Kegging Time!

Well, it's been almost a month since I brewed Nico's Hoppy Wheat Treat, and now it's time to put it in the keg!  I carried the full carboy down from my fermentation room to the kitchen and placed it on the counter top.

All that I need to siphon the beer out of the carboy and into the keg is an autosiphon, tubing, StarSan sanitizer and a keg.  Check it out.  In case you're wondering, the metal thing in the left hand lower corner is the top hatch removed from the keg.  I also have a bag of Centennial hops in the pic.

Looks like it's time to remove the empty keg from my kegerator, clean, and sanitize!  Below you can see the guts of my kegerator.  I will be removing the black keg.  In the pic I have already disconnected the grey gas line and black beer line from the keg.  The CO2 cylinder is in the right of the pic and attached to that is my pressure regulator which allows me to control the pressure in the kegs.

Now, it's time to clean the keg.  First, I remove the lid and spray in some water with my garden hose.  This loosens up any sediment at the bottom of the keg.  I'll dump out the water and repeat a few times.  Next, I fill the keg with one gallon of hot water and one tablespoon of One-Step Cleaner (a powdered no-rinse cleaner).  Seal the keg up, pump in a few pounds of CO2 to ensure a good seal, and shake for about a minute.  Then, I hook up the keg to the kegerator and pump out the dirty cleaning solution.  See below.  The Erlenmeyer flask is under the faucet to catch the dirty solution once I pump it out of the keg.

I repeat the process but use StarSan solution (sanitizer) once more.  Seal, shake, and drain baby.

Here's a Nico Tip: after shaking the keg up with StarSan, go work-out or have sex, then drain it.  This extra time will allow the StarSan's foam to dissipate and not remain inside the keg.  Now, for what everyone has been waiting for!

SIPHON TIME!!!

Remove the airlock from the carboy and place the autosiphon into the beer.  Pump it once and the siphon should begin.  Make sure the other end of your tubing is in the keg, or you will have one hell of a mess on your hands.  Also, your autosiphon or anything that touches the beer at this point should be sanitized (gotta love StarSan in a spray bottle).  Remember to spray the inside and outside of the tubing and autosiphon because Nico says so.  Check out the whole process below!

After a few minutes, the siphon is complete and the keg is ready to seal.  But first, I decided to "keg hop" this batch.  Keg hopping is a version of dry hopping where hops are placed inside the keg (rather than the carboy) to increase hop aroma and perceived hop flavor. 

I could just throw some hops into the keg and be done with it.  But, the keg would probably clog and Andi would get mad with all my swearing.  So, I decided to fill a tea ball with an ounce of Centennial hops.  First, I boiled the empty tea ball to kill any nasties.

Then I stuff an ounce of hops inside the tea ball, seal, and place it inside the keg.  The tea ball will keep the hops from creating havoc with the keg's inner workings.

Since I opted to keg hop this batch, I think it will benefit from a few days at room temperature to allow the hops' aroma to infuse better into the beer.  Otherwise, I would just crank up the regulator's pressure to around 30 psi, shake up the keg, place it all inside the kegerator, and wait a day.  The keg is now resting comfortably in the kitchen corner for a few days.

A few more days and Nico's Hoppy Wheat Treat will be ready to drink!  BOO-YAH!!!