Making Beer: The Keg

Nothing real dramatic here. Just a nice picture of the keg.

Do you see the green rings around each post sticking up from the keg? Those are O-rings. Make sure that you put fresh ones on any keg that you buy before you lose it to make sure that you aren't leaking CO2. There is also another on that you can't see in this picture in is inside on the "lid" that you release with the handle you see in the middle. Make sure you replace it too.
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Making Beer: CO2

I wanted to take just a minute to go into a little more detail on the kegging process.

What you see here is my CO2 canister with a regulator attached. The two gauges on the regulator tell you the pressure of the CO2 in the canister (left gauge) and then the pressure of your keg (top gauge). There is an adjustable screw in the middle that you can see. This allows you to alter the pressure in your keg. Different brews may call for different levels of CO2. This also allows you control over the way that your beer will be carbonated if you use the force carbonation method (http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/45577 - listen for a description). In the end, no matter how you carbonate, this CO2 will allow you to push your beer through the feed hose and into your glass.
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Making Beer: Kegging the Brew

OK, it is time to get my latest batch of brew out of the secondary and into the keg. At this point I am only about 3 or 4 days away from being able to taste this batch.

Again, I am sterilizing the keg, the siphon, and other tools so that I can transfer this batch to the keg but also brew a new batch before I call it a night. I've got lofty goals this evening.

What you see is this picture is the CO2 canister and my keg. This is a standard 5 gal. keg and not what you would see @ your standard kegger. Brew stores sell these kegs & they will also provide you with the CO2 canister. I believe that you can find the kegs other places like Ebay too.

Everything is clean and sterilized. Time to transfer the beer!
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