Kegs and valves

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HebridesRob

Landlord.
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Since joining yesterday I've been working through a shopping list of equipment that I want. Have got most of the answers I need through searches but I can't help myself here.

Back in the day I had two plastic barrels with pressure relief valves that worked with a soda-stream CO2 bottle to provide top pressure when required, just to stop air getting into the barrel and make dispensing the beer a little easier.

I found it was considerably more economical and less annoying than those 8g bulbs (which incidentally, I believe I can't get mail-order to the island because of carriage restrictions)

It seems that King Keg barrels are about the best on the market currently (please feel free to confirm or deny), anyone know, is there anything currently available that is similar to the above arrangement that can be used with King Keg barrels?
 
There seems to be two camps when it comes king kegs. I have two currently with beer conditioning in both. It looks like they need a slight bit of tweaking before you get the best out of them.
They are easy to over tighten and lose the seal in the cap. Vaseline helps, and only do then hand tight plus a bit for luck (same with the tap), if you wrench them up really tight the o ring gets squashed and you lose the seal.
You won't get a high level of carbonation from them either, for that you'll need to bottle or get a keg that can stand higher pressure.

For me, I like King Kegs but only for British style ales.
 
The only time you see threads on here about any pressure barrel is when they are leaking - no-one posts when they have no issues with them (obviously!). The key as already said is not to get heavy handed with them, and a quick test with soapy water around the lid/tap will let you know if you've got it right or wrong. Having said that, I've had two that were so c**p they are now in my garden as planters. No matter what I did - including filing rough spots - the damn things wouldn't seal. Bottles and corny kegs for me.
 
I think this is where I can weigh in about King Kegs I have 3, in the past I had 4 (I gave up brewing for a while when I had a very bad hernia and was chary of lifting 5 gallon vessel. Think the young man from Devises type hernia) However they have rarely given me trouble, It was the same with the old EDME barrels which I liked very much but hey ho. With the three barrels on the go and really semi carefully leaving one for a few days and drinking the other and so on I have dispensed all the ale from one without any help. Now this is the first time I have managed this but if you have enough on the go it can be done (I nearly managed it before but needed to keep pressure up because I used to use a home made sparkler system to get a tight (Pub Style) head, now I don't bother and save gas and money.

Hope this helps you out

A
 
Yes, Andy is did help. The only reason I ever used pressure was to keep enough in the barrel to stop air bubbling back through the tap. If I was drinking a barrel with a few mates I used to just loosen the top and let air in.
My first barrel was a dark brown Schweppes model with a drum tap. Too much pressure was undesirable because the beer used to swill around the tap and come out as foam.
 

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