Would this be any good for a 5 litre keg?

[LesTom]

I only brew small batches but even then I find bottling a bit of a pain. I've looked at the Dark Farm kegs and dispensing system but they are a bit too expensive for me.

Would this be any good 5 Litre Mini Keg - The Bottle Jar Store

 

[uDicko]

Are you planning on holding much pressure in the keg? IIRC they can handle about 12psi before failing.

I'm probably wrong as that's from memory.

 

[LesTom]

Are you planning on holding much pressure in the keg? IIRC they can handle about 12psi before failing.

I'm probably wrong as that's from memory.

I was thinking of cabonating with sugar and to be honest I've no clue how much pressure that would create

 

[AnimatedGIF]

I've used two before, and managed 1 brew with one before it developed a metalic taste on the second batch, and the other recently failed, and for the first time I lost beer I cleaned both gently between uses.
I think the reason my second one leaked was because it got a little warm and so the pressure inside increased.

I think they are better suited to ales with low volumes of CO2 as they cannot hold a great deal of pressure.

In my opinion, if you can, you'd be better off with a stainless steel mini keg as these are designed for re-use. Dark farm are a little pricy(but look exceptional), but BKT do a less expensive option - 5L MiniKeg Party Kit and they have great service (I am sure DF do too, but I can't say from experience as I never bought from them).
By the time you've replaced a few of the easy kegs that you linked, you could have bought one, though I appreciate it is an upfront cost.
The added benefit of the BKT type are that the disconnects are widely available and compatible with other kegs (e.g cornies). This allows for future upgrades if desired.

 

[Banbeer]

I'm in agreement with @AnimatedGIF as I dabbled in these for a while and ended up binning them, constant foamy beer and then the metalic taste topped it for me so switched to cornies and now have 6 of them.

 

[An Ankoù]

If you're going to buy one, buy on ein the supermarket full of beer. Ghost Ship is a good 'n at about £15. Don't get Doom Bar, they're difficult to refurbish and the beer's ****.

 

[LesTom]

I've used two before, and managed 1 brew with one before it developed a metalic taste on the second batch, and the other recently failed, and for the first time I lost beer I cleaned both gently between uses.
I think the reason my second one leaked was because it got a little warm and so the pressure inside increased.

I think they are better suited to ales with low volumes of CO2 as they cannot hold a great deal of pressure.

In my opinion, if you can, you'd be better off with a stainless steel mini keg as these are designed for re-use. Dark farm are a little pricy(but look exceptional), but BKT do a less expensive option - 5L MiniKeg Party Kit and they have great service (I am sure DF do too, but I can't say from experience as I never bought from them).
By the time you've replaced a few of the easy kegs that you linked, you could have bought one, though I appreciate it is an upfront cost.
The added benefit of the BKT type are that the disconnects are widely available and compatible with other kegs (e.g cornies). This allows for future upgrades if desired.

Thanks for that, I'll go and have a look at the link you posted

 

[RichardM]

I use ones like that in the OPs link, but like @An Ankoù says, buy them full of beer.
I have reused them a few times and then just buy more. I've never had a problem with them leaking.

 

[LesTom]

I use ones like that in the OPs link, but like @An Ankoù says, buy them full of beer.
I have reused them a few times and then just buy more. I've never had a problem with them leaking.

Is there a particular bung on the top of the Ghost Ship keg that I should be aware of e.g. black bung with a red centre or vise versa?

 

[An Ankoù]

Is there a particular bung on the top of the Ghost Ship keg that I should be aware of e.g. black bung with a red centre or vise versa?

The bungs are pretty standard. Black with a two-part red core. When empty, you pull the top part of the red core up and off and then push the lower part into the can. You can then carefully lever out the black rubber bung, flush the can with water, recovering the bottom red bit, and then reassembly the whole bung. I think there are YouTube videos about how to do this.

 

[Binkei Huckaback]

Regarding priming sugar and how much to use, there are calculators in books and on the internet which will help.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

I only brew small batches but even then I find bottling a bit of a pain. I've looked at the Dark Farm kegs and dispensing system but they are a bit too expensive for me.

Would this be any good 5 Litre Mini Keg - The Bottle Jar Store

I did use a couple of these on my first brew - they can be great, but I've now stopped using them because one lot was fine but the other developed a nasty metallic taste (see below). Wasting 5 Litres of the good stuff is not a risk I'm in a hurry to take again.

I believe they are actually made by HUBER Packaging in Germany (link). It's pretty easy to find replacement pressure bungs for them, and even CO2 dispenser taps to keep the air off them (e.g. this one). A good video on how to re-use them can be found here.

So while these can be a really convenient low cost option, they do have a few drawbacks. But I appreciate that not everyone has the luxury of opting for a corny, cylinder and regulator etc; so I'd say give them a try but proceed with caution. In particular don't let too much pressure build up in them, because they turn into a rugby ball shape and that's a dead-sure way to crack the lacquer coating (see below).

