Polypins

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pilot146

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I’m new to this so bear with me. I have just had a bar installed in my back garden. It is fully kitted out with optics and beer pump. I bought a 10 litre polyp in of real ale and it was consumed very quickly. I am looking to purchase my own polyp in and filling it with my own home brew. I want something sturdy to last quite a while. I searched the internet but the only place I can find something like I’m looking for is out of stock. I would be grateful if someone could suggest a suitable place to purchase a 10 litre polypin
 
Hi Pilot Polypins are fine if you drink the beer reasonably quickly, I am assuming it is cask beer you are buying or looking to store rather than kegging but if if you have a good set up and it sounds like you have a long term solution is Corny Kegs which you can use as a keg and a cask with a small adaption. Look up on you tube Dudes Brews latest video on using a corny for hand pump it is excellent and will give you a good idea apart from that I am sure some members will pipe up re purchase of Polypins as quite a few have used them for cask ale athumb..
 
Hi, I reuse the polypin that my 10 litres of ale came in. I have had no problems. Did you keep the one your ale arrived in?
 
It depends on the polypin to be honest. My bag has a tap that I just unscrew from the bag, I remove the bag from the box and then clean and sanitise as usual. You might have a tap that uses a vitap connection and in this instance youtube is your friend as I'm sure there is a tutorial on there that will explain how to remove/replace that type of tap. It's definitely possible though mate... Hopefully you can reuse yours cos they ain't cheap... Good luck
 
I haven’t taken it out of the box. How do you refill the bag

The plastic ring surrounding the tap on the front should unscrew.

It isn't always obvious when ordering these things online, but just to be clear there is a big difference between proper polypins and much less substantial bag in box solutions. You don't want to be putting a load of homebrew into a flimsy "bag in box" to condition.
 
If it's a bag in a box, the bag will be thin, clear and the tap you push with your thumb and will be difficult to remove. These are not designed to be reused.

Polypins I think only come in one size (aorund 36 pints) are made of thicker, opaque plastic, have a lever tap, the collar of which unscrews and is designed to be (or at least is) reusable.

I never got on with polypins. I thought the beer took too long to come into condition and the plastic was too gas permeable to be useful for anything other stronger than, say, a best-type bitter, but am prepared to believe that was perhaps poor sanitation on my part.

I think bag in a box is probably less gas-permeable.

There is a poster on another well-known forum who swears by them and I think he's probably thwtefore had better luck than I have.
 
If it's a bag in a box, the bag will be thin, clear and the tap you push with your thumb and will be difficult to remove. These are not designed to be reused.

Polypins I think only come in one size (aorund 36 pints) are made of thicker, opaque plastic, have a lever tap, the collar of which unscrews and is designed to be (or at least is) reusable.

I never got on with polypins. I thought the beer took too long to come into condition and the plastic was too gas permeable to be useful for anything other stronger than, say, a best-type bitter, but am prepared to believe that was perhaps poor sanitation on my part.

I think bag in a box is probably less gas-permeable.

There is a poster on another well-known forum who swears by them and I think he's probably thwtefore had better luck than I have.

You can get 5L,10L and 20L polypins - I've got some beer conditioning in a 10L one right now. I would say that they probably shouldn't be used for anything that you want to be highly carbonated. I check each day and open the tap to release a bit of pressure if the bag goes fully rigid.
 

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