Help with Kegging.

[Fireside Ales Homebrewery]

Hello all,
These questions go out to anyone who uses a corny type Keg setup.
So I have recently invested in a 10L Dark Farms Keg, pictured bellow. I have followed all the advice online and have forced carbonated the Porter in the keg at 25psi. I have connected up the tap and it seems nicely carbonated. Picture bellow.
Here is where I have some questions...
1. The regulator (universal regulator) still reads 25psi. I have turned the gas flow off. Do I now depressurise the keg down to 0psi and then build the pressure back up to a serving pressure of 10psi?
2. When I am not serving, maybe even for a day or so, do I need to disconnect the regulator and or the tap from the keg completely, or can I just leave it/ them on the keg for the duration, until I break the keg down to clean.
3. Do I need to turn the pressure on, keeping a stable flow of pressure at 10psi each time I want to serve a pint?
4. Is it best to naturally carbonate the beers with sugar or whatever, as I do in my plastic king keg. Or is it best to only force carbonate in this type of keg set up?

Any advice would be really helpful. I am a total newbie when it comes to using this type of keg set up.
Thank you so much.

 

[obscure]

As someone who also uses dark farm kegs I will give your questions a go (these are of course my opinions based on my own experience)

1. The regulator (universal regulator) still reads 25psi. I have turned the gas flow off. Do I now depressurise the keg down to 0psi and then build the pressure back up to a serving pressure of 10psi?

The regulator on these measures the actual pressure in the keg, so even though the gas flow is turned off the pressure is still 25PSI. You shold have a pressure relieve valve that can be pulled to reduce the pressure, however as you dispense the pressure will start to fall unless you replace the CO2.

2. When I am not serving, maybe even for a day or so, do I need to disconnect the regulator and or the tap from the keg completely, or can I just leave it/ them on the keg for the duration, until I break the keg down to clean.

I have never bothered typically I only drink Friday to Sunday so it is not unusual for me to leave my keg (with tap and regulator attached) for a week between sessions. When I first serve on a Friday I typically toss the first maybe 50ml but otherwise I only break down and clean when I finish a keg.

3. Do I need to turn the pressure on, keeping a stable flow of pressure at 10psi each time I want to serve a pint?

I tend to dispense my pint then turn back on the gas to bring it back up to 5PSI (what I serve at) or in your case 10PSI.

4. Is it best to naturally carbonate the beers with sugar or whatever, as I do in my plastic king keg. Or is it best to only force carbonate in this type of keg set up?

I tend towards natural carbonation with sugar but I’m going to be blunt it isn‘t a matter of it producing a superior beer, I really haven’t being able to tell any difference between beer primed with sugar and beer force carbed. I do it because 20g of sugar (I like cask ale like levels of carbonation this is in a 5L dark farm keg) is substantially cheaper than a sixteen gram CO2 bulb (you will still need it to dispense with). If you go for this approach you will get a thin layer of sediment at the bottom of the keg, I still get crystal clear beer so long as you take care not to upset the sediment by moving the keg around too much.

 

[Fireside Ales Homebrewery]

As someone who also uses dark farm kegs I will give your questions a go (these are of course my opinions based on my own experience)




The regulator on these measures the actual pressure in the keg, so even though the gas flow is turned off the pressure is still 25PSI. You shold have a pressure relieve valve that can be pulled to reduce the pressure, however as you dispense the pressure will start to fall unless you replace the CO2.



I have never bothered typically I only drink Friday to Sunday so it is not unusual for me to leave my keg (with tap and regulator attached) for a week between sessions. When I first serve on a Friday I typically toss the first maybe 50ml but otherwise I only break down and clean when I finish a keg.

I tend to dispense my pint then turn back on the gas to bring it back up to 5PSI (what I serve at) or in your case 10PSI.

I tend towards natural carbonation with sugar but I’m going to be blunt it isn‘t a matter of it producing a superior beer, I really haven’t being able to tell any difference between beer primed with sugar and beer force carbed. I do it because 20g of sugar (I like cask ale like levels of carbonation) is substantially cheaper than a sixteen gram CO2 bulb (you will still need it to dispense with). If you go for this approach you will get a thin layer of sediment at the bottom of the keg, I still get crystal clear beer so long as you take care not to upset the sediment by moving the keg around too much.

As someone who also uses dark farm kegs I will give your questions a go



The regulator on these measures the actual pressure in the keg, so even though the gas flow is turned off the pressure is still 25PSI. You shold have a pressure relieve valve that can be pulled to reduce the pressure, however as you dispense the pressure will start to fall unless you replace the CO2.



I have never bothered typically I only drink Friday to Sunday so it is not unusual for me to leave my keg (with tap and regulator attached) for a week between sessions. When I first serve on a Friday I typically toss the first maybe 50ml but otherwise I only break down and clean when I finish a keg.

I tend to dispense my pint then turn back on the gas to bring it back up to 5PSI (what I serve at) or in your case 10PSI.

I tend towards natural carbonation with sugar but I’m going to be blunt it isn‘t a matter of it producing a superior beer, I really haven’t being able to tell any difference between beer primed with sugar and beer force carbed. I do it because 20g of sugar (I like cask ale like levels of carbonation) is substantially cheaper than a sixteen gram CO2 bulb (you will still need it to dispense with). If you go for this approach you will get a thin layer of sediment at the bottom of the keg, I still get crystal clear beer so long as you take care not to upset the sediment by moving the keg around too much.

Thank you so much for your reply.
It is nice to hear from someone who already uses the gear when you are starting out doing something new.
The Kegs from Dark Farms seem great and so far so good.
Thank you again for taking the time to answer my questions.
cheers..