Using Sanke of 15.5 Gallon Kegs for Homebrew Kegging

Hey all out there. I just was given 4 good condition Sanke or some other brand of 15.5 gallon Kegs, the kind most bars use for domestic beer.

I am planning a big party this summer (my wedding) and I wanted to see if I could use these kegs to dispense some of my brew. Usually I would use Corny kegs, as they're much easier etc. but since I have these ones and I need a lot of beer, I would like to use them.

Has anybody ever used these kegs for kegging their homebrew? What sort of maintenance, rebuild etc will I need to do? How about carbonating the beer? I could prime it I guess or force carbonate, but even if I prime it I will need to pressure seal the gaskets like on a corny keg before I let the yeast do its work. How do i hook up my corny keg co2 system to this keg and how do I tap and dispense it?

Thanks for the advice have at it.

You'll have to get sanke couplers for each keg that you want to dispense and they're about $30 a piece. Then gas and bev tubing attach to that.

You'll have to take the center spears out and then fill them with PBW or oxyclean, then sanitize as usual.

They are a pain to clean and you never really know if you cleaned it. My recommendation would be to turn them into keggles, use one for a HLT, another for a boil keggle, then sell the other two and use the money to buy more cornies to go with your existing system.

Just my two pfennigs.

Here is something to read if you want. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=53280

I like Sanke better than Corny. I think they are easier to thoroughly clean and have way less parts (1 rubber gasket on the Sanke to 5 on the Corny), but Corny's have them beat on opening and closing time-wise. I can get into my Sankes in a matter of seconds. I can take them completely apart in a little over a minute (dip tube assembly). It is really hard to lose a Sanke part during cleaning when compared to the little gaskets and popits and things on a Corny. I will always admit that I have a biased view of Sankes over Corny's, but.....

EdWort is right, you can't stick your arm in a Sanke. I use a very good cleaning regiment and do check the inside of my kegs with a flash light and a thin mirror, but they are always clean. I even use an unmodified Sanke for my primary fermenter, and everyone that has brewed knows what a gunked-up fermenter looks like.

I recommend getting some internal snap rings to take the place of those PITA spring clips if you plan on refilling Sanke kegs. They are WAY easier to use!

Yuri, do you have any info on these internal snap rings? That really is the only reason I have any bad feelings towards my Sankes at all.

Good points on both sides. My back, however, thanks me every time I lift a corny instead of a 165 pound Sanke.

Ed, you know they make them in 1/6 bbl right ? Same weight as a corny. I completely agree when I am using full size though, I have dropped many a nut lifting those bad boys.

Yuri, that is frickin awesome. I am ordering some today. Best Idea in a long time. I am only worried about the thickness of the snap ring vs. the lock "spring" ring. Are they the same thickness?

They are within a few thousandths of the same thickness and compress the seal just fine. The "ears" can get in the way a little when trying to tap the keg, but I've always managed to work around them.

Very good to know. So, the ears... could they be ground down to help this, or is it going to be an issue that has to be worked around like you do?

They just force you to tilt the fitting a little as you drop it into place. I've yet to run into serious issues. I suppose you could grind a little of the inside edge down if they're truly problematic.

Way cool, I already have to do this with my spunding valve so it wouldn't be that much different for every tap I put on them. I can't believe I never saw that thread Yuri, thanks a million. You know I look for any way to get more people into the Sanke state of mind .

I'm going to piggyback on this thread, since i'm looking into brewing 15 gallon batches for parties throughout the year and why use cornies?

so how exactly do you carbonate the kegs?

do they need to have pressure on them while you're dispensing?

how do you fill them? is there a separate connector for this?

they seem to only have one hookup...

