Pubkeg plastic kegs?

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chicagobrew

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I was checking out the website for the Craft Brewer's Convention happening this week in Chicago and I saw an ad for the Rehrig pubkeg (www.pubkeg.com). Anyone ever seen one of these? This looks pretty interesting.

Basically, it's a disposable, fully recyclable 5.25gallon keg. Right now it comes with either a sanke or euro hookup, but it looks like they're just getting off the ground. I'll bet they'll end up making this is all different sizes and configurations if it works.

Anyone have thoughts or experience?

AP
 
Interesting idea...

As for homebrew uses, I'm betting that until the corny's really dry up, that the initial price of these will be no better than we already get with what we have. That and the fact that it's plastic and meant to be pretty disposable seems to be a negative factor as well. We all know how bad it can be scratching a plastic bucket or better bottle -- do we really want a keg with the same short term viability?
 
I recently came into 2 of these from a local growler place. After taking them apart, these will easily be re-usable. It is basically a 5 gallon tap-a-draft with a sanke connection. By the way, to get the sanke top off use a strap wrench like the ones you use to change the oil filter on your car.
 
They are very nice vessels, I have a bunch of of them. They are completely reusable, I just wish they had corny type posts.
 
Yep, they just screw right off without too much effort. You just have be careful when you reassemble them - they have a very thin oring that seals the top and you have to make sure you don't pinch it.
 
From their site:
Can I get just one for my homebrew?
We’d love to send you just one or two PubKegs, but we don’t want to mislead you. Here at PubKeg, we have created what we feel is the best one-way keg out there. That being said, because it is a one-way keg, it probably isn’t the best fit for your home brew. Because it is made of recyclable plastic, we recommend that the internal parts be replaced after each use. We don’t want to discourage your interest in the PubKeg, humble home brewers, but we do feel that there are better options out there for you. Once your beer gets famous and you are shipping it all over the world to be enjoyed, come back and find us. We might just be the perfect fit for you then!

Read: These will probably be just fine for you home brewers, but if we said that, you'd be snatching them!
 
The bar I work at is giving them to me when they kick. I thought I was going to have to fill it from another keg, it's so nice that I can just unscrew it.

As far as the not using them for homebrewing, I use quite a few things in my homebrew ventures that are not ever meant to be used for brewing with no problems, I can't wait to give these a try.
 
Personally I will still be using mine. It seems from reading the article that all these accidents happened when cleaning under pressure. On a home brew scale it seems more likely to screw the top off to clean & sanitize than to try to clean on place under pressure.
 
These things look great! Wish I could find a few. The inner vessel is lightweight like a soda bottle w/ a sanke fitting, the outer shell looks like an HDPE bucket. Gotta search a few of these out.
 
Personally I will still be using mine. It seems from reading the article that all these accidents happened when cleaning under pressure. On a home brew scale it seems more likely to screw the top off to clean & sanitize than to try to clean on place under pressure.

I wasn't meaning to discourage the use. Just wanted to point out that you should expect these to be as tough as a SS sanke. One of those noted that it burst at approx 30psi = a lot of people force carb at that pressure. I would expect that that failure was due to temperature and pressure but I thought it should be said that don't expect them to have the same 100psi design pressure that conry kegs have.
 
The pubkeg website says minumum order quantity is 48 kegs at $25 each. So 1200 bucks to get a batch of these things.
 
milesvdustin said:
The pubkeg website says minumum order quantity is 48 kegs at $25 each. So 1200 bucks to get a batch of these things.

I can get them for $40 each plus shipping, no minimum required
 
wilserbrewer said:
Bonus, maybe I can make a starter out of the pacman dregs at the bottom of the keg :)

Wilder - if you want to try them, pm me and I will hook you up
 
Just picked one up from www.home-brew.com, my LHBS, to give it a try. I have a new SS corny, but I always have trouble getting it to seal well. I'm looking to try a Sanke style keg to cut down on the areas where it can leak. Figured this was worth a try and no snap ring to have to worry about. Only question I have is how well I can get the valve cleaned. LHBS said they can get the replacement internals for me if need be. I spend more on ingredient kits than this keg cost me, so no big deal to me if it doesn't work out. I can also get the ball lock conversion kit for the Sanke valve I have to reuse the corny equipment investment.
 
Just picked one up from www.home-brew.com, my LHBS, to give it a try. I have a new SS corny, but I always have trouble getting it to seal well. I'm looking to try a Sanke style keg to cut down on the areas where it can leak. Figured this was worth a try and no snap ring to have to worry about. Only question I have is how well I can get the valve cleaned. LHBS said they can get the replacement internals for me if need be. I spend more on ingredient kits than this keg cost me, so no big deal to me if it doesn't work out. I can also get the ball lock conversion kit for the Sanke valve I have to reuse the corny equipment investment.

By internals do you mean the whole inner, or the valve/diptube? I can't figure out how to take the valve out or apart on mine: I had come to the conclusion that it doesn't come apart.
 
