Kegs/mini kegs/cornies

The Homebrew Forum

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

ryanshelton

Landlord.
Joined
Jan 9, 2013
Messages
695
Reaction score
5
Location
Ilkeston, Derbyshire
Hi all

im getting bored of opening bottles when i want a beer now so im thinking about the 5L mini kegs. Ive seen the starter kits for around £50(3 kegs, co2 bulbs and tap) but what im wondering is, is there any other way of dispensing beer? King kegs?(although space may be an issue as i currently brew in the kitchen and the beer is stored in the shed)

I also want something to bring the beer in for The Spring Thing, so must be fairly easy to transport :cheers:
 
How about a poly pin in a box for the Spring Thing. It will be served via the beer engines on the bar. Cheaper and easier than mini kegs and less hassle. But for home use I would say king keg or cornies. I have some mini kega but found they were a bit of a hassle to travel with as they need to stand for 24 hours or so to settle again. And it's hard to control the pressure so foam can be an issue when you first tap them. But for home use you could bring one in and put in the kitchen or next to your chair. :grin:
 
bobsbeer said:
How about a poly pin in a box for the Spring Thing. It will be served via the beer engines on the bar. Cheaper and easier than mini kegs and less hassle. But for home use I would say king keg or cornies. I have some mini kega but found they were a bit of a hassle to travel with as they need to stand for 24 hours or so to settle again. And it's hard to control the pressure so foam can be an issue when you first tap them. But for home use you could bring one in and put in the kitchen or next to your chair. :grin:

what capacity do the polypins have? did you have a tap with your mini kegs or use the integral one?

EDIT: Just found them on murphys homebrew website. Convenient as im going there next week :cheers:
 
Have you considered the 5 litre easy-kegs? Very similar to the mini-kegs you mention, but they have a tap on the side, so you don't need CO2 and external taps to dispense. The down-side is that when you do dispense, you are letting air into the head-space, so it will go off if you don't drink it all in 3-4 days.

They are a touch over £5 each, and so far I've found the bungs to be re-usable. So quite cheap compared to your starter kit.

I treat mine like a large bottle - ie: I still batch prime my beer, and for a 20 litre batch I'll fill 2 x easy-kegs and 20 bottles from that. As long as you are priming to ale levels of fizz, the kegs are fine. They then go through secondary fermentation and cold-conditioning the same as the bottles.

edit : in the early days I tried 5 litre poly-pins alongside the easy-kegs, and found I much preferred the easy-kegs. I had to treat the pins differently to the bottles (I didn't feel comfortable priming them as much as a bottle), and in side-by-side tastings, I thought the beer tasted livelier from the easy-keg (comparable to bottled beer).

A big advantage for the pins is you can connect them directly to a beer-engine, so if you want the "real ale" experience, then pins are the way to go. For the "bottled beer" experience, I found easy-kegs better.
 
Polypin should last a good length of time because its a flexible bag it doesn't Need to let air in to dispense
 
Easy kegs sound interesting only thing that concerns me is wont the beer be headless so to speak? What are thr integral taps like?

Will also get a couple of polypins, ideal for the spring thing :thumb:
 
I invested in mini-kegs despite having a supply of Grolsch bottles from where I work (yes, I know they are green...), and I'm glad I did! Yes, it can be difficult to control the foaming, but with a bit of practice the beers pour quite nicely, IMHO. If you do decide to buy mini-kegs, check out forum sponsor The Homebrew Company - they offered the best price when I got mine, and it was cheaper to buy the bits separately than to buy the starter kit, so do check before ordering!

Dennis
 

Latest posts

Back
Top