Angled Kegs?

Hey All,

My brother, seeing the awesomeness that is my keezer, decided that he wants one as well. But he doesn't want it to be as tall.

His question is whether or not you can angle kegs. Nothing dramatic, just at 70 degrees, instead of the full 90. Would you end up not being able to distribute all of the beer?

You'll lose some beer at the end. You could try cutting/rotating the diptube so it sits at the edge of the keg though, and just make sure that side is always "down". Don't see any other disadvantages. Advantage is it will have slightly increased surface area with the headspace, so will carb a bit faster, especially if force carbing.

depends on the style of keg... most of them would have some left in them at an angle, some of them have pickup tubes off to the side that side would need to be down.

another question... that would actually make the kegerator taller right?

jtsims21 said:

another question... that would actually make the kegerator taller right?

Click to expand...

That's what I was wondering, unless the kegs are modified by removing part of the base and the top, would a 70° angle really shorten any thing?

They would need to be secured so that they don't fall over.

Often our siblings need a smack upside the head. This may very well be one of those times.

jtsims21 said:

depends on the style of keg... most of them would have some left in them at an angle, some of them have pickup tubes off to the side that side would need to be down.

another question... that would actually make the kegerator taller right?

Click to expand...

Spartan1979 said:

That's what I was wondering, unless the kegs are modified by removing part of the base and the top, would a 70° angle really shorten any thing?

Click to expand...

haha, good points! I was curious, so I did the math. Tilt angle is with respect to vertical. So 0° is an upright keg, 90° is a horizontal keg.



So it would to get to around 40° tilt, or 50° from horizontal, before it gets shorter...at only 20° tilt, (70° mentioned by OP), it'd be 1.4 inches taller.

(sorry for the confusing headers....the ones of import are "Width" and "Height", which are the new widths and heights of the keg...base raise and side raise are the two triangle sides responsible for the new Height, base width and side width are the two triangle sides responsible for new Width)

when you take a rectangle (which is what the profile of a keg is), and rotate it 20 degrees so its sitting on a corner instead of flat on one side, you make it taller not shorter.

Thanks for the input guys. I'm going to go put on the stupid hat now.

I was just too lazy to do the math.

You could even lay the kegs flat. One solution to the dip tube problem is cutting the tube slightly and adding a short piece of plastic tubing. The open end can be placed wherever you want it. I've seen people do this for REAL ale when they don't have a beer engine.

Ever seen a Tap-A-Draft or how about the Coors Light/Miller Lite home draft kit? The flexible pick-up is your friend.