Great Lakes Brewing News Archive

Homebrew Talk

Originally Published: 12/97

By: Dave Bone

If you ask a group of homebrewers what part of brewing they least enjoy, they will respond in unison. Nobody likes cleaning bottles. It's laborious, time consuming, and messy. You can develop a good routine and buy all the best cleaning gadgets, but it's still hard to muster enough motivation to get off the couch and tackle a big box of dirty bottles.

Fortunately, there is an alternative. A number of keg systems are available that make packaging your beer almost as much fun as brewing it.

Kegs are just like big beer bottles. You syphon your beer into one, carbonate it, then serve. The big difference is that it only takes between one and five containers (depending on the system you use) to keg a five gallon batch of beer, as opposed to 50 or more bottles. Kegs can be carbonated either by priming them like bottles and waiting for them to carbonate naturally, or, with some systems, artificially carbonate by forcing CO2 into them from a tank. As beer is dispensed, the pressure in the keg must be maintained by forcing gas into it. This gas can be either air or CO2, but air should be used only in small kegs which will be consumed quickly. Otherwise, oxygen and airborne organisms will deteriorate the flavor of the beer.

The Ultimate Kegging System:

When evaluating various kegging options, it is helpful to consider what attributes an ideal system would:

* Require low initial expenditure on equipment.

* Fit easily on the top shelf of a refrigerator.

* Dispense with carbon dioxide.

* Use an inexpensive source of carbon dioxide.

* Allow user to carbonate naturally or artificially.

* Be easy to clean and sanitize.

* Use components which are infinitely reusable.

* Be durable and reliable.

Unfortunately, there is no system currently available which meets all of these criteria. There are several, however, that meet most of them. Which system is best suited to you depends on which of these attributes you find most important.

The Actual Options:

Though there are a few other options, the four kegging systems below are the ones which are most practical and readily available to homebrewers.

1 Plastic Pressure Barrels are large, thick walled plastic containers which have an tight-sealing screw-on lid. The ones most commonly available are made by EDME and they come in 2.5 gallon and 6 gallon sizes. The lid on these kegs incorporates a pressure relief valve and a CO2 dispenser which utilizes seltzer cartridges. Beer is primed in the keg and left to carbonate. If too much CO2 pressure builds, the relief valve opens, allowing some to escape. When the beer is being dispensed, a seltzer cartridge is installed to replace the lost liquid volume with CO2 gas so the beer remains carbonated. In practice, these kegs have limited usefulness for American homebrewers. They were designed in England to be used for producing cask ale. The carbonation levels they achieve are low and they are too bulky to be stored in ones primary refrigerator. For most people, there are better choices. But if you make primarily British-style ales and have a cool place to store your beer, this is a reasonable option.

2 Party Pigs are 2.25 gallon plastic containers which were originally designed by Coors to hold commercial beer. Coors decided not to use them, but production rights now belong to a Colorado company called Quoin, which produces them for home brewers and microbreweries. Party Pigs are egg-shaped, with a "snout-like" dispensing tap, and they sit in a cradle. They are held in the cradle by a strap which doubles as a handle, making them very portable. They hold exactly one case of beer and fit very nicely on the top shelf of a refrigerator. The Party Pigs' most unique feature, however, is the dispensing system. The beer is primed in the keg to create carbonation, but the dispensing pressure is created by a plastic bladder which is filled with citric acid and baking soda. As the beer is drawn off, the bladder expands, breaking seams and allowing more chemicals to mix. This ingenious system maintains nearly constant dispensing pressure. The pouches are sold in sanitary packaging, ready to be inserted into the keg. The chemicals, which are harmless anyway, are all contained in the pouch so they never contact the beer. The Party Pigs are relatively inexpensive (about $40 each), but they require a new pouch and are sealed with a two piece plastic bung. To use them, you prime the beer and syphon it into the kegs. Then you install the bung and let the beer sit at room temperature until it is carbonated. When you are ready to serve it, you install a tap which has a tube that draws the beer from the bottom of the keg, a dispensing faucet, and a CO2 injector which uses either 8g or 16g seltzer charger CO2 bulbs. A second tap style is also available which uses an air pump rather than CO2 to dispense the beer. The air pump tap is reliable and sufficient if the beer is drunk quickly (1-2 days). If the beer will be consumed more slowly, the CO2 tap is a better choice. These kegs are a good all around choice for brewers who don't have the room and/or money for a dedicated keg refrigerator. Unfortunately, they are not problem free. Here are a few tips:

- Avoid the plastic CO2 taps. They are not very sturdy. You will be happier in the long run if you spend the extra $20 for a metal tap.

