Draft Ale Dispenser

[Rampage]

Hi. I have been brewing full mash beers in 100 litre batches for about a year now. The beers I go for are generally English Ales with 5% ABV. About half of what I produce I bottle or box and sell to friends. The rest is home consumed. To date I have been using plastic beer barrels with the CO2 'sparklets' type fittings. However, these have their limitations as there is no control of the CO2 pressure - once the capsule is open it is all discharged. Some goes into the beer some fills the vacant barrel volume and the rest is ejected from the safety valve. Of course craft ales don't actually need to be pressurized but I find it lasts longer if I expel the air in the barrel, and people like a little bit of head/fizz. I would like to upgrade to a pressure controlled kegerator type unit that incorporates a keg of around 50l, a chiller (I live in southern Portugal - hot summers) and a pressure controlled CO2 system. Does anyone know where I can source such a unit in the UK?

 

[Leon103]

In before the HMRC police start posting

 

[Simonh82]

Most people build their own converting a chest freezer or fridge. It's a fairly straight forward build if you are in any way handy. Most kegs that homebrewers use are 19L. I'm sure 50L kegs exist but I don't know about the type of fittings they would use. Also bear in mind that if you go for a 50L keg you would need to be able to lift and maneuver it into your kegerator/keezer, or make sure you have the space and set up to fill it in place. I struggle getting my 35L stainless steel fermentor up onto a work surface so I know I wouldn't want a 50L keg to manhandle.

Saying all of that, kegging is brilliant. I've just recently started and compared to bottling it is so quick and easy. You can also have the beer carbonated in a matter of hours to days instead of a couple of weeks.

 

[-Bezza-]

In before the HMRC police start posting

I was hovering over the letters, then saw he's in Portugal. :thumbd:

 

[Rampage]

Not understanding.

 

[simon12]

Its much cheaper to build one otherwise theres this https://www.geterbrewed.com/3-tap-kegerator/

 

[Alside101]

Get a kegmenter there 50l sankey kegs converted to corny type kegs then build a keezer of some sort theres loads of videos on youtube

 

[-Bezza-]

Not understanding.

This sort of thing:

 

[Rampage]

Thanks for the the suggestions regarding the keezer. Still don't understand the hmrc thing.

 

[simon12]

Thanks for the the suggestions regarding the keezer. Still don't understand the hmrc thing.

You said you are selling homebrew, in the UK that would be illegal unless you pay tax to HMRC.

 

[-Bezza-]

Thanks for the the suggestions regarding the keezer. Still don't understand the hmrc thing.

It might be somewhat dubious for you to be selling beer without correctly accounting for alcohol duty. :hat:

 

[johnyp]

DID THE GUY NOT SAY HE LIVES IN PORTUGAL .

 

[Bigcol49]

DID THE GUY NOT SAY HE LIVES IN PORTUGAL .

Hi!
@-Bezza- has already spotted this.
Make sure your Cap Lock is off, otherwise your comment is interpreted as angry shouting.