Stupid Kegging Question

[MrWhy 1,292]

Hello all!

 

I have a kegging questions. I have no knowledge of kegging or kegs. I am completely ignorant of the whole process....so ahead of time thank you for your patience and understanding.

 

* Do you HAVE to use CO2 with a keg? Can you put the beer and priming sugar in the keg and let it carb naturally?

* Can you condition/age in a keg?

 

I guess what I am wondering is if I bought a 2.5 gallon keg, could I put my beer and priming sugar in it, and let it sit for X months. Then when it is time, bottle it (carbonated naturally)....or fill growlers or whatever from the keg? (Using the reverse pressure filler thing).
 

Or is this just lame?

 

I don't know why...but the thought of CO2 intimidates me.

[hotrod3539 911]

im curious as well since Kegging is the next logical step for me.... 

[MrWhy 1,292]

6 minutes ago, hotrod3539 said:

im curious as well since Kegging is the next logical step for me.... 

 

Well - a quick google search provided me with my own answer:

* Yes it can be done.

* It seems like you still need CO2 and what not....to seal the seal or something like that.

* It is not as easy as just pouring into a keg and forgetting about it for a few months.

 

For natural carbonation, bottling seems to be the easiest method.

[RickBeer 6,144]

Right.

 

While you can carbonate the beer with sugar in the keg, you need CO2 to get it out.  If you are going to bottle it, you need to purge the bottle of air with CO2 before bottling, and you need a device to fill the bottle (which also does the purge) such as the Blichmann Beer Gun.  

[Creeps McLane 5,923]

I dont know where youre seeing 2.5 gallon kegs but everywhere i see 3 gallon kegs they're almost as expensive as a 5 gallon one. Dont buy a little one if you are going to want a 5 gallon one someday anyway

[MrWhy 1,292]

3 hours ago, RickBeer said:

Right.

 

While you can carbonate the beer with sugar in the keg, you need CO2 to get it out.  If you are going to bottle it, you need to purge the bottle of air with CO2 before bottling, and you need a device to fill the bottle (which also does the purge) such as the Blichmann Beer Gun.  

Thank you Rick!

 

Do you keg or bottle carb/condition?

 

3 hours ago, Creeps McLane said:

I dont know where youre seeing 2.5 gallon kegs but everywhere i see 3 gallon kegs they're almost as expensive as a 5 gallon one. Dont buy a little one if you are going to want a 5 gallon one someday anyway

 

I was just looking at the Mr. Beer Kegging system. Not sure exactly what size it is, but my understanding it is whatever size you need for LBKs.

 

I am lazy. I am trying to figure out a way to fill and store one vessel for carbing/conditioning rather than fill 10. But from what I can gather, filling/capping ten to twelve bottles seems to be the easiest thing going.

[RickBeer 6,144]

I do bottles on at this point.