Corny keg alternative idea....

Hi All,
Ok, So I cant afford Corny kegs and really I would want two or three. So I was thinking, I have access to plenty of food grade 25L drums, the opaque white ones. So if I was to wrap these with glass fibre mat and polyester resin to thicken them up and make them a whole lot stronger dou you think they would be strong enough to use CO2 to carbonate as well as pump to a tap in a kegorator etc.
I am thinking they would be strong enough, if not just add more layers of mat and resin etc. The one thing I am not sure about is if the resin would have any affect on the HDPE barrels and more importantly its contents...

I have been messing around with barrels to help filter my cider, what I have done is put a car tyre valve into the top of the barrel and I have a grommet for the sypon tube going to the filter then into the second barrel, I have only used a car foot pump to pressurize the barrel and that works really well, obviously it would be prefered to be using CO2 instead of air, but it was just for experimenting. The only problem I had was the barrels loosing their shape, I dont know how much pressure they geld as I dont have a guage but they were rock hard and would easily push the cider through a 5 micron filter etc.
So if I added the "Jacket" to the barrels then that would keep them in their right shape and be safer. As I said my main concern is if anything from the resin would leech through the barrel and afect the beer/cider inside.

If this did work then there could be quite a demand for the barrels as they would be a lot cheaper to make than the SS cornys.

What do you all think ???

Hey Steve,
I'd say it's going to be pretty risky mate, I've just ordered my corne keg setup and that will be pressurised to 30psi to carbonate! Now the thing to think about is it's all well and good putting some fibreglass around the sides but pressure has a equal force all around you vessel! So the weakest link so to say will be you deadly spot. Also corne kegs have a lid on the inside of the vessel so with the increase in pressure there's increased seal.
I personally my friend would say no to the idea based on safety, and the fact that cider/beer coving every inch of your home when it goes wrong is probably not what you had planned :nah:
I just paid about £70 for a corne with all new seals and lid second had and it comes sanitised with 5 psi in the tank to show it holds pressure.