TAP-A-DRAFT: first impression...
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schmaltzy
Well-Known Member
sengsational said:
Sounds good. Just PM me if you ever get one or a couple spare, let me know how much, and I'll take care of the shipping as well.
mewithstewpid
Well-Known Member
Anyone use the nitrous carts? I am using them now, and with my naturally carbed stout the TAD is still rock hard after i used only 1 n20 cart in the begginging and i only have 1/3 left in the bottle.
bstacy1974
Well-Known Member
Same question was asked back in this thread. I asked in a separate thread, because I didn't do a search.
Yes, the nitrous works. I would guess your stout was pretty well carbed before the nitrous, so not much of the gas is dissolving into the beer.
I made a mild that wasn't carbed very highly. Tapped my bottled on Wed night with one cartridge. Put two more in last night. Can't find a leak anywhere. I think its all going into the beer.
bstacy1974
Well-Known Member
Anyone know the dimensions of the dispensing tube for the TAD?
sengsational
Well-Known Member
guys, I have a tap a draft at home and its holding my wheat beer. Question for the general population and the scenario is, on Friday I plugged in an 8mm CO2 and only had a pint. Left it back in the fridge over the weekend and come Monday I pull the tap again and very little beer came out from it. I absolutely ensured the tap was screwed on very tightly but will it still allow gas to escape? Does this happen to you as well?
mewithstewpid
Well-Known Member
is the bottle itself still hard, or is it squishy?
sengsational
Well-Known Member
It would seem to me that if there were a leak around where the tap went onto the bottle, you'd have a puddle of beer in your fridge. So it must be where the CO2 cartridge makes contact with the embedded regulator, or between the regulator and the 'tank'. It could also be that the CO2 cartridge you used didn't really contain 8gm (factory defect?). I'd try it again, maybe put a little pad of something in the bottom of the cartridge holder to raise it up a little bit (so you don't have to turn it quite as many turns to get it to fully engage). It goes without saying you need to crank down on that thing pretty hard so the gas doesn't escape.
--Dale--
sengsational
Well-Known Member
Another possibility that I should have mentioned...I've never only left one cartridge installed. Even if I knew the other one was empty, I left it installed. Did you have no cartridge on the other side? If so, I wouldn't do that. Since there's no guarantee the two sides don't interact, if I only wanted one active cartridge, I'd go with an empty one in the other slot.
One final thing, probably not the case, but the CO2 might have gone into your beer. If your beer was completely flat, the CO2 might have dissolved into the liquid. I'm thinking that the relatively low 'delivery pressure' of the TAD probably wouldn't push 8 gm into the beer over those 2 days, so that's probably not it. But if the other slot was open, that would be my guess. And there's an easy fix for that!
--Dale--
mewithstewpid
Well-Known Member
I only put one in, and leave the other empty and have not had a problem yet.
sengsational
Well-Known Member
Another idea occurred to me after I had "very little beer (come) out". Today, I tapped (using a MHD tap w/16 gram CO2) a double IPA that I had dry hopped. Almost no beer came out, and I know I didn't loose any gas. What happened was a bit of gunk (hop leaf) got stuck in the inlet, and it wouldn't pour
Nothing came out at all! I ended-up pulling off the MHD tap (wasting my CO2) and putting on the TAD. For now, I'm not leaving the bottle horizontal when I pour...I tilt it up at a 45 degree angle for a minute and let any hop particles settle before pouring while tilted. I plan to rig a clearing wire if it happens again.--Dale--
wicknetzel
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I just ordered a new Tap a Draft system last week from Midwest Brewing and got it. It looks strikingly similar to the Coors tap. No longer 2 8 oz CO2 cartridges, but one 16 oz now. I'm wondering if the company making Tap a Draft is making them for Coors as well? Hmm...
sengsational
Well-Known Member
No doubt. Even before the change-over to the 16 gram, certain components were identical.
