Using a corny keg without co2

[Dave 666]

Well I'm asking this out of curiosity and necessity as much as anything after having to keg a brew (a later brew) yesterday that looked like it had an infection. Only I've yet to source any co2 so simply keged the bulk and primed with most the priming sugar.

Now here is the question, whilst I'm guessing it's not overly a major issue using a keg initially without additional co2 if adding priming sugar. But at some point (more so being a lager requiring more carbination) during serving as it reduces I can see I'll need to top up the co2 at some point. So do others use their corny Keg without additional co2 in the early days, instead opting for priming sugar and how do you find it?.

But co2 wise, I'm thinking going more down the soda stream co2 bottle route as when buying the kegs this week I was told by the seller that a soda stream bottle could be good for about 5 corny kegs which would suit me as can't see me doing more than 10 kegs per year at most. So a small commercial 3.5kg cylinder of co2 might not be as cost effective for me seeing as the cylinder deposit\rental would cancel out any savings due to relative low co2 usage. Besides, I'd still be using priming sugar at kegging stage so maybe a soda stream really would be the best option for relative low co2 requirements?.

 

[Drunkula]

Yeah a 425g sodastream bottle will push out 5 kegs worth.

The thing with a cornie is sealing the lid tight which you can do with a blast of co2 but that'll get absorbed so if you're priming the beer you'd want it at room temp an maybe an hour or so after adding the priming sugar so it'll stay sealed.

I prime in the keg no and again. With some of my fake 'beers' like nettle, skeeter pee or Elderflower I've actually primed like crazy so that I don't have to add any gas. It's easier with things like that because their protein content is next to nothing so it's much easier to balance the beer line and not get a pint of froth.

I'd still recommend trying to find a big cylinder of co2. The gas taken to force carb is about a third of the total gas used to carb and serve and the cost of that is easily offset by getting an extra pint that's not fulla gunk.

I worked out the cost of carbonating 20 litres of beer to 2.1 vols
table sugar 6.5p
co2 gas (£18.99 for 6.35 kg) 15.4p
Wilko brewing sugar 29.9p

So yeah, that extra 10p of co2 over sugar is more than compensated for by the extra beer you'll get, and you can start drinking it much sooner.

 

[Leon103]

I found gas in an unlikely source. My local coal man (also sells household gas)

 

[Dave 666]

Yeah a 425g sodastream bottle will push out 5 kegs worth.

The thing with a cornie is sealing the lid tight which you can do with a blast of co2 but that'll get absorbed so if you're priming the beer you'd want it at room temp an maybe an hour or so after adding the priming sugar so it'll stay sealed.

I prime in the keg no and again. With some of my fake 'beers' like nettle, skeeter pee or Elderflower I've actually primed like crazy so that I don't have to add any gas. It's easier with things like that because their protein content is next to nothing so it's much easier to balance the beer line and not get a pint of froth.

I'd still recommend trying to find a big cylinder of co2. The gas taken to force carb is about a third of the total gas used to carb and serve and the cost of that is easily offset by getting an extra pint that's not fulla gunk.

I worked out the cost of carbonating 20 litres of beer to 2.1 vols
table sugar 6.5p
co2 gas (£18.99 for 6.35 kg) 15.4p
Wilko brewing sugar 29.9p

So yeah, that extra 10p of co2 over sugar is more than compensated for by the extra beer you'll get, and you can start drinking it much sooner.

I kind of get that with regards to using co2 over using priming sugar & then co2 for more serving pressure etc. And where the costs worth it I'd 100% go down that route. But the initial costings in having a look last night trying to source bigger co2 has cylinders simply don't add up. I can buy a full 600g soda stream co2 cylinder for £30 or less & that would do maybe 5 kegs and last several months. So initial outlay (based on maybe 10 kegs usage per year) would be £43 including a single refill with each year's usage after that £26 based on £13 per refill. So unless I'm missing something, the annual co2 cylinder rental charges alone looks to be costing more than that. And that's before any co2 purchase & delivery costing.

I understand some places might have more a returnable deposit scheme, but in looking round here (Merseyside) it's more rental based and or incurs additional charges such as delivery.