CLEARING YOUR BEER

Clearing your beer will keep sediment out of your lines and keg. It also gives you a professional looking and tasting brew. Brew beer as normal. After fermentation is completed dissolve one sachet of beer clear (finings) and 3 teaspoons of white sugar in 250 - 300ml boiling water. Add this to the top of the brew and stir gently over the surface. Leave for a minimum of 3 days to clear. For an even better result, siphon beer into a secondary fermenter prior to adding finings. This leaves the majority of sediment in the first fermenter.

CLEANING AND STERILIZING

Just treat your keg like one big bottle - rinse out with fresh water and rinse out with pink stain. Pour some pink stain down the stem. (I don't recommend the use of sodium met to sterilize kegs as long-term use can RUST your keg). Leave upside down to drain and dry then rinse again and you're ready to go. I recommend cleaning your lines with line cleaner every 6 - 8 weeks if you're constantly using you system, and more frequently if it's left sitting for any time.

PRESSURE TESTING

Fill your keg to around the level of the top weld and purge the oxygen out by pressurizing to 100kpa and releasing 2 or 3 times. Now leak test your system by pressurizing to 300 kpa and spraying all joins and fittings including the relief valve with soapy water - if there is a leak it will foam up. If you don't do this and there is a leak you can lose a bottle of gas in a couple of hours.

CARBONATING

Beer absorbs gas quicker the colder it is, so if your keg has been in the fridge for a day or more it will take less time to gas up. I normally hook my gas up to the keg when it is warm and gas up at 300 kpa for around 48 hours. If the keg is cold gas up for around 30 hours. You'll soon learn what suits your system best.

IN A HURRY ???

Shaking the keg will make the beer absorb the gas quicker. Once the keg is COLD attach the gas at 300 kpa and rock fairly vigorously for 4 mins. , take the gas off and let the keg settle for around an hour. If it's not gassy enough, simply re-attach the gas and shake for a further 30 secs.(but remember to let it settle again).
If it should be over gassed simply release all the gas and rock the keg gently for 15 - 20 seconds and then release the gas again. Repeat this process until the beer pours O.K.

O.K. WE'RE GASSED UP - WHAT NEXT??

Now comes the best bit - Let's get stuck in !!
Turn the regulator adjusting dial all the way out and release all the gas from the keg. Connect the beer fitting and open the tap (or gun) and slowly adjust the gas pressure until the beer is pouring nicely, this should be somewhere around 20 kpa.
Don't worry if the first few glasses are a bit heady, as the release of the high-pressure gas can tend to do that.

WHEN YOU'RE FINISHED FOR THE NIGHT

Having a part empty keg in the fridge is like having a part empty bottle of Coke in there - the gas will come out of the liquid because of the empty space above it, so all we have to do is fill that space with around 60kpa of gas and our beer stays carbonated - so try and get in the habit of putting around 60 kpa into the keg when you've finished, turn off the gas and disconnect the lines.
Remember to release the gas before you start again or you'll finish up with beer everywhere.

AGEING - DOES IT HELP IN KEGS ???

Good question - I don't know if it helps - but it certainly doesn't hurt !
You can store your kegs either before or after gassing them but make sure to purge them well if you don't gas them, and release the pressure to around 100 kpa before you take them out of the fridge if you do gas them.

PROBLEMS ????

Basically there are only two problems you may face :
1. The beer is too heady and tastes flat.
The beer is over-gassed and you are losing all the gas in the head when you pour the beer.( A tell - tale sign of over-gassed beer is that the line from the keg to the tap will turn straight to bubbles when you stop pouring) - Simply degas the keg as explained in the section "IN A HURRY??"
OR you are trying to pour the beer too quick - turn the gas pressure down.

2. The beer looks dead and tastes flat.
Easy one - the beer is under-gassed. Take the beer line off, turn the gas up to 300 kpa and shake the keg for 30 secs., leave the keg to settle for a while and try again, or just leave the gas on 300 for around 4 - 6 hours.

THE GOLDEN RULE

Remember the keg MUST be cold to carbonate and it MUST be cold to pour a beer (who'd want warm beer anyway??).

FINALLY

If anything else goes wrong, ring and ask for help.

Congratulations on deciding to invest in this system, it will be one of the best purchases you'll ever make.

RIP IN AND HAVE FUN !!!!