Good idea? - (carbonating in a Mr Beer fermenter)

Ok so I have this new fantastic idea. Tell me your thoughts. I ran into trouble bottle carbing so I looked for alternatives to force carb or prime and carb to poor. This is what I came up with. I'm doing my primary in a 5 gal bucket then will rack to a secondary vessel to prime. The secondary vessel is a Mr. Beer keg with bottling spigot (Yes I used Mr. Beer to introduce myself to homebrew.). I'm going to prime in the Mr. Beer vessel and I have purchased a mini co2 dispenser from beermachine.com, knock off of Mr. Beer but looks like a neat product. I'm going to attach the co2 dispenser, uses mini co2 cannisters like you find in air pistols, so that once my priming is complete I can shoot some co2 in the mini keg and poor away. The dispenser is pretty easy to change out co2 cannisters so I should be able to drink on 3 gals for a week or two. Any thoughts?

that might work out if you add the CO2 when your brew is warm.

Afterwords chill it for several days to try to get that CO2 to absorb in to your beer.

I am interested in your methods for adding your priming sugar to you beer before bottling.

I planned on chucking the priming sugar into the Mr. Beer keg and letting it carb naturally. Then after several days at room temp, put in the fridge for safe keeping. When ready to drink, inject CO2 and voila. Beer on tap.

do you use brewing software?

I use the trubrew site.

try downloading some sample software

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f84/software-available-42935/

here is a great source of sites, many of them will give you the proper amount of priming sugar needed for you style of beer.

Can the Mr Beer thing hold pressure?

Thanks man. Off topic, Im ex military and willing to host troops coming home with a batch of my notoriously not so great beer. Where do I sign up?

I am a proponent of BeerSmith.

A few tips for bottling,

slowly stir the brew after you have added the priming sugar.
boil the priming sugar in 2 cups of water, Cool and then rack your brew on to it
stir your brew after every 4-6 bottles you have filled !!!

Parker36 said:

Can the Mr Beer thing hold pressure?

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I don't know yet Parker. Ill let you know next sunday. If I need a place to stay do you have room? Wifey may get upset. LOL

It sounds like a recipe for a giant "bottle bomb" to me. Don't say we didn't warn you...

Lets all cross our fingers. That's what I needed to hear though. Guess Ill put it in a big bucket just in case.

I've never used the Mr. Beer kit - but isn't part of their setup that the screw on lid isn't air tight? that's what allows the CO2 to escape? I don't recall ever seeing an airlock on a Mr. Beer.

Also - I think what you're trying to make is already available as "Tap A Draft" system.

http://www.williamsbrewing.com/TAP_A_DRAFT_STARTER_SYSTEM_no_P729C120.cfm

Very similar. The only drawback of using TAD is that the bottles are 6 liters. I can fit almost 10 in my Mr. Beer keg. I brew right around there so it save me from having to make two bottles.

**** edit. and I did it for less than $30. 20 for the charger and 10 for the keg (which I already had.)

Oh the lid for the keg is just two vent holes. Im going to try covering them with saran wrap.

I don't think saran wrap is going to hold back carbonation pressures ( think, could you saran wrap the top of a bottle instead of capping it ? ) but I guess if you can plug up the lid some way - the rest might hold pressure.

I'd probably want to do a dry run with some water & test the system for leaks before trying it on your beer.

Good luck with it. Take some pics if you make it work.

If you are trying to plug the holes ghetto like try putting some aluminum foil over them on the insdie of the cap and some plastic wrap between the mr beer and the lid. Should create a good seal.

I have brewed 22 batches with Mr. Beer. These are ALL bad ideas and should not be followed. The Mr. beer keg is NOT for pressurizing and NOT for Carbing. The two vents would need to be plugged, you would need to replace the spigot - it won't hold pressure, you would need to re-inforce the plastic keg - it is not designed for this kind of pressure.

You can definitely use the little keg as a bottling bucket and rack from primary into it to mix in your priming sugar, then bottle from the spigot, but it is not safe to carb as though it were a keg.

If you decide to proceed, please promise to post the pictures of the exploded keg and mess on this thread so we can see how it worked out.

Seriously, don't carb in it. Just my opinion.

A mr beer keg has a built in airlock system (those little notches cut into the lid and the rim around the top of it.) That's why you don't need to put an airlock on it, it vents itself. If anyone's ever had a blowoff with a mr beer keg they might have noticed krausen leaking out of the top of it?