Weird thing is, the kit actually went up in price lately, which surprised me. It might be convenient, but it would be cheaper for me to go buy 3 MillerCoors units ($55), plus 3 more CO2 cartridges ($4) and three caps ($1). That gets me to $60, which is cheaper than buying the kit. If I valued the beer at all, that would make it even a wider margin
There's someone selling 4 new bottles on eBay for $24, but by the time you add-in shipping, it's back up to $8 per bottle, which, as I've said before, is a ripoff. You can get 3 liter soda bottles with the same 38mm cap for $1 (full of soda). Half the volume, clear PET, and not a "barrier" bottle, but let's say the shipping, profit, and soda make up $0.75. That means the 3L bottle costs $0.25 (probably much less). If you say it costs 10 times more to make the 6L bottle, that still would only be $2.50.
I put a kit that I made out of MillerCoors units on eBay for $25. Sat most of the week without a bid, but someone recently bid on it. If you were looking at spending $70 plus shipping, my sale at $25 plus shipping looks pretty attractive.
--Dale--
Alright, tapped my first TAD today... a Peach wheat that I had naturally carbing for almost 2 months. Did a couple of things wrong when doing this... for starters I put the TAD top on when the beer was room temp. I know... stupid.
When i first screwed in the cartridge i heard a hiss... then I heard lots of bubbles in the TAD keg... lots of bubbles. After doing some research i saw that the beer should be cold when adding the cartridge... so i threw it in the freezer for 20 and then in the fridge. Seemed to cool it down quickly.
Drew some off of the tap about three hours ago and it came out fine. Went to dinner, came back and it was completely flat and almost no beer came out.
so... thoughts? other than i did a number of things wrong which to me dont add up to flat beer, is this normal?
When i first screwed in the cartridge i heard a hiss... then I heard lots of bubbles in the TAD keg... lots of bubbles. After doing some research i saw that the beer should be cold when adding the cartridge... so i threw it in the freezer for 20 and then in the fridge. Seemed to cool it down quickly.
Drew some off of the tap about three hours ago and it came out fine. Went to dinner, came back and it was completely flat and almost no beer came out.
so... thoughts? other than i did a number of things wrong which to me dont add up to flat beer, is this normal?
ChshreCat
Well-Known Member
Sounds like your CO2 carts are empty and the beer absorbed all the CO2 they'd put out. Replace the carts, put it back in the fridge and give it a few days.
jkarp
Well-Known Member
Well, for one if it was "naturally carbonated", it can't be flat. If it's flat, you forgot to add priming sugar to the bottle.
Leave some head space in the bottles when filling, otherwise as soon as you insert the cartridge, the bottle immediately over-pressurizes and the CO2 gets blown out the relief valve. You'll use a lot less cartridges (and the beer will carbonate faster if you force-carbonate) if you only fill the bottles 3/4 full.
natural320
Well-Known Member
to piggy back on jkarp's suggestion: pull a glass or two from the TAD using only the natural carbonation that has built up. assuming the bottle was properly primed and rock hard before it was chilled, this shouldn't be a problem. then the CO2 will have plenty of head space to work with inside the bottle, and you'll be enjoying a glass of your beer while you watch that happen!
sengsational
Well-Known Member
As mentioned earlier, flat beer suggests that the two months didn't carbonate the beer. Based on the information you've provided, my theory would be that the natural carbonation process might not have worked that well. As suggested earlier, it could have been lack of proper amount of priming sugar. Also, it could have been that the CO2 escaped during those 2 months. What I do is put a balloon over the capped 6L bottle when it's bottle conditioning. That way, if I see a balloon fill-up, I know I need to tighten the cap. Just to give you an idea of how hard I've had to screw them on, I've had to use pliers to get them off. Different caps make a big difference how tightly they have to be torqued-down. NB liquid malt extract caps are the right size, and I've made rubber seals for those caps, and that seems to work. The first time I used new poly seal caps, they worked great, but the next time, I had to torque down one of them.
