Beertender Kegs & also belgian yeast cultivation

[lovelldr]

Hey guys.

Currently in France for a break visiting the in-laws, and whilst over here, been sampling some of the shop brews. Found some of these:

http://www.saveur-biere.com/fr/fut-de-b ... ender.html

So, was wondering if anyone had used any of these beer tender kegs? Are they able to be re-used? Not too sure on the quality of the tap and how well it would survive being re-used?! Haven't had chance to check out the keg much myself, as didn't wanna inspect it too much in front of in-laws...

Also, whilst I'm over here, was thinking of bring a few different beers back with me, with the intent of cultivating the yeast from the bottles... Virtually all bottled belgians I've tried have some yeast at the bottom, so should imagine that all will be good for cultivating. But wondered if anyone knew whether some were pasteurised or not?! Was thinking of getting some karmeliet triple, chimay, maredsous and whatever else I can find available... So, ideas of which to go for... Currently only on kits, but was gonna use some different strains for the brewferms, and with an eye to doing some extract type belgians at some point...

Thanks for all advice :)

 

[BigYin]

I've seen a 3 litre commercial beer keg (from Aldi or Lidl) that had a wee tap at the bottom - that would have been useless for the homebrewer as the lid the brewery use to put the beer in the keg is sealed by machine and can't be opened..

Suspect the 5l kegs you're looking at may suffer the same issues, although without trying to open one and see, there's no way of telling.

You would also have to be sure of getting a good natural carbonation of the beer to use the keg, or adapt it so you can gas it from a CO2 cylinder somehow..

Personally I'd recommend you avoid a thousand fussy problems and just dive into the world of cornies - you won't look back after that :drink: :drink:

 

[bobsbeer]

The keg looks suspiciously like the ones used by Hieniken in the UK. If so they can't be reused as they have an integral gas cylinder and opening is impossible without damaging the keg. There are 5lt kegs available for HB use. I use them all the time. They cost about £5 each and are reuseable. Some have a fitted tap and others need a unit fitting on top.