In other words, It can't hold pressure...



I have a better Idea...If you are having issues with bottle carbing your beer, then maybe you want to see what you are doing wrong.

More than likely you are not waiting long enough (3 weeks minimum, more if you are using those big brown pet bottles) and Storing your bottles at the proper temperature (70 degrees). That is usually the cause of new brewer's issues with carbonation.

Rather than monkeying around with something that won't work, why don't you read my detailed blog on bottle conditioning and carbonation, and apply what you read to it?

I explain the process in great detail here; Revvy's Blog, Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning.

There's also my bottling thread https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/revvys-tips-bottler-first-time-otherwise-94812/

And in the mr beer section we talk about modify a 3 gallon cooler as a bottling bucket, but any bucket or container with a spigot, even another mr beer keg, can be used as a bottling bucket.

But you can't force carb in a Mr beer keg....it won't hold pressure. And if it did, it would go boom, more than likely.

If you manage to get a good seal on the lid you're risking an explosion. I think this is a very very bad idea. +1 to Revvy's post. You need to figure out what you're doing wrong. If its not carbing in the bottle, it probably won't carb in anything else either.

Umm, yes, listen to Revvy on this one.

However, if you really manage to get a good seal than I say...have a camera ready, because we all want to see pictures of the aftermath.

Tip: Don't put the keg by any electronics, valuable tapestries, pets, or anything you DON'T want covered with beer.

I think the OP has gotten the Mr Beer setup confused with the beer machine.

That IS made to hold pressure and force carb...But IIRC many folks have found that to be less than satisfactory as well.

Revvy said:

I think the OP has gotten the Mr Beer setup confused with the beer machine.

That IS made to hold pressure and force carb...But IIRC many folks have found that to be less than satisfactory as well.

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It sounds like he's trying to use parts from a Beer Machine and a Mr. Beer keg to make some sort of unholy Frankenstein kegging device. It is against God and nature if you ask me!

Well gents I did it. Unfortunately the priming was less than satisfactory. And yes I used a Mr. Beer keg, $10, and added the carbonating unit from the Beer Machine and voila, came up with a Mr. Beer Machine. LOL. Anyways. The priming didn't take. I'm thinking I had to much head space, 4 gal container roughly with only 2.5 gal, left me only half full, brew trying to prime. No worky. BUT, I placed a CO2 cartridge in the carbing aparatus and purged the keg. Then I put in another CO2 cartridge and got perfectly carbonated beer. Oh the ingenuity. So my next plan is to make a larger batch to reduce the head space and prime that way. It's a very cheap alternative to cornies, but has its limitations since I can only do small batches which I do anyways.

Mr. Beer Keg $10, www.mrbeer.com
Beer Machine Carb unit $19.95 plus S/H, www.beermachine.com
CO2 cartridge per 5 pack $2.47, Walmart

If anyone is interested in pictures please shoot me an email. [email protected]. I would be more than happy to send some to you. I haven't upgraded my account yet so I can't post them on here.


PS Shooter, My Frankenstein is b-e-a-utiful and works like a charm.

Kinda funny. I've converted all my Beer Machines away from force carbing to get rid of those high dollar mickey mouse "carbonation units". They use too many co2 carts and don't last very long. Now I can keep a ferm going all time in all the kegs bottle and drink.

You say the priming didn't take, yet it works like a charm? Foam and carbonation are two different things. There is no way a Mr. Beer can handle any real pressure. If you manage to get a seal good enough, that keg will explode. Now that I'd like to see.

It's examples like this that illustrate why fireworks are illegal.

Haha. The priming did not take. When I juiced it with the carts it worked great. Good head and carb taste. I placed saran wrap under the lid to seal the keg. I would recommend to anyone that makes small batches. You only need about 15 - 20 psi to carb good. It held the pressure just fine. Unfortunately no explosion, Im a big boom guy.

bigin31 said:

I would recommend to anyone that makes small batches.

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Not to be contrary here, but...I would NOT recommed this. One test where the Mr. Beer Keg didn't explode does not make for much of a track record!!!

I'm thinking that it didn't explode OR carb correctly because it wasn't holding all the pressure. If I had an extra Mr. Beer keg I would seal it up properly and hook it up to a compressor at 20 PSI to let everyone observe the aftermath, but I love my little keg too much to sacrifice it like that!