I believe the LHBS meant the whole inner (because it comes sanitized and CO2 purged from the factory), however he went over how to remove the top with me on the phone. From the store, the outer container lid comes sealed with a black electrical like tape. Remove that and the top cover then screws off, exposing the internals (You can remove the bladder/valve combo now). To unscrew the valve from the bladder, you must first relieve the pressure by depressing the ball valve in the center of the valve. This is probably easiest by using the Sanke adapter and tapping the bladder. Once the pressure is relieved, the valve should unscrew from the bladder like a soda bottle cap. You may need to use a pipe strap wrench (as mentioned earlier in the thread) the first time to break the tight factory seal. I don't believe the valve itself comes apart, but I haven't tried it yet myself. Even with S/S Sanke kegs, they recommend just replacing the whole valve versus trying to clean them. Those can purchased through a Grainger or similar supplier along with the o-rings and snap rings.
 
That just made my day, thanks! :ban:

I've been filling mine from another keg through a sanke tap with the check valve removed. I thought the valve might screw off, but I didn't want to put any real force to it without knowing for sure if it would work for fear of breaking it.
 
So I just tore mine apart to see how it went. It comes completely apart, even the valve can be torn apart very easily. Once the spear is out, there are two clips that hold a cap on the end of the valve. Once the cap is popped off, there just a spring and the button that the coupler depresses.
 
Am I the only one who read the thing about them exploding? Some guy lost his life. We use more disposable plastics each day than fuel for all the cars and trucks. The oil will run out. This is a fix for something that was not broken.
 
Am I the only one who read the thing about them exploding? Some guy lost his life.

This. It would be cheaper long-term to use regular stainless steel, and they are rated far beyond what plastic ever could be.

By the way, Burnt Hickory Brewery in the Atlanta area uses the plastic kegs, likes them, likes that they don't have to worry about tracking them down. Nanobreweries might have a use for them. Home brewers probably don't.
 
Most homebrewers don't have access to commercial keg cleaning equipment which is what caused the accidental death associated with these kegs. Homebrewers are more likely to take the keg apart and clean is like they would a corny keg.

I get these kegs for free where I work, making it much cheaper, and usually more legal than stainless.

I was concerned that there would be some problem down the road with my regulator that would cause the pressure in my system to spike so I installed a pressure relief valve in line before each of my couplers that have these kegs on them.

i can see how these kegs might not be a good fit for everybody, but for me they're perfect.
 
@mikescooling

No, but you are the only one trying to make a political statement out of it. If you don't want to use them, then don't. Nobody is making you use them. Also, polycarbonate (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycarbonate) is not an oil-based plastic. It is made from composite compounds of ethyl alcohol and chlorine gas.

The main compound that makes stainless steel stainless, chromium (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromium), is actually a rarer mineral than oil. Also the process to make chromium coatings and chromium mining are far more hazardous to the environment. Chromium, in large amounts, is toxic and can cause cancer.

So how about starting a crusade about that? Frankly given the way the country is currently being governed, I'm not worried about being around long enough for either of those issues to be a problem in my lifetime. And before you go on a rant about "the children", they are likely to have other pressing financial and political issues to worry about left over from prior generations.
 
@mikescooling

No, but you are the only one trying to make a political statement out of it. If you don't want to use them, then don't. Nobody is making you use them. Also, polycarbonate (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycarbonate) is not an oil-based plastic. It is made from composite compounds of ethyl alcohol and chlorine gas.

The main compound that makes stainless steel stainless, chromium (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromium), is actually a rarer mineral than oil. Also the process to make chromium coatings and chromium mining are far more hazardous to the environment. Chromium, in large amounts, is toxic and can cause cancer.

So how about starting a crusade about that? Frankly given the way the country is currently being governed, I'm not worried about being around long enough for either of those issues to be a problem in my lifetime. And before you go on a rant about "the children", they are likely to have other pressing financial and political issues to worry about left over from prior generations.

So you saying a stainless keg that has been in use for more than 30 years is more hazardous to the environment than a keg you use once? I know you don't care about the children you didn't have to type it.
 
So you saying a stainless keg that has been in use for more than 30 years is more hazardous to the environment than a keg you use once? I know you don't care about the children you didn't have to type it.

It's the same argument as electric cars vs. gasoline powered cars. You have to look at the entire lifecycle of everything that goes into the product and what happens to it afterwards. If your electric car is being charged by power generated by a coal plant, than it ain't cleaner than a gasoline powered car.

The argument isn't the keg itself, it's the processes that went into making it.

Hell I ain't saying the processes to make the polycarbonate are any better, but don't act like you are holier than thou just because you use S/S, because you're not. At the end of the day, they are probably about equal from an environmental standpoint.

PUBKEG is one-use only from the standpoint that it's intended to be sold once to a particular end-user, used once by that end-user, and returned back to the manufacturer. But the manufacturer actually cleans and resells them, so they are used over and over again. Basically it is a money making scheme because the manufacturer gets to resell the same unit over and over again.

For home-brew use, you can disassemble it, clean it, and use it again. So your premise for discrediting the product is false. If recycled, the plastic can be ground down to a powder and reused to make another product. Doesn't get much better than that from a green perspective.
 
I know this is a complete and total necro-thread but......
has anyone on here used these things a time or two and if so what say you about them??????
 

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