Kegs in Space
Mark Tumarkin

Well, Heather and Howard got married Oct. 23rd. Heather had asked me to make the beer for their wedding. I think I once read that the word bridal comes from Bride Ale, but that's another story. Anyhow, the point of this story is that her request led me to kegging. Many brewers turn to kegging because they don't like bottling. Kegging is certainly less labor intensive.

But I don't mind bottling, I actually kind of like it. Cleaning bottles is one of those mindless tasks best approached in a Zen state of mind (a state easily achieved after several homebrews). I have gotten into making my own labels, another creative side to the hobby I enjoy so much. Whether it makes any real difference or not, I really like the idea of the live yeast finishing of the job by naturally carbonating the beer they have labored on so lovingly. I also like the ease of bottles -- for having a variety of styles in the fridge, for taking to parties, for contests, for gifts, etc. And kegging requires a sizeable investment in equipment. So I never quite got around to kegging.

But Heather's request inexorably led me to trying kegging for the first time. For big parties, it's hard to beat kegged beer. And I had most of the equipment I needed. About a year ago, I bought a used refrigerator and Johnson controller from a brewer who had stopped brewing. Along with the fridge, I got some miscellaneous equipment including CO2 tank and regulator, and a corny keg. So I figured it was time to find out how this kegging thing worked.

I brewed two batches of beer, a hefeweizen and a hoppy, brown ale. The brown ale was supposed to be a porter, but that, too, is another story. I had a week to get them carbonated and ready for the wedding. I didn't know much about kegging, so I asked for a little help from Wayne... and Dave... and Bradley.... Well, I worry too much. The beer came out fine, reasonably well carbonated and it poured without too much foam. Everyone seemed to like it, both kegs ran out before the SNPA. Hey, that's gotta make you feel good.

Anyhow, the following are some web sites that I found on kegging. Unfortunately, I didn't get around to surfing the web for this info until after the beer was in the kegs and already carbonated. But maybe some of this info may make it easier when you decide to give kegging a try. So go grab a homebrew and let's take a look at some of the kegging info in CyBeerSpace: