittings, screwing them back onto the keg.
10. Replace the gasket on the lid.
Although homebrewers often praise stainless steel because it is easily sanitized, keep in mind that older beer kegs (and some kegs from Europe) are aluminum, and some of the cleaning agents used for stainless steel can damage aluminum.
The best sanitizing solutions to use with kegs are iodophor and trisodium phosphate (TSP). Use a plastic scrubber to loosen deposits or settled matter on the insides of kegs. TSP can be left to soak in the keg; if you get a used keg, soaking it overnight or for a couple of days will not hurt the surface. You can also store your unused kegs with a TSP solution in them.
Sometimes a layer of beer matter can settle and harden onto the bottom of a keg; this is referred to as “beer stone.” If beer stone begins to build up in your keg, you can remove it with an acid solution. Let the keg soak for 2 to 6 hours. Use food-grade phosphoric acid in a solution at a strength of 1.7 to 2.0 pH and a temperature of 120? to 130?F. Then scrub the stone with a plastic abrasive. The acid dairy rinse is perfect for removing beer stone. Beverage line cleaner may also be useful.
When you’re cleaning kegs, keep in mind that household bleach should never be used. Bleach is an effective sanitizer for glass and plastic surfaces, but it will corrode stainless steel. Stick to iodophor or TSP.
The first order of business for accommodating kegs to fit your refrigerator is to remove the shelves. A soda keg sits about 2½’ high, a 5-pound CO
2
tank about 1½’ high. You’ll probably want these to sit upright, so removing the shelves is a necessity. You may also want to look at the bottom shelf to see how it’s supported. Often the bottom shelves are made of glass and are supported on the sides by molded plastic, and sometimes in the middle by a brace. You may want to remove this shelf and replace it with something a bit sturdier, such as a piece of ½” plywood braced under the middle and sides by 2” by 4” braces. A keg weighs about 50 pounds when full, so the shelf and supports need to be pretty strong.
Most homebrewers like adding tap handles to the outside of the fridge so they don’t have to open the door every time they want a beer. This is a fairly straightforward modification. The tap handles and shanks that go through the door are available from Foxx Equipment and most likely your local homebrew store. The size you get will depend on the thickness of your refrigerator door (or side wall). If you’re drilling through the side wall, be aware that some refrigerators have gas lines running in the walls. If you puncture one of these, the refrigerator will be useless. If the side of the refrigerator is warm to the touch, it probably contains gas lines.
Beer shank
Wall flange
Flanged jam nut
Tail piece and hex nut
Beer faucet
Tap handle
Drip tray
1. Measure the thickness of the refrigerator wall before ordering your shank. You’ll probably want about a 4” or 5” shank, but the length depends on the thickness of the refrigerator wall.
2. Drill a hole through the refrigerator wall to accommodate the shank.
3. Put the wall flange on the shank.
4. Insert the shank through the door.
5. Apply a small amount of caulk around the area where the shank passes through the door, inside and out, and secure with the flanged jam nut on the inside.
If you store beer in a keg in a refrigerator, install a tap on the door or side wall. You won’t have to open the door each time you want a beer, and it looks professional.
6. Attach the tail fitting with the hex nut onto the shank on the inside.
7. Screw the faucet onto the outside of the refrigerator.
8. Screw the knob onto the faucet.
9. Screw the drip tray onto the refrigerator about 1’ or so below the faucet (allow enough space to accommodate your largest beer glass).
10. Attach your beer line to the barbed tail fitting, then tighten the hose clamp.
11. Connect to your keg and enjoy.
With your keg system in full operation, you probably find that you have a lot of extra time on your hands with no more bottles to fill. We suggest you use that free time to build a counter-pressure bottle filler. The counter-pressure bottle filler lets you store and carbonate your beer in a Cornelius keg and then apply CO
2
pressure to fill a bottle, purging air and nearly eliminating the chance of oxidized aromas and flavors. It also fills bottles gently and retains the carbonation in the beer.
A counter-pressure filler assembly lets you store beer in a keg, then use CO
2
pressure to fill bottles. Note the No. 2 stopper, which you place in the opening of your clean and empty beer bottles.
3 ¼” MPT × ¼” hose barbs
1 ¼” FPT tee
1
⅜
″ FPT tee
1 ¼” MPT × ¼” compression fitting
2
⅜
″ MPT ×
⅜
″ compression adapters
3 ¼” MPT × ¼” FPT on-off valves
1 ¼” compression nut and ferrule
2
⅜
″ compression nuts and ferrule (only one ferrule needed)
1
⅜
″ O.D. (outside diameter) O-ring
1
⅜
″ MPT × ¼” FPT adapter
1 No. 2 drilled rubber stopper
1
5
/
16
″ hose tee for gas line
1 18″-long, ¼″-diameter tube (stainless steel, brass, or copper)
1 2″-long piece of
⅜
″-diameter tube
Teflon tape
a – ½” MPT × ½” hose barb
b – ½” MPT × ½” FPT on-off valves
c – ½” FPT tee
d – ½” MPT × ½” comp adapter
e – ½” compression nut and ferrule (not shown)
f – 18” long ½” copper or stainless tubing
g –
⅜
″ compression nut with
⅜
″ O.D. (outside diameter) O-ring (instead of ferrule)
h –
⅜
″ comp ×
⅜
″ MPT adapter
i –
⅜
″ FPT tee
j –
⅜
″ compression nut with ferrule (not shown)
k –
⅜
″ copper or stainless tubing, 2” long
l – #2 stopper with
⅜
″ hole
m –
⅜
″ MPT × ½” FPT adapter
1. Wrap the male connectors with Teflon tape.
2. Assemble according to the diagram on page 26. You’ll want the tee for hooking up the CO
2
gas line as shown in the illustration.
To use the counter-pressure bottle filler, first sanitize it with iodophor. Do not use chlorine bleach. Connect everything as shown in the illustration. Insert the filler into a clean bottle. Make sure the stopper seals well, then turn on the gas valve (valve A) to pressurize. Turn off the gas valve A. Turn on the beer valve (valve B). Open
the bleed valve (valve C). As the gas escapes from the bleed valve, the beer in the keg will be at greater pressure than that of the bottle and will slowly fill it. When it gets full, close the beer valve (valve B). Remove the filler, then close the bleed valve (valve C) and cap the bottle. If you close the bleed valve too soon, there will be pressure in the bottle and there will be a spray of foam when you remove the filler.
To use a counter-pressure bottle filler, turn on gas valve (A) to pressurize. Then turn off gas valve, and turn on beer valve (B) and open the bleed valve (C). Gas will escape from the bleed valve and the beer in the keg will be at greater pressure than that of the bottle and will slowly fill it.
Once you have a kegging system with a CO
2
tank and regulator, you can use pressurized carbon dioxide to move liquids from one vessel to another without having to rely on siphons and gravity. For example, you can force-rack beer from one carboy to another under CO 2pressure, avoiding the worries of starting the siphon and reducing oxidation risk by purging vessels with a blanket of CO
2
gas. Transfers can thus take place in a “closed” environment, which means that the vessels are never open to airborne contamination risks.
1. Seal up the container holding the liquid.
2. Attach a tube from the liquid to the empty vessel.
3. Attach a gas-in line to the carboy cap, keg, or whatever.
4. Slowly open the gas line.
If you have a kegging setup, there is no need to siphon beer from your carboy. Use your CO
2
cylinder and a racking configuration like this.