Awesome SWMBO but now what....

My lady surprised me yesterday with a two faucet kegerator. Here is the link. Kegerator - Sanyo Dual Faucet along with tho G couplers and two 1/6th slim 5 gal kegs. Not sure why she picked that but when I opened it I realized that this wouldn't work for homebrew without a conversion. My question is exactly what will I need? What can I do with these kegs. I called the company in question and they will charge me a 20% restock fee along with the shipping. Ideas?

I dont understand? It should fit a couple cornies in there no problem..

1/6th Barrel (5.23 Gallons) Fits up to 2

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The only thing you would need to do is remove the sanke adapters and add corny fittings.

Wish my swmbo would get me that...

I think it will work fine.. It even says that it fits two 5gal homebrew tanks on the information sheet. Maybe someone can confirm but I think you just need to remove the commercial style taps with ball or pin lock taps.. I can't imagine that it would be to hard or costly. Score!!

Lemme get this straight.

She bought you a kegorator, the couplings, and 2 1/6th bbl kegs?

And you don't know what to do?

I think the only recourse here is to have a beer and tap her with your cobra.

THe problem with that set up is the fittings are for sanke kegs, not soda kegs. yes 5 gallon corny kegs will fit in there with no problem, but you will have to modify the fittings.

Micro-Matic only sells items, for commercial applications. Some items like beer line, gas line and other small items are interchangeable, and work for homebrewing as well.

It is a ncie Unit though, They display it right at the front door when you walk in their warehouse. I have a micro-Matic right next to where I work, so its nice to have close, no shipping and such.

I'm saying that I know I need to convert to the corny kegs and buy the corny's but with this configuration, do I just need the ball locks and corny's or is there other things. I don't want to drive the 80 miles to the LHBS and still be missing something. The question of the kegs is that these are kegs used for commercial european breweries and don't have a large opening like the corny's do. Just wondering if there is a way around that. Perhaps rack into the out port? Don't get me wrong... I'm pretty happy. She also got me this to install at her house but I didn't mention it because I would just need the same thing as above. Kegerator Conversion Kit, 2 Keg (Door Kit, Less Cylinder)

You can use those kegs just fine for homebrewing. It's just more work to fill them because of those little locking rings are a bigger pain than the corny style lid. I used normal DType coupler kegs for my first 3 kegged batches. There are people that will buy your kegs if you'd like, or you could just keep them. Another option if the height allows it is to the the barbs off the couplers and replace will ball lock posts, then in the future buy ball lock kegs and they'd be compatible. You can buy low profile Sanke Couplers.

i did find the corny kegs to be much easier to use though.

Ok another question. I'm completely new to this and due to the fact kegs are illegal for sale in Utah, I have no experience with these commercial types. Corny's....easy. open the lid clean, sanitize and rack the beer keeping the oxygen down. With the ones she got though....I wonder about the beer splashing around too much and becoming oxigenated.

Purge the keg with CO2 and then you can splash all you want.

Those slim 1/6ths will work fine, but if you decide you want more kegs you may consider changing over one set of fittings to fit corny kegs and leaving the other to work off your 1/6 sanke type couples. This way you can buy corny kegs (which will be cheaper) and use them, but still use the kegs that you were given with that system. PLUS if you leave the sanke coupler, you can always throw in a 1/2 barrel for a party, if you can manage to get one (which sounds difficult in Utah)

If you decide to switch to soda kegs, looks like this is what you need:

Sanke Tap to Homebrew Conversion Kit, with disconnects

That'll give you all the parts needed to dispense from a soda keg, and you'll be able to swap the sankey back on quickly if you need to. You'd then need some soda kegs as well.

Not sure how much she payed for the two 1/6 barrels, but I bet even with the 20% restock you'll end up with more kegs and everything to hook them up for the same money.

Survey says...........+ 100. You guys are awesome. Thank you so much

Marriage has taught me that now would be a perfect time to tell her how awesome she is, that the gift is perfect and nut up and use the 1/6 barrels even though the are more of a pain for at least one year and than upgrade to corny kegs.

You're right. There is a Coach bag she wants that I'll surprise her with.

I see you've been married for awhile. Well played sir, well played.

1/6 kegs are not hard to use at all. They have a much simpler mechanism than the ball lock method that corny's use. Also, there's only one coupler rather than two. The stems are easy to get in and out once you know what you are doing. Since you have them already, I'd at least try them, but that is up to you. I use them exclusively and am now up to owning ten of them.

Catch-22 said:

Ok another question. I'm completely new to this and due to the fact kegs are illegal for sale in Utah, I have no experience with these commercial types. Corny's....easy. open the lid clean, sanitize and rack the beer keeping the oxygen down. With the ones she got though....I wonder about the beer splashing around too much and becoming oxigenated.

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There will be no extra splashing filling through the middle openeing on these than there will be filling through the middle openeng of a corny. Remove teh ring, and spear and fill just like a corny.

Do a little research, you will develop a technique for opening and sealing the Sanke's that will become second nature. I use only Sankes and feel they are superior to corny kegs.

"clutchdude" has an awesome write up that explains how to reinstall the spiral rings.

ajwillys said:

1/6 kegs are not hard to use at all. They have a much simpler mechanism than the ball lock method that corny's use. Also, there's only one coupler rather than two. The stems are easy to get in and out once you know what you are doing. Since you have them already, I'd at least try them, but that is up to you. I use them exclusively and am now up to owning ten of them.

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where do you get 1/6th kegs legally? I have looked around and cant find them but I would prefer to use them over cornies

OMJ said:

where do you get 1/6th kegs legally? I have looked around and cant find them but I would prefer to use them over cornies

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Quick googleing, by all means there are better sources out there but...GEEMACHER, LLC. | Quality Stainless Steel Kegs for the Brewing Industry

You might find some interesting things here: Sabco Industries, Inc. The cleaning and filling coupler looked interesting.

also: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/installing-retaining-ring-sanke-keg-64128/

and of course if you want to make it easier you can replace the retaining ring with a more conventional snap ring: https://www.kegman.net/keg_kit.htm

Oh, and I second tprokop's suggestion of the conversion kit to make it easy to swap keg styles. Can even come in handy if you want to swap in a keg of commercial beer.