Sankey Kegs...

I keep seeing them up on eBay, and generally they are no more expensive than the 5 gallon cornys. Is there any way for a homebrewer to fill the 1/2 bbl Sankey (BMC) style kegs?

Yup you can fill 'em - the problem is cleaning and sanitizing them through the small bung hole (no, really...that's what it's called).

See here: http://www.physics.arizona.edu/~workman/homebrew/Sanke.html

Not to be taken lightly. A full keg is 160.5 lbs.

I don't plan on lugging them around... fill one up, put it in a kegarator, leave it til empty... I still need to get a kegarator first though...

Just making mental notes for the future is all... like I said, I've seen them selling as cheap as the cornys on eBay sometimes...

I'd say that if you can brew 15.5 gallons go for it...I just got a hold of a few 1/4 barrels (7.75) sankeys and are going to fill them wthin the next couple of days.. They weren't that much of a pain in the ass to clean.. I just took the tops off pulled out the dip tubes and soaked for 2 days. Took a carboy brush and some oxyclean and went at it. Let them soak for a few more days and scrubbed again. Put the diptube back on and flushed all the soap out through a hand tap. For the final step i filled with amberdyne until i fill them. I'll let you know how they work.. I'm not sure who it is but they have a pretty cool video of how to take the dip tube out.. I think it's a few pages back under one of my posts. Just search the site and you should find it.