Hi everyone! Just joined
I was thinking about adding a draft keg system in my basement and was curious how difficult it is
The reason I say this is because I heard if you don’t regulate the co2 in your beer, it can give you headaches and nausea. Is a draft system worth this risk? Or am I better off just installing a couple of large fridges and just purchasing bottles of beer?
I guess I’m wondering if its something I’m going to have to continuously monitor. Like, if I set it once, do I have to continuously monitor it every time I wanna use it? Or even monitor it daily?
Thanks!
CO2 is toxic in fairly low concentrations by gas standards, but you could dump a 5 lb cylinder into a 10x10 ft room and not come close to that.
Is it possible you’re researching CO (carbon monoxide)?
To answer the direct question, a CO2 regulator in a draft system is set-and-forget until you run out of gas, which takes 10-20 5 gal kegs for a 5 lb cylinder.
There is a bit of a learning curve to get the flow right at first but it is basically set and forget and the health concern you mentioned is not an issue. The only health concern is the extra beer you will be drinking.
Are you trying to set up a commercial system in your house? I can see that giving me a headache [emoji28]
Other than that, I see no risk in setting up a system. I’ve been kegging for about 7 years and it was the best upgrade ever. As far as the gas, after you set your pressure, it will just stay in balance with the system replacing itself as needed. I’m curious what or where you’ve read…
Don’t forget the risk of overcarbinating when using priming sugar in bottles. It’s not pleasant to open the fridge door to see broken glass and beer scattered throughout.
I went to kegging and, honestly to me, improved my brewing experience more than any other thing I’ve ever done.
For me the trouble spots or extra labor with my kegging system have been:
nailing down length for my liquid (beer) lines to the taps, but there are plenty of calculators for that. I do vary line length depending on carbonation level of my brews, so switching lines out occasionally is a bit of extra work.
chasing down the occasional leak - it really sucks to open the keg fridge and discover that I’ve released a bottle full of CO2 into the atmosphere. I imagine this doesn’t happen to everyone if you have assembled your keg system well, but I’ve occasionally run into it due to having switched out parts or having a keg that didn’t seal completely unbeknownst to me.
cleaning keg lines - this should be part of routine maintenance but is a task that should be taken into account when considering moving to a keg system.
This being said, moving from bottling to kegging was overall a pleasure and I’ve never regretted it. There’s something I find satisfying about drawing a glass of beer from my own tap.
And yes, I’m wondering if there’s confusion here between carbon dioxide (CO2) and carbon monoxide (CO), the latter being poisonous and something to be avoided, but never part of beer serving.
Turofoqi - - to further address your original question: Short answer is no you do not have to monitor or make changes to a keg system daily or often. You generally set it and leave it. Some folks make occasional adjustments to their serving pressure from the CO2 tank (when switching out kegs, etc.) - this is not typically a requirement if you have your system set up so it works well for you. Once you determine your operating parameters such as desired serving pressure (i.e. speed of beer dispensing), beer line length required, and temperature of your keg refrigerator and get everything hooked up the only “hands on” needed should be your hand pulling the tap to dispense beer. Cheers!