5-gal vs. 15-gal kegging question – other questions too…

[spencer]

I have been kegging in my 5-gallon corney kegs for some time, but I have to brew a bunch of beer for an upcoming event & I would like to try to keg a 15 gallon batch in a 15.5 gallon keg (i.e. half barrel).

I have a sankey tap that I use to dispense store-bought kegs, but that is it; everything else I own is specific to my corneys.

Here are my questions:

1. Can I keg large batches into a keg with a sankey tap?
If so,
2. How do I clean the big keg?
3. How do I get the uncarbonated beer into the big keg?
4. What additional hardware do I need for this?

5. On a related topic, how do you brew 15-gallon batches with 5 & 6.5 gallon carboys?
I have a large enough stainless kettle to do a 5-gallon full-wort boil, but I’m not going to get much more than 6 or 7 gallons of liquid in there at once. My guess is that I do it the same way I did when I was doing 5 gallon batches in a smaller pot (i.e. boil a few gallons of wort & dilute to 5 gallons before pitching), but how do I separate the wort into smaller carboys?

For example, if I had 6 gallons of high-gravity wort, would I try to get 2 gallons of wort into three carboys, then dilute to 5 gallons, and then pitch? I guess that makes sense on the surface, but so do a lot of things that I come up with.

6. On yet another related topic, if I do a starter, can I get enough yeast out of one tube of White Labs yeast to pitch all three carboys of wort (15 gallons total)?

Anyway, thanks in advance for the comments / suggestions!

[danno]

1) yes...
2) PBW soaking and repeated rinsing until you can't see any junk on the bottom... this is the main reason it's difficult to use Sankey's for home brewing use, it's tough to clean when you only have a 2" hole to work with...
3) and 4) you need something like this (http://kegman.net/keg_kit.htm)...
5) why not just brew up three separate batches? with 5 only gallons of kettle space, you're going to have to do a minimum of two batches... or get another keg you can convert to a kettle...
6) sure. I routinely do two batches from a single smack pack, I pitch that into a 1L starter, then the next day, decant most of the wort, stir up the yeast, pour half into another 1L flask, and add fresh wort to both flasks, which gives me two very healthy sized starters. no reason you couldn't take that first step and divide it into three instead of two...

is there any special reason you want to use a Sankey instead of cornies? Cornies are easier to transport, and you're going to ferment them separately anyways. seems like you're making more work for yourself than you need to...

[spencer]

Originally posted by danno
is there any special reason you want to use a Sankey instead of cornies? Cornies are easier to transport, and you're going to ferment them separately anyways. seems like you're making more work for yourself than you need to...

Danno: Thanks for the feedback. I am brewing for my wedding and I don't want to have to screw around with swapping cornies throughout the night. Also, if I was going to go with cornies, then I would be tempted to brew 3 or 4 different kinds of beer, which would require all sorts of splitters on my Co2, and any other number of costs & headaches that come with trying to set up a crazy system at a kid's camp out in the woods. I just figured that a good-old-fassion 1/2 barrel & picnic pump would be the way to go.

BTW, on #2, how do I get the keg open?

[wild]

Seems to me that the quickest, cheapest, and most important - laziest thing to do would be to daisy chain 3 cornys (assuming that you have 3 cornys). All that is needed is:
CO2 supply
3 cornys
1 CO2 gas in line
2 beer out to gas in lines
1 beer out line

That leaves no extra charges for kegs, taps etc. No need to swap kegs or taps or QD's.

Wild

[danno]

Originally posted by spencer
BTW, on #2, how do I get the keg open? there's a snap ring on the spear of a Sankey, take that out and remove the spear. check out the link in my 3 & 4 answer for a replacement, reusable ring if you're serious about this...

but I agree with wild, daisy chain your cornies and you only have to worry when they're all empty...

[spencer]

Originally posted by wild
Seems to me that the quickest, cheapest, and most important - laziest thing to do would be to daisy chain 3 cornys

I like it!

[dixee6]

the daisy setup sounds cool or if you dont wanna spend the extra money you could show a good and trusting and reliable and loving,...etc. buddy to help you switch out kegs while you party at your own wedding. i would think someone of that caliber would be understanding enough as you want your hand at photo ops of yourself sprawled out drunk on the floor! hee hee!