Dear All,
My keg / CO2 system is now up and running and I'm moving on to the question of chilled beer! At the moment I've been going through an uber hoppy summer IPA phase and find these beers need a bit of chilling. My London flat is quite poky and don't really have enough room for a keg fridge! Sadly the Mrs vetoed this idea! So looking at beer chillers and there seem to be plenty going second hand around the £50 mark and I'd probably pay that! Perhaps Corny maxi 110
But do they waste a lot of beer! We don't really drink that much and on a school night might just have a pint or nothing at all! So how much beer is left in the lines.... Is it possible to use small diameter tubing to minimise wastage? Any thoughts? Also, how long does it take for them to chill down to temp. And could it sit on top of my mini fridge without crushing it! They must be very heavy!
Thinking maybe having another go persuading the Mrs on the keg fridge front because at least it's versatile (cold fermenting largers), chilling kegs for force carbonation, cold conditioning / dry hopping in the chiller... but I think perhaps the lady is not for turning!
Cheers
BBJ
Maxi Corny Chillers do they waste a lot of beer?
Re: Maxi Corny Chillers do they waste a lot of beer?
Beer wastage isn't an issue once you have them set up right (not pouring away foam). Thin hose doesn't really hold much beer and you'll need that to get a decent pressure drop anyway.
The only downside I really find with these coolers is that if the keg temperature varies substantially you will need to change the pressure on it to avoid foaming. Mine are in the garage so are marginally above freezing some months of the year and in the high teens during the summer. If yours are kept indoors this will be less of an issue for you.
They don't take too long to get to temperature, I have mine on a timer to be cold for when I get home, an hour easily gets them back down to temp after being off for 20 hrs or so!
Mine sits on top of a washing machine and hasn't flattened it yet, they're fairly easy to lift even when full of water.
The only downside I really find with these coolers is that if the keg temperature varies substantially you will need to change the pressure on it to avoid foaming. Mine are in the garage so are marginally above freezing some months of the year and in the high teens during the summer. If yours are kept indoors this will be less of an issue for you.
They don't take too long to get to temperature, I have mine on a timer to be cold for when I get home, an hour easily gets them back down to temp after being off for 20 hrs or so!
Mine sits on top of a washing machine and hasn't flattened it yet, they're fairly easy to lift even when full of water.
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BrewBoyJoe
Re: Maxi Corny Chillers do they waste a lot of beer?
Hi Jambo,
Sounds like you have you have your priorities suitably worked out! The timer sounds like a great idea. What diameter tubing do you use and approximately how long is the section you run through the cooler. Also, once you have poured your pints for the evening, do you tend to wash the pipe out to prevent stale beer collecting / sticking to the pipe or does it have a cleaning cycle or something? Perhaps just touch a hose to the connector pipe and put a jug at the back to collect? I am considering buying another keg this week for this weekends upcoming Brewdog Punk IPA inspired beer so the cooler is probably the way to go. These beers taste a lot better chilled quite low!
Cheers
Joe
Sounds like you have you have your priorities suitably worked out! The timer sounds like a great idea. What diameter tubing do you use and approximately how long is the section you run through the cooler. Also, once you have poured your pints for the evening, do you tend to wash the pipe out to prevent stale beer collecting / sticking to the pipe or does it have a cleaning cycle or something? Perhaps just touch a hose to the connector pipe and put a jug at the back to collect? I am considering buying another keg this week for this weekends upcoming Brewdog Punk IPA inspired beer so the cooler is probably the way to go. These beers taste a lot better chilled quite low!
Cheers
Joe
Re: Maxi Corny Chillers do they waste a lot of beer?
Hi Joe,
Perhaps I could be considered a bit slap dash but I view my beer dispensing system as a positively pressured system which doesn't leak, and contains a >5% alcohol solution at all times. What could be cleaner than that!?
In reality I do flush the lines from time to time, but only when I am sterilising a keg to keg a new batch, I'll just empty it through the cooler. Absolutely no need to do this every day or anything close to it IMO, you'll waste loads of beer that way.
