What kind of kegs are these?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

OatmealSnout

Member
Joined
May 19, 2012
Messages
11
Reaction score
0
Location
Arlington
Help... I'm new to kegging and just got my first kegs. I got a deal on three of these soda kegs on craigslist. When I showed up to pick them up, they were not pin lock, ball lock, or US Sanke. See pics. I went ahead and bought them because they were cheap and in great condition. I know that they were used for homebrewing in the past because there are beer styles and dates written on them. The guy I bought them from didn't know. They were left in the house that he just moved into. I'm guessing they are European style 1/6 barrel commercial kegs? What type of kegs are these, and does anyone know what exact type of couplers I will need to purchase? will I be able to find couplers and fittings for them? Does anyone have any experience with these? Any info would be great.

keg1.jpg


keg2.jpg


keg3.jpg
 
Maybe a reconditioned/converted keg???

Though the "covered up" in and out are in the wrong place for that...

Good luck?
 
Thanks ajwillys and day_trippr. Definitely a Hoff-Stevens. That's stamped right on the top; didn't know it was important. Thanks for sending the kegworks link. That's definitely what I need. Do these work well? Does anyone have any experience with these?
 
Wow...ONLY $75 plus shipping for EACH keg to get the right coupler?

I hope you got those kegs for free...otherwise re-hock them. You're gonna pay twice the cost of a cornie just for the coupler. :mad:
 
Yeah, That $75 scared me, but there are quite a few to choose from on ebay for much cheaper. Some are bidding very low. Guess not a real hot commodity.
 
Wow...ONLY $75 plus shipping for EACH keg to get the right coupler?

I hope you got those kegs for free...otherwise re-hock them. You're gonna pay twice the cost of a cornie just for the coupler. :mad:


Ahhh but you only need a couple of couplers depending on you set up... Corney kegs are getting hard to find at a resonable price,,, I know I have 20 of them...
 
Yeah, That $75 scared me, but there are quite a few to choose from on ebay for much cheaper. Some are bidding very low. Guess not a real hot commodity.

It still looks like you are going to pay as much for coupler (or more) as you would for a cornie.

McEver Distributors will ship you as many kegs as you want, all guaranteed to hold pressure, for a starting price of about $45 shipped. I got two for $91 shipped. You can order a pallet or more if you want and pay about $30 shipped each.

Not yet as rare as it would seem
 
I only paid $20 total for all three of these kegs, so if I have to end up paying $50 each for two couplers, I'm still only at $120 total, so $40 per keg including couplers. Hope I can win the couplers cheaper on ebay though. If anyone has any of these for sale, let me know.
 
I wonder if you can get the "pump" style couplers and just modify it to accept CO2? That seems like a cheaper way as those couplers look to be cheaper.
 
Keep looking on e-bay and in the classifieds here. They typically sell for $5-$10 each. Some of them may need new o-rings, which will run another $5-$8 since one is an odd figure 8 shape. I don't see any reason you can't get functional couplers for about the same price as a set of corny QD's. There's a set of 3 on e-bay with a current bid of $7.50. There were recent sales on e-bay for sets of 3 couplers with winning bids of $12.50 and $14.00.


It still looks like you are going to pay as much for coupler (or more) as you would for a cornie.

:confused: Not sure where you're looking, but that's simply not the case. Especially if you factor in the fact that you'd still need to buy a set of QD's for a standard corny.

I wonder if you can get the "pump" style couplers and just modify it to accept CO2? That seems like a cheaper way as those couplers look to be cheaper.

Closed listings on e-bay show the party pumps selling for 2-3 times as much as the standard couplers. And that's before modification.
 
Keep looking on e-bay and in the classifieds here. They typically sell for $5-$10 each. Some of them may need new o-rings, which will run another $5-$8 since one is an odd figure 8 shape. I don't see any reason you can't get functional couplers for about the same price as a set of corny QD's. There's a set of 3 on e-bay with a current bid of $7.50. There were recent sales on e-bay for sets of 3 couplers with winning bids of $12.50 and $14.00.




:confused: Not sure where you're looking, but that's simply not the case. Especially if you factor in the fact that you'd still need to buy a set of QD's for a standard corny.



Closed listings on e-bay show the party pumps selling for 2-3 times as much as the standard couplers. And that's before modification.

