Mini Keg Usage, Maintenance & Party Star Deluxe Part 1

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Motorhomebrew

AKA - RobsHomebrew
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Right I tried to upload this thread all in one earlier but their were too many pics so iv had to break it down into parts. Before making comments or asking questions read all parts. Their are 4 Parts to this thread. (See links at the end of this post)
Peeps Here is how I clean and sanitize my Mini kegs and prep bungs for kegging. Iv also included a how to step by step Party Star Deluxe. I hope you find this useful if your new to Mini Kegging.
Right here we go.
First off I use a demijohn brush to help assist the cleaning of my Kegs. However I'm finding I don't use it all that often. As long as once you've finished a keg you give it a good rinse untill your ready to clean it you shouldn't be left with any deposits.

Right so then your going to want to fill your keg with warm water about half full and a dash of washing up liquid, then covering the top hole with your hand give it a good shake.
Then turn it upside down and turn the top tap on to pull in air to help a faster smooth flow of water out. At this point if you've tapped into the keg and this is the first time cleaning it this I where the grommet you pushed in with your tap will pop out with the last of the water
Continue the process of filling and emptying until your satisfied that its clean and soap sudd free. Once you've done that your going to either move onto sanitizing or your going to want to remove as much excess water as possible and put away with a dust cap on and you simply do that by giving it a good thrashing around. And leave on the draining board over night. You will be left with some water that you cant get to but iv never had an issue. Now you can get rid of that by putting them in a oven after its been on but be cautious its not too hot. Iv had the plastic taps melt. ( not my fault the Mrs did it ) and you don't want that. Anyway take your dust cap and stick it on and store away
Now if you want to sanitise get your choice of sanitizer. Mine in this case is Miltons tablets. If their good enough for new born babys their good enough for me. Their relatively cheap at around ����£1.50 for a box of 28 I think and 1 tablet sanitizes 5 litres so fits well with my mini kegs.
So your now going to take your freshly washed keg and fill your keg to an inch from the top and pop your tablet in. I break the tablet into half to fit it in then I fill the keg right to the top and over flow onto the top of the keg and after 15 minutes were golden. (Good to get Kegging)
So after 15 minutes empty and give it a swill with water rinse. So now you've washed and sanitized go ahead and fill your keg with your beer. Now people can get pickie here when it comes to how much to prime with sugar and in my case I brew lagers ALOT and iv found without weighing or being scientific that a heaped measured Tea spoon gives me spot on carbination everytime. But that's me. Right while your siphoning your beer into your keg you'll have enough time to grab your clean and sanitized bung and lube it up with plain old Vaseline and a cotton bud for ease.
Sanitize the cotton bud if you must but I don't and have never had a problem. Ok so your going to want to get plenty of Vaseline onto your bud and your going to fill the ridge of the bung with it clean off any excess and it should look like this all the way round right so what we've done their is ensure once we've pushed this onto the keg we have a good air tight seal. Now assuming we've kegged the beer and primed push your bung onto the keg and wipe the excess Vaseline off now you've cleaned, sanitized, filled, primed, lubed and bunged. Your all done. Give yourself a clap.


Part 2 http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=59405

Part 3 http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=59406

Part 4 http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=59407
 
great post mate, ive been following your posts with your mini kegs cause ive been thinking about getting some myself and seeing someone else splash the cash and test it all out then showing how its done is invaluable.
just one question, do you pre prime your kegs or do you carb your kegs with co2 bulbs through your tap alone?:thumb:
 
Very nice write up Rob, thank you,

I get my milton tabs from pound shops! or ifn you aint posh like me you can also get them in 99p shops!
 
I didn't put Vaseline on the bung, am I gonna have problems? Is it worth trying to do it retro? Cheers for this info Rob much appreciated.

The Vaseline on the bung I put on as its a potential place for loss of C02. Their have been people report their kegs don't hold carbonation and I put it down to 1) not enough priming sugar and time to carb in the warm and 2) not lubing your bung. I'm not saying if you don't lube your bung this will happen to you because when I first mini kegged I didn't and had no problem. I do it now as iv read its good practise and its just another way to cover your back
 
Rob, it starts with the bottle brush, but obviously to get the brush in you have to remove a bung or tab or something?

Lol obviously. I know what your getting at and yes I have overlooked that when making the thread. Bungs really are NOT hard to remove. DONT use a sharp knife to assist out. DO get some pliers and mask tape the tongues of the pliers then grip on edge of the bung and pull firmly
 
Haven't got any pliers Can I use scissors or a screwdriver? ha ha ha :nono:

Yeh iv used a blunt butter knife to help ease a bung out. Pull it as much as you can with your fingers then slide the bread knife under being careful and ease it up
 
Haven't got any pliers Can I use scissors or a screwdriver? ha ha ha :nono:

WHAT!! Your a bloke and you haven't got any pliers! <shakes head>

Seriously though, I've read, if you pour some boiling water over the bung to soften the rubber it will make it easier to pull out. Haven't tried it though as I just used pliers
 
Rob, thanks for these four "how to" guides, very helpful. I have a couple of queries if you don't mind:

1. I have the grey bungs you referred to, do these need lubed and what's the best way to remove these particular bungs from the keg?

2. Can you give a brief how to on use of the CO2? Should this be turned on as soon as you start drawing from the keg or wait a couple of pints? Turn up full or half way etc?

Thanks again!
 
Awesome series of posts Rob. :thumb:

Couple of great tips that I will be using.

Vaseline, to ensure a good bung seal - My kegs seemed to have maitained carbonation with no leak but I will use vaseline from now on to make sure

Opening the tap when rinsing/cleaning the keg - I'm sure this helps get the small red thing from the bung, out of the keg that you need to push in the keg to get most of the bug out the keg. I didn't open the tap when I cleaned my first keg the other day and it was a devil of a job getting that little part back out of the keg
 
Awesome series of posts Rob. :thumb:

Couple of great tips that I will be using.

Vaseline, to ensure a good bung seal - My kegs seemed to have maitained carbonation with no leak but I will use vaseline from now on to make sure

Opening the tap when rinsing/cleaning the keg - I'm sure this helps get the small red thing from the bung, out of the keg that you need to push in the keg to get most of the bug out the keg. I didn't open the tap when I cleaned my first keg the other day and it was a devil of a job getting that little part back out of the keg

The kegs I have don't have a tap built into them, was thinking that getting the bit from the bung that pops into the keg back out would be a nightmare.
 
WHAT!! Your a bloke and you haven't got any pliers! <shakes head>

Seriously though, I've read, if you pour some boiling water over the bung to soften the rubber it will make it easier to pull out. Haven't tried it though as I just used pliers

I was exctracting the urine!
Rob said "DONT use a sharp knife to assist out"
 
The kegs I have don't have a tap built into them, was thinking that getting the bit from the bung that pops into the keg back out would be a nightmare.

My fingers are small enough to hook that 'bit' out but both sonnal (i think) and robs says it should come out with the rinse water. Just make sure you open the tap when draining out the water through the bung hole
 
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