Cedar Rapids Brewing Society

There has been some chatter on the forum with regard to keg size...as it relates to keezer vs kegerator.

I have a three tap keezer...and I am thinking of going to 2.5 and/or 3 gallon kegs, for a variety of reasons.

1) If I use smaller kegs, my three tap keezer could easily be a 4-6 tap keezer. I can get three, maybe four 5-gallon kegs in there now (as soon as I get the CO2 tank outside). But I could take out one or two and stack two or four of the smaller kegs in there and have a wider variety of beer.

2) I like to partigyle batches of beer....and targeting 6-9 gallons total volume would allow me to get 2 styles in one brew day, that can be split between fermenter and then kegs.

I like have the big boy equipment, to do up to 10 gallons. But some styles, that I would like to have on tap, 5-gallons might be quite a bit.

Pat McCusker - I know you use smaller kegs....what drove you to make the decision to go smaller?

All in all, they are smaller, no harder to clean, and weight-wise, a lot easier to manage. Seems like a good trade off. Of course, at the expense of some CO2, could do smaller batches with 5-gallon kegs...but the current keezer would never be larger than 3 or 4 taps.

Thoughts?

I have 5 gallon kegs, 2 1/2 gallon kegs, and 1 3/4 gallon kegs. I do not have a kegerator yet, but I expect to have one eventually. I will put 5 gallon kegs on the bottom, and smaller kegs on a shelf above them.

But that is not the only reason I have multiple sizes. I take product to Beernut festivals and SCA outings. Sometimes expect to go through 5 gallons at a week-long SCA event, and sometimes I expect to go through a gallon or so in a one-hour slot at a festival. And, small kegs are just a lot lighter to haul around than big kegs.

And I make lots of stuff. 5 to 6 gallons of beer at a time. 5 to 15 gallons of mead at a time. 20 to 30 gallons of cider at a time. It is not uncommon for me to split a large batch into several 5's and a couple of small kegs.

I have pushed a gallon and a half from a five gallon keg into a small keg for an afternoon event. And I have come back from a week event with a small amount of product in a 5-gallon keg. It's nice to be able to push it into a small keg and free up the 5.

I just like the flexibility.

The advantages of 5 gallon kegs is that you can get used ones pretty cheap and you obviously can use them for a range of batch sizes. I used to have all 5 gallon kegs for my small batches, but have been replacing them with 2.5 and 3 gallon. As you said, they are easier to handle. Less head space means I don't use as much CO2 for transferring or carbonating.

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I have both 5 and 2.5 gallon kegs, I find. The 2.5 gallon are great for a mobile setup, or hauling around, I also have started to bottle half a batch to give away and have the 2.5 in the generator ready to go. 5s work well at home or for lagering

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