Kegging Time

If you plan to Homebrew you will find out that bottling in no fun. The cleaning, the sanitizing, the drying, etc. Bottling in a messy and time consuming part of homebrewing. It is so much easier to keg and the finished product, to me, is so much better. I love kegged beer. It still maybe necessary to bottle a 6 pack or two, so go ahead and have a capper, caps, and bottles around. This way you can share with friends and family or take with you to a "get together". BBQ in this neck of the woods.
So lets keg, I start off by moving the fermenter to a elevated surface, higher than the keg, so I can siphon the beer into the keg. I do this a few hours before I'm ready to keg. Try not to disturb the trub at the bottom, we don't want this in the keg. I tilt the fermenter back a bit by putting a rolled up towel under the opposite side. This will allow the racking siphon to pick up more beer.

After sanitizing all the equipment I will need, I carefully install the racking siphon into the fermenter. I use the racking cane to fill the keg from the bottom to the top. When the siphon stops have the sanitized lid to the keg ready and install it to minimize the brew being exposed to the air. I will have my CO2 ready with the quick connect to purge the air from the keg. After putting on the lid, I hook up the CO2 with about 5 psi set on the regulator. Slowly release the pressure with the relief valve on the keg. Do this a few time to be sure there is no air in the keg.

At this point, you can siphon out the trub if you want to save the yeast. If you do this I would suggest to use a 32oz pet bottle. I would I also suggest you leave a little bit of beer in the fermenter to be siphoned with the trub. After you have the yeast mixture in the bottle, store it in the refrigerator.
Ok back to the keg, it is ready for carbonating. There are many different methods for carbonating the beer in a keg. One of which uses priming sugar. This requires that you dissolve priming sugar in hot water and then pour it into the fermenter, then rack it. I prefer to use a force carbonation method. I slowly turn my regulator up while shacking the keg.I shake the keg until I don't hear the CO2 flow, and then let it set. I do this in 3 to 4 minute intervals.

When I don't hear a flow into the keg, I put it into the kegerator for it to chill. CO2 will dissolve more easily into the beer when it is cold. I set the regulator at around 18psi and let it set "chillin" for about a week of so. This pressure maybe different for different brew styles. There are many different charts and calculators on the net to help you know what pressures and temperatures are right for your brew.

This is just a very basic instruction on kegging. Again, there are many different methods for doing this so experiment and find the one that is better for you.
Enjoy