- The plastic CO2 bulb holders which come with both the metal and plastic taps have been know to fail, causing them to be dangerously propelled from the tap. Steel replacements are available.

- If all of the seals in the taps are not working properly, leaks can occur. This means that you use more CO2 chargers than necessary. If you are using more than one 16g CO2 charger to dispense a keg, your system has a leak. Call your supplier for help.

- To minimize leakage problems, keep the CO2 valve closed until the beer begins dispensing poorly. Then slowly open it to allow CO2 into the keg until the pressure is sufficient. Turn the valve off again until more pressure is needed.

- The kegs are designed to use German 16g CO2 chargers, but you can buy an adapter to use the 8g chargers typically found in the U.S. Unfortunately, the 8g chargers are more leak prone, so it is best to use the German 16g chargers even though they are more expensive.

- The kegs are not infinitely reusable. They are made of thin steel which weakens with the repeated stress of carbonation pressure. Throw away kegs after 10-12 uses.

- Some homebrewers have discovered an alternate way to use this system. Instead of using seltzer chargers, they install a "Carbonator". The Carbonator is a plastic fitting designed to allow the attachment of a ball-lock soda keg gas connector to a 2 liter soda bottle. The CO2 bulb holder threads on the metal taps are almost identical to the soda bottle threads, so the Carbonator can be installed instead of seltzer chargers. This allows the user to connect a CO2 tank, which can be used to artificially carbonate the kegs and dispense with CO2 from the tank, which is less expensive in the long run. Neither of these items was designed to be used in this way, however, so if you try it, be careful not to overpressurize the kegs. They cannot handle the same amount of pressure as a soda keg.

3 Commercial Beer and Soda Kegs, which are made of heavy gauge stainless steel, can serve as extremely durable and flexible homebrew kegs. The initial expense for a system is high, however, because the user must purchase the kegs, a CO2 tank and regulator, connectors and hoses, and an extra refrigerator to hold these large vessels. But once this initial outlay is made, the operating cost is low because CO2 tanks are inexpensive to refill.

For the homebrewer, soda kegs are far preferable to beer kegs. Commercial beer kegs are bigger than most homebrew batches, difficult to clean, and illegal to use unless purchased new. Breweries pay $70-$100 for a new keg, so if you buy a full one and keep the keg in lieu of the $20 deposit, you are essentially stealing a valuable item from the brewery. In addition, one beer keg will fill an entire refrigerator, so you can only drink one batch at a time. Five gallon soda cannisters, on the other hand, are perfectly sized for home brewing. They hold a typical batch, and up to four can fit in an average sized refrigerator. They have a large removable lid so they are easy to clean. And they can be purchased new or used. Many used ones have been relegated to scrap yards because the soda manufacturers are switching to a new disposable "bag-in-box" system.

Soda keg systems are extremely flexible, but using them can be somewhat confusing at first. In the next issue of Great Lakes Brewing News, this column will discuss operating procedures in detail. In general, CO2 from the tank is used for dispensing, and carbonation can be achieved either naturally by priming or artificially, by forcing CO2 into the beer from the tank. Most soda keg users carbonate artificially because it is quick and easy. With artificial carbonation, it is possible to be drinking a beer within a week or so of brewing it. Operating expenses are extremely low since everything but the CO2 is reusable. A five pound tank of CO2 will carbonate and dispense at least ten batches in a leak-free system. Refilling the tank costs only $5-8.

All things considered, the 5 gallon soda keg system is the best choice for most homebrewers. Although its initial cost is high, a soda keg system is extremely durable, flexible, and inexpensive to operate. Homebrewers who don't have the space or cash for an extra refrigerator, though, might also find happiness with a Party Pig or German Party Keg system.

Next Issue: How to Use a Soda Keg System

Dave Bone has been brewing for over 8 years and is the founder of Austin Homebrew Supply.