Beer line comes in 2 sizes, 5/8" and 5/16" I think. Coolers are 5/8", but most taps are 5/16", so you do need a reducer at some point. I have a reducer just after the cooler and about 15ft of coiled up 5/16" hose - I like my carbonation high and I need that amount of hose to prevent foaming with the carbonation levels I run and often low keg temperatures.
Hope this helps.
Perhaps I could be considered a bit slap dash but I view my beer dispensing system as a positively pressured system which doesn't leak, and contains a >5% alcohol solution at all times. What could be cleaner than that!?
In reality I do flush the lines from time to time, but only when I am sterilising a keg to keg a new batch, I'll just empty it through the cooler. Absolutely no need to do this every day or anything close to it IMO, you'll waste loads of beer that way.
Beer line comes in 2 sizes, 5/8" and 5/16" I think. Coolers are 5/8", but most taps are 5/16", so you do need a reducer at some point. I have a reducer just after the cooler and about 15ft of coiled up 5/16" hose - I like my carbonation high and I need that amount of hose to prevent foaming with the carbonation levels I run and often low keg temperatures.
Hope this helps.
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BrewBoyJoe
Re: Maxi Corny Chillers do they waste a lot of beer?
Thanks for the guidance! Agreed, should be clean enough and no point in unnecessarily wasting beer! I bought a maxi 110 second hand on ebay tonight for 67 quid! As it happens I have exactly 4 metres of 5/16ths beer line so that works well! I was concerned about foaming and so hopefully this will do the job! I will buy a reducer to fit in the back of the fooler and tap on ebay if I can find one. Cheers Joe
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BrewBoyJoe
Re: Maxi Corny Chillers do they waste a lot of beer?
I got my Maxi 110 home, downloaded the manual and took a quick scan. This unit is very basic in that it only allows you to connect one keg (shame since I have 2, but I could probably flog it and get the 210 at some stage) and seemingly has no buttons at all on it, not even a temperature gauge... and not even an on button so it needs to be directly unplugged!!! I have to say, the manual was not a great help. There are 4 pipes on the back. Upon turning the unit on, a jet of water went half way to the ceiling! I quickly unplugged in the new knowledge that my unit has waterbath re-circulation! Short piece of 3/8 tubing bodged on with two jublilee clips to connect the in and out flow pipes seems to do the job!
Just a couple of questions. So I was planning to buy some connectors from the John guest store on ebay (stumbled accross this and it looks useful) and use half a metre of 3/8th to connect from my disconnect to the inlet, and the get a reducer 3/8 to 5 /16 ths... John guest as well for the outlet... and use approximately 4 metres of line to the tap for serving to bleed off the pressure! Does this sound ok?
If keeping a keg at room temp, how muc pressure should I keep it at and for how long to get decent carb! It's an IPA so I want almost lager levels! I did 15 mins of gentle agitating at 40psi and then kept it at 40 psi for a day... day 1 and it didnt seem to have much! Day three now and yet to check it!
Cheers
Joe
Just a couple of questions. So I was planning to buy some connectors from the John guest store on ebay (stumbled accross this and it looks useful) and use half a metre of 3/8th to connect from my disconnect to the inlet, and the get a reducer 3/8 to 5 /16 ths... John guest as well for the outlet... and use approximately 4 metres of line to the tap for serving to bleed off the pressure! Does this sound ok?
If keeping a keg at room temp, how muc pressure should I keep it at and for how long to get decent carb! It's an IPA so I want almost lager levels! I did 15 mins of gentle agitating at 40psi and then kept it at 40 psi for a day... day 1 and it didnt seem to have much! Day three now and yet to check it!
Cheers
Joe
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BrewBoyJoe
Re: Maxi Corny Chillers do they waste a lot of beer?
one last thing, what pressure should I keep the keg at once i am happy with the carb... assuming i want to serve pretty cold
Re: Maxi Corny Chillers do they waste a lot of beer?
I use a 210 chiller for my cornie kegs using the 2 outlets but I would have liked a 3rd so I bought a python and sent cold water on a circuit via my beer engine lovely temp for all my beers I also use a time switch it is on for 2 hours a day my pressure is different for all my beers from between 3 and 7 psi 