Guinness keg disassembly?

Alright, so I screwed up and ended up with THREE Guinness kegs. I know how to take apart an American SanKey keg, but how the heck do you pull the tops off the Guinness kegs? I would really appreciate some insight on this, or a link to a tool, or better yet buy (or borrow) a used tool from someone.

If anyone is not familiar with the difference between the two, the sankey (coors, budweiser, etc) are very easy to take apart. Try to get these if you can!

post a pic, ive never seen a guinness keg it should be possible!

The only pic I could find using google. Terrible picture and crappy site but it almost looks like the entire thing is threaded and therefore a threaded spear.

http://images.google.com/imgres?img.../images?q=guiness+keg&ndsp=20&hl=en&sa=N&um=1

eh bfh!:rockin:man

From the pic it looks very similar to a Miller keg (see https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/ho...ded-keg-valve-not-retained-spiral-ring-76393/). I had no luck with the safety catch (and I didn't care about a perfectly round hole in the lid) so I ended up drilling a starter hole with a bi-metal hole saw and using a reciprocating saw with a metal cutting bit (18-teeth-per-inch) to cut the top off.

On my miller kegs i popped out the ball valve with a screw driver. Then I put some electrical conduit in the stem. Then I went nuts rotating the conduit around in every direction. Eventually the spring or plastic on the safety clasp broke. After this happened you need to tilt the keg in a direction such that the clasp is at the top of the stem, so gravity pushes it into the stem, freeing the stem from the clasp.

Are you cutting the tops off anyway? bleed the keg, cut the top, then tell us how the spear comes apart. Or are you using them for fermenters/serving?

I have a guinness keg as well. Don't worry, you did not screw up.

Heres how I did mine:
1. Bleed the pressure off. I did this by pushing a screw driver in the middle and had a rag over top to prevent spray. (My keg was 1/3rd full of old guinness)
2. There is a brass nut with little ramps on it almost like massive threads. This is what the keg coupler would lock onto.
3. Drill a 1/8 or 3/16 hole (drill as deep as the bit is wide) right on the top of on of the threads. Not straight down on the top surface of the nut but 90 deg to the surface of the thread near where it meets the top surface of the nut.
4. Take cold chisel or old screwdriver or whathaveyou and using the little hole you just drilled tap the brass nut counterclockwise until unthreads and then the spear can be lifted out.

Drilling the hole is just to give you a place to put your chisel.

Sorry, I forgot to say that I did this to make a BK not to reuse the keg as intended.
Dan

Guinness uses a different coupler/valve than the euro sankey, it's for guinness/harp and maybe 2 other somewhat obscure beers.

I have an old aluminum Smithwicks Irish ale keg with the same coupler.

mvdilts said:

From the pic it looks very similar to a Miller keg (see https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/ho...ded-keg-valve-not-retained-spiral-ring-76393/). I had no luck with the safety catch (and I didn't care about a perfectly round hole in the lid) so I ended up drilling a starter hole with a bi-metal hole saw and using a reciprocating saw with a metal cutting bit (18-teeth-per-inch) to cut the top off.

Click to expand...

When I took mine apart I followed this thread as well, however I did not make the tool he made. I used 2 screw drivers one large and one small. It was the biggest PITA but after about 20 mins I was able to get the latch to give. Once I had the small screw driver in the latch I had to use a hammer to pound down to get it to unlatch. One more thing to keep in mind, if you are going to use a jig/grinder to cut the top off this hole is not the same size as the other style opening. Good luck!

when I cut the tops off my kegs I just tied wire around the center then to my 4" grinder and loped around acouple times making the wire stiff then cut the hole the wire just moves around the center worked well

I just opened my Guinness kegs. They were not as simple as I thought they would be.

I started by obvioulsy bleeding all the pressure out by pushing a screwdriver into the ball valve, keeping the keg on its side to prevent spray everywhere.

I then used a screwdriver and hammer to tap the threaded locking part in and ani-clockwise direction until it with loose enought to turn by hand.

THen the last tricky park.

If you grab the edge of the lip into the ball valve with a pair of pliers, and keep lifting in stright up whilst slowly turning clockwise, you will find that the entire assemble pulls out simply once you find the correct allignment for a very small tab which is on the side of the assembly.

Once I had the first one figured, the second one only took two minutes.

I will look later to see if I have photos.

Thanks guys! I pulled the brass ring out in less than 5 minutes. Now I just have to get the spear out. I plan on using one of these as a primary 10 gallon fermenter. We'll see how it goes.

Here's a version I don't see around too much but might be worth trying!

http://www.taleofale.com/2010/03/how-to-dismantle-european-sanke-to-make.html

Here is mine
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/how-do-i-remove-valve-spear-325525/#post4217525