Cornies go for about $40. I don't see any of the couplers he's looking at going for that cheap with Buy it Now, PLUS he spent a few bucks on the kegs themselves. QD's are super cheap, comparitively.

about $30 here for party tap hoff-stevens.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Old...ltDomain_0&hash=item2eb81857dc#ht_4105wt_1397

I do see some VERY lucky bidders walked away with HS couplers for a few dollars plus shipping. There's also a sea of "didn't sell" closed listings. If you are lucky, yeah, you can get a steal...then again I've never been the guy who got something for nothing on ebay. YMMV.
 
tre9er said:
I do see some VERY lucky bidders walked away with HS couplers for a few dollars plus shipping. There's also a sea of "didn't sell" closed listings.

Those two statements don't make any sense together. You don't have to be lucky to get them cheap, since there's very little demand for them, which is the same reason there's a bunch of didn't sell listings with very low starting bids and no reserve. How many of the overpriced ones with "buy it now" sold? The fact is that the going rate for used HS couplers is less than a new set of corny QD's, whether you choose to believe it or not.
 
Those two statements don't make any sense together. You don't have to be lucky to get them cheap, since there's very little demand for them, which is the same reason there's a bunch of didn't sell listings with very low starting bids and no reserve. How many of the overpriced ones with "buy it now" sold? The fact is that the going rate for used HS couplers is less than a new set of corny QD's, whether you choose to believe it or not.

QD's for cornies (a pair) cost less than $10:
http://www.ritebrew.com/category-s/1912.htm

A cornie plus QD's will cost you ~$50 without any last-minute-ebay-bid-sniping required. Anyone can get it for this much with no ebay skills required.

I do see some sold listings for very little on the HS couplers, so hopefully the OP can get those cheap.

Cheapest buy-it-now is $40 I think? There's one auction, too that will cost $20 with shipping. Isn't there some sort of attachment that is needed to go on the threaded top part of the coupler, too?
 
tre9er said:
QD's for cornies (a pair) cost less than $10:
http://www.ritebrew.com/category-s/1912.htm

A cornie plus QD's will cost you ~$50 without any last-minute-ebay-bid-sniping required. Anyone can get it for this much with no ebay skills required.

I do see some sold listings for very little on the HS couplers, so hopefully the OP can get those cheap.

Cheapest buy-it-now is $40 I think? There's one auction, too that will cost $20 with shipping. Isn't there some sort of attachment that is needed to go on the threaded top part of the coupler, too?

I'll bet you a set of QD's that the OP won the set of 3 couplers he was bidding on, and paid less than $10 each even after shipping (winning bid was $15.75 +$10 shiiping). Yes, he will still need a beer nut and tailpiece for each one. They cost $1 each, so that's another $6. So he's likely got 3 working kegs for under $55. Still think he would have been better off buying standard cornies?
 
I'll bet you a set of QD's that the OP won the set of 3 couplers he was bidding on, and paid less than $10 each even after shipping (winning bid was $15.75 +$10 shiiping). Yes, he will still need a beer nut and tailpiece for each one. They cost $1 each, so that's another $6. So he's likely got 3 working kegs for under $55. Still think he's better off buying standard cornies?

Edit: redacted
 
Yep, I won those for $15.75 plus $10 shipping. That's three couplers for about $8.50 each. I will need the tailpieces and beer nuts for them. I have a few old sanke taps, so I'm hoping that the standard tailpieces and beer nuts will fit. They shipped yesterday; I can't frigging wait for them get here and check them out.

Problem is that I have everything bottled right now, and don't have anything in the primary, so I won't have anything to keg for a while. I need to get a batch brewed before I leave on vacation next week. I live in TX and it's hot as hell here right now and will be turning the AC way up when we leave. Can anyone suggest a good Saison recipe that I can get brewed before I leave and let it ferment at around 85 degrees?
 
I just picked up 2 of these with couplers for $20 each. Now I need to figure out what to do with them. I already have some ball locks but I hear the HS kegs are awesome to take to micro breweries to fill since it can be hooked up the same a standard sankey
 
I have one of these Hoff-Stevens Keg Couplers and would like to sell it or trade it for kegging parts. PM me if you are interested
 
Back
Top