Points to bear in mind:

1. In general you can get a pint or two out before needing to open the top vent to let the air in; then once you've done that I reckon you've only got two or three days before the beer starts to go off. Not a problem over a weekend (hic), but inconvenient if you just want a little mid-week refreshment. You can of course get something like one of those CO2 injectors to work around this, but the cost starts to add up.
2. They aren't stainless steel - just normal plain steel coated with lacquer on the inside. So if the lacquer gets damaged then you have a problem (I strongly suspect that this was the cause of my bad batch). I have read people saying that in practice they should only be re-used a few times for this reason.
3. They aren't that easy to clean out properly...

 

[Oneflewover]

I did use a couple of these on my first brew - they can be great, but I've now stopped using them because one lot was fine but the other developed a nasty metallic taste (see below). Wasting 5 Litres of the good stuff is not a risk I'm in a hurry to take again.

I believe they are actually made by HUBER Packaging in Germany (link). It's pretty easy to find replacement pressure bungs for them, and even CO2 dispenser taps to keep the air off them (e.g. this one). A good video on how to re-use them can be found here.

So while these can be a really convenient low cost option, they do have a few drawbacks. But I appreciate that not everyone has the luxury of opting for a corny, cylinder and regulator etc; so I'd say give them a try but proceed with caution. In particular don't let too much pressure build up in them, because they turn into a rugby ball shape and that's a dead-sure way to crack the lacquer coating (see below).

Points to bear in mind:

1. In general you can get a pint or two out before needing to open the top vent to let the air in; then once you've done that I reckon you've only got two or three days before the beer starts to go off. Not a problem over a weekend (hic), but inconvenient if you just want a little mid-week refreshment. You can of course get something like one of those CO2 injectors to work around this, but the cost starts to add up.
2. They aren't stainless steel - just normal plain steel coated with lacquer on the inside. So if the lacquer gets damaged then you have a problem (I strongly suspect that this was the cause of my bad batch). I have read people saying that in practice they should only be re-used a few times for this reason.
3. They aren't that easy to clean out properly...

What he said

 

[HeavensBrew]

I went direct to the dark farm 5l keg system. Why? Because there are various problems with those minikegs (like limiting carbonation) and I knew I would need to upgrade at some point, so best to spend once.
The Dark Farm 5L kegs are pretty ideal. They can fit in a fridge, the neoprene jackets help, but you can set them up in a cool box to dispense in a really practical fashion.

The cartridges are fine, but you're better off with a sodastream bottle system unless weight is an issue. You just tie the bottle to the keg with a velcro strap. My note on that is DF did not include the barb for connecting the hose when I got the kit and that did create a headache to obtain....

 

[Pavros]

Points to bear in mind:
2.They aren't stainless steel - just normal plain steel coated with lacquer on the inside. So if the lacquer gets damaged then you have a problem (I strongly suspect that this was the cause of my bad batch). I have read people saying that in practice they should only be re-used a few times for this reason.

I suspect that it's quite easy to damage the inner lining when cleaning. They probably can't handle boiling (or near boiling) water and certain types of cleaner/bleach.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

On DarkFarm website it looks like the 5L keg is £50, or complete with a tap, disconnects, spear, sodastream adaptor and min-regulator it's £155.

Just for comparison, from MaltMiller you can get a 5L stainless keg for £40 (although, in fairness, it's not black).
Alternatively maybe look at MaltMiller's 19L top-of-the-line AEB corny for (£89), universal regulator (£35), sodastream adaptor (£10), and get yourself a cheap tap...

 

[Pavros]

I have four 5 litre kegs from Dark Farm and two dispensing set-ups. You can tell they are a top of the range piece of kit and are well made as soon as you pick one up. They are ideal for my purposes and the customer service is brilliant. I also have a cheap 3.5 litre keg bought from Amazon and this is nowhere near the quality of the Dark Farm kegs.

I usually brew 20 litres at a time so can keg in 1 or 2 of the kegs and bottle the rest. I know the CO2 bulbs are relatively expensive but I let the beer condition/carbonate naturally so only use 1 bulb per 5 litre keg to dispense. This suits me as I don't have any gas canisters lying around.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Incidentally after a bit of experimentation I've just found that the outside of a cheap no-logo 1/4" push fit connector is a good tight fit into the top bung of one of those 'disposable' 5L mini-kegs. Could be a way to admit CO2 (e.g. collected from fermentation) instead of air, for folk on a budget.

You have to be sure to push the connector all the way though, as shown, otherwise it leaks via an internal air channel within the bung.

 

[terrym]

Is there a particular bung on the top of the Ghost Ship keg that I should be aware of e.g. black bung with a red centre or vise versa?

The bungs are pretty standard. Black with a two-part red core.

There are in fact two sorts of bung/vent and tap commonly sold with 5litre minikegs bought from supermarkets and breweries.
The first one is as @An Ankoù describes, a vent assembly with black plug and a red two part insert. These can be disassembled and re-used. The tap is a pull and twist to dispense type.
The other sort comes with a red plug and a black vent insert and these have to be destroyed to remove them (I used a soldering iron to melt the plastic). A new bung is then required, but are relatively inexpensive to buy although the ones with the inbuilt RV are more expensive. The tap is a pull and a button press to dispense.
I have both types. As far as the second type is concerned they are made by Fass Frisch.
There is an extensive thread on re-using minikegs or easy kegs here, with the link including a photo of the Fass Frisch bung.
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/easy-keg-5l.57568/page-88#post-909180