That only addresses the flat beer problem. Two things you said were interesting on this symptom: 1) The beer came out slowly, and 2) when you removed the cartridges "air" came out (I think you meant CO2). What that suggests to me is that there was probably sufficient pressure in the 6L bottle, but the beer was slow because there was something clogging the inlet. This isn't a sure-thing diagnosis, but if it happens again (probably will with that same bottle), you'll want to do what was suggested earlier (take as much beer as you can get before you put in the first CO2 cartridge). If the natural carbonation is correct, you should get a pint or more (might be slow, but you'll get it). Then [HERE is the thing to report on next time] take a reading of how "squishy" the bottle is. Only after this squish-analysis would you add just one CO2 cartridge. At this point, the bottle should be much harder to squish. If at this point, the beer does not flow considerably faster, you have a clog in the inlet (where the beer flows into the tube leading to the tap). Yeah, so there's no need to add a second cartridge until about half way through the keg, or, in the case of a beer that wasn't naturally carbonated well, earlier. And when you remove a cartridge, you should never hear any hissing, or you removed the cartridge too soon.
I had a dry hopped beer with a lot of pellet hop residue, and had clogging issues. What I did was to take a small amount of plastic window screen, wrapped it around the inlet, and held it in place with a small plastic zip tie. I re-sanitized and screwed the tapper back on. In my case I was lucky because I discovered this on the first pint before adding a cartridge (I KNEW the beer was carbonated because I had it in the fridge for a day, and the freezer for an hour before I pulled the cap off, and even then, it foamed over when I took the cap off!).
Hopefully you'll get it to work. Best of luck to you.
--Dale--
sengsational
Well-Known Member
An update to the cap thing. The Northern Brewer liquid malt extract caps with the added rubber gasket started leaking on me:
. The one on the left: leaks. The one on the right: no leak. Besides the metal caps and the rather expensive polyseal caps, what I have found to work well are the plastic caps from the 3L soda bottles. Haven't gotten to the point of reusing any of these caps except the polyseal ones. They have the 3L bottles at the dollar store for, you guessed it, a dollar. I got a couple of these yesterday (since the homebrew store was closed, and the dollar store was a much shorter drive). I chilled the bottles in the freezer, donated the full bottles at my neighborhood pool, but not before removing the caps I replaced two leaky caps (out of 6 I had bottle conditioning). The first one I had about 2 seconds before it foamed over. The next one was about a second. So if you do have a leaky cap you're going to replace, be ready with the sanitized replacement cap!
--Dale--
ChshreCat
Well-Known Member
Besides the metal caps and the rather expensive polyseal caps, what I have found to work well are the plastic caps from the 3L soda bottles. Haven't gotten to the point of reusing any of these caps except the polyseal ones. They have the 3L bottles at the dollar store for, you guessed it, a dollar. I got a couple of these yesterday (since the homebrew store was closed, and the dollar store was a much shorter drive). I chilled the bottles in the freezer, donated the full bottles at my neighborhood pool, but not before removing the caps
You know the bottles work too. The TAD head fits right on them.
Dahoov
Well-Known Member
^^ +1 ^^ What he said.
I use the 3L bottles for the hard apple cider I make and I keep a 3L bottle of "Soda Water" in the fridge with a tap attached.
Thanks for the other suggestions... I was going to abandon the TAD system after my first waste of beer but I will try it again w/filling the bottle less. I was planning on priming the entire 5 gallons of a pale ale(which was dry hopped) w/4.5 oz of priming sugar... Going to fill 3 TAD bottles 2/3 of the way and then put the rest in a few bottles. This sound alright or should I use a different amount of priming sugar.
sengsational
Well-Known Member
Yep, but the TAD bottles and the MHD bottles are both considered "barrier" bottles, in that they have a layer to prevent O2 and CO2 migration. They're also (obviously) colored to prevent skunking. And since I've got a supply of used MHD bottles, I haven't gone to the 3L ones. I must admit, I do have one that I didn't throw in the recycling, in case I've got some unexpected need.
--Dale--
PS: I'd like to correct myself on the price of caps.... The steel ones were about a quarter each, and the poly seal ones were less than 3X of that price (worth the difference). I must have been looking at the price for a bag of caps, or something.
sengsational
Well-Known