Beer kegs

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krazypara3165

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Afternoon all, im looking at getting a beer keg or two soon and Im confused by the amount of options there are! Ive looked into cornys but these seem to be getting more expensive!

does anyone use normal beer kegs (i believe they are called sankey kegs?) as there seems to be plenty of used examples lying around for around a tenner a piece!
 
"Normal" kegs tend to be stolen, either deliberately or "by finding", they usually have a legal owner and Kegwatch will endeavour to return them to that owner with no recompense to the "innocent" purchaser of the stolen goods.

Other options are Ecofass or Polykeg. I've got some 2nd hand 30l polykegs that I'm yet to use but they seem really good, there is a possibility of the member I got them from doing a group buy of new ones but I haven't heard anything lately. He reckoned they'd work out around 20 quid each.

Ecofass would work out at about the same price as 2nd hand cornies are making.

There is another polykeg style on the market which actually looks more robust than the PolyKeg.

The trouble is that there is nowhere to buy these in quantities less than a pallet...
 
Cheers for that! the dolium ones, are they not single use ones then?

there seems to be so many options! it might be worthwhile getting in on that group order if it goes ahead.

.....off to do some research on polykegs!

Is there any way i can find out if the sankey kegs are legit? at a tenner each and seeing that they are only round the corner it could be worthwhile looking into.....
 
I have just got my polykegs up and running, had my first beer out of it last night which was far too early so a bit flat. The good thing about them is that they use all the same stuff as normal kegs so if I want to upgrade to proper metal sankey kegs I will have all the equipment. I have heard a lot on hear about crusader kegs which are exactly the same as pub ones, just bought new so no worry about them being stolen. From what I remember they were reasonably priced as well. Personally I would look at those before I went for Cornies. If you search through there are also some companies that sell decommissioned pub kegs which might work out cheaper.
 
Sankey is the connector type rather than the keg. Sankey s is the most common sankey connector over here (as opposed to sankey d in USA).

If they are legit the seller should have paperwork evidencing they have title to the kegs. If not they are still owned by the brewery.
 
thanks! just added another type (crusader) to the mix!

On a serious note it seems they do slimline 20 Litre Slim Stainless Steel Kegs for a touch over £50 which seems reasonable!
 
I think thats the way I will be going when I upgrade my polykegs.

Out of interest, where are these 10 quid kegs if they are legit they might be a bargain, I dont think you are too far away from me either. The other issue with the old ones is getting the spear out which can apparently be a terrible job if its the wrong type of keg (looks like I am about a week ahead of you with my reasearch!)
 
krazypara3165 said:
thanks! just added another type (crusader) to the mix!

On a serious note it seems they do slimline 20 Litre Slim Stainless Steel Kegs for a touch over £50 which seems reasonable!
Don't forget VAT and the delivery charge of 25 quid . . . then it's considerably more than a touch over 50 quid ;)
 
cheers they were on gumtree in Manchester but searching the site later it seems they have dissapeared (maybe they were not legit lol)
 
What about these from brewery plastics. No idea of price etc. They do 10,15,20,30,50L in slim kegs. :thumb:
 
For the life of me i can't understand why some British firm hasn't started making corny style kegs , if the Italians can do it why with a little design change can't someone here do it too . The amount of fabrication companies about you'd think someone would buy the rights to make em . Something like a keg should be about £40/50 new easily i would of thought .
 
krazypara3165 said:
at a tenner each and seeing that they are only round the corner it could be worthwhile looking into.....
they most definately not legit at that price. 2nd hand 50l ones go for over 50 quid. its not just big buisness that loses casks ive had loads robbed in the last few years not pleasant i can tell you

the brewery plastic kegs can have catistrophic failures. a guy in red hook misshandled one and the term spear became VERY litteral if the g.p.s. ones ever surface theyd be quite good, crusader are good for the price but the prices quoted on the site are for minimum purchase (normally 50-100 units)
 
critch said:
crusader are good for the price but the prices quoted on the site are for minimum purchase (normally 50-100 units)
Crusader don't have a minimum order, just the postage cost stays the same so the more you order the cheaper they are :D
 
Is it just me.....or is there not a genuine alternative to Cornie's yet?

Every keg solution I see (and there's about 4-6 being talked about on the forum) has a flaw of some sort....and I look at my cornie's and there's absolutely nothing wrong with them.

I understand that in a few years things may be different and we need to look at alternatives for practical reasons as well as environmental, etc but I can't help but think people are piling cash into these big plastic bulbs, chinese kegs, etc and are going to regret it in a few years when they break or need replaced.

The plastic variants I simply don't think will last very long either through material degradation or damage through use. Yeh I know they're cheaper but they're not THAT cheaper to be replaced too often. The stainless variants almost all need safety devices removed to work properly which is absolute madness if you ask me. Lastly the single use plastic things.....well the less said about them the better.

Just my 2p's worth and only an opinion but I'm personally VERY sceptical about piling coin into pallets of stuff from Italy or whatever when Cornies have worked fine for 30 years and are completely serviceable.

If it was me I'd pick up 2-4 Cornies and make use of the wealth of info that exists about them and when a genuinely viable alternative solution becomes available, buy them and flog the cornies. If by then the **** has fallen out the cornie market and they're worth 20p or whatever then I'd keep them for ageing, bottling under pressure, etc.

K
 
I replaced my cornies with slimline crusader kegs with Sankey S Type couplings. I can't see a downside with them. You don't have to remove the safety but it's a very easy job if you want to remove it, takes about a minute with a pair of wire cutters.
I can't work out what the flaw is with these crusader kegs.

Postage cost is high so buy a lot in one go.
 
Well the flaw is that you have to remove the safety device......but you say you don't so they appear to be decent. So I stand corrected. Having never used them I can only comment on what I've read here.

How do you fill/operate/clean them? Can you quickly explain it?

I was under the impression they couldn't be used at home without the safety thingy being removed.

K
 
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