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Does anyone have any suggestions for how to build a rig to carbonate multiple corny kegs at one time?

I currently have a high pressure CO2 line in my beer fridge so that I can carbonate one that is cold. That leaves me at times with only two beers on service pressure while I wait for a new keg to chill and carbonate.

I'm looking to turn a corner of the room into a carbonating station where I could hook up multiple kegs at one time (maybe four or five).

Is there anything special I need to know about building a setup like this? Extra equipment? Issues with multiple styles of beer exchanging flavors through the CO2 lines? Etc.?

2 Answers 2

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You just need a manifold to split one CO2 line into several more. If you're carbonating different styles of beer and want different pressures, you'll want your tank output at the highest pressure, and then a separate regulator for each line downstream of the manifold.

A lot of HB'ers put this whole setup inside a kegerator, so you just drop your corny in, open the valve on the manifold, set the regulator, and forget about it for a couple days.

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  • Oh, and you can get everything you need from beveragefactory.com.
    – Brandon
    Nov 19, 2010 at 15:50
  • OK. Yeah. I wanted to avoid buying too many LP->LP regulators. So using manifolds for kegs that can carb to the same volume is probably the best way to go. Any idea about flavor transfer? Friends of mine swear that you should have check valves inline on the CO2 so that you don't get Belgian taste on your IPAs (and such). I've never noticed this in my beer fridge which has three service lines without check valves. Nov 19, 2010 at 23:54
  • I don't use a check valve, and I've never noticed a problem of flavor cross-contamination, and none of the keg systems I've seen, either homebrew or for restaurants, have had check valves. I have a hard time imagining much gas travels from one keg to another, and liquid can't flow if you only have one downtube.
    – Brandon
    Nov 20, 2010 at 5:29
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As long as your setup has a regulator for each beer, you should be golden. Even if it doesn't you can still be fine as long as you don't mind slightly under carbonated lagers or slightly over carbonated stouts.

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