As far as cleaning teh sanke, when i did my keggle, there was some beer left in the bottom. After an hour soak in oxyclean, no scrubbing the inside was spotless, i was amazed how clean they are inside.

so...looking at this guy:



it looks as though it does in fact have connections for co2 and dispensing.

i'm still confused about filling, however. do you rack into it using the same tube for dispensing?

i see the tap here for $40...not a bad price:

http://www.homebrewers.com/product/07S07-122/American_Sanke_Tap.html

The port on the top of that tap is your beer-out and the other is gas-in. You have to remove the one-way check valve inside the beer port to be able to go into the keg with transferring beer. I do this and remove the gas one way valve as well so air can escape while filling. If I am transferring beer into them I leave my spunding valve on the gas-side to slowly release pressure as I am filling. The only time I have the check valve in my taps is when they are serving or transferring from my primary to another serving keg. You have pressure on them while serving. I use my kegerator lines for transfers and my normal brewery hoses with a beer nut fitting to fill them initially. In your case of not fermenting in them but wanting to transfer I would clean/sanitize/purge then modify the tap like I said before and rack directly into the keg. Then force carbonate as usual, or prime just like bottles. Once you are staring at a tap it all makes sense. I will be happy to answer any questions you have Death.

Not sure if this is the same thing, but this is what I used for the snap rings on a sanke. They work great:

http://kegman.net/keg_kit.htm

Deathbrewer: as far as force-carbing goes. I set it a 12lbs while it's conditioning in the keg for a couple weeks, usually works out fine. Haven't tried to 30psi for 36 hours method yet, but it seems to me like it would work. It may take a little math to see if the vols of CO2 would require more/less time and/or more/less pressure since it is a bigger volume of liquid you are carbing (I am thinking back to my draft tech days, I think it will actually carb quicker with less psi since the larger volume will absorb CO2 easier, but I am not 100% on this maybe try 30psi for 24hours, then check every 6 hours thereafter). We used to have problems with over-carbonating when customers would use cold plates for events, which require higher psi for dispensing to push through all the added resistance, then try to tap the remaining beer in a direct draw system. These kegs were usually dispensed at 25lbs and hooked up for several hours, however, they were already factory pressurized to 12psi so that may have been the reason. When have used kegs from cold plates were hooked up to long-draw glycol systems, we had no problems since they required more psi to dispense anyway.

After that long winded speach about stuff I have not applied to real-life situations in 5-6 years, I honestly think it would work about the same as the corny, just check is sooner than you normally would. Be sure to post you're results too.

doesn't sound like too much trouble. just talked to my friend at the LHBS and he says they have all that equipment, which we can easily use with disconnects to quickly switch between cornies and sanke in the kegerator.

awesome. thanks for your help.

Yuri_Rage said:

They just force you to tilt the fitting a little as you drop it into place. I've yet to run into serious issues. I suppose you could grind a little of the inside edge down if they're truly problematic.

Click to expand...

I wanted to revive this thread because a friend donated a Sanke to my homebrew setup. Since I have no F*cking idea about kegging, I youtubed cleaning a Sanke. Wouldn't ya know it? I came across Yuri Rage's home video! Thanks Yuri!

I agree 15 gals is cool but I am not lugging 165lb kegs around since I brew in my basement. Getting them out and into my car would require help I might not have when I need it

those things are 165 lbs?? I used to load two of those on to a dolly by myself at this cafe i worked at..

looking back, i'm reasonably sure they were 15 gallons.. maybe 10.

(only weighs 120 lbs himself)

lol...wow. I've come a long way since I posted in here...

We just started using the sanke kegs we bought for our upcoming brewery. We had a barrel project (filled a bourbon barrel with a belgian strong ale) and also kegged 1.5 barrels of roggenbier we made on my friends 50 gallon setup.

For transportation, I've already bought this for moving kegs in and out of the truck:



And I'll be buying one of each of these for hauling around on the ground:





A handtruck or a furniture dolly will work fine for now, though.

Those look great for moving kegs around! I need to get a couple for myself....... the things with wheels are pretty cool too.....

I roll my kegs around on my old creeper. if you got a garage,you probly got a creeper. I like that hoist death. I need one now.

Only cost me about $120.00 with shipping. Google "deer hoist" and you'll find a ton of them.

I prefer the term "beer hoist"...perhaps in the future I'll upgrade to "boar hoist" if I can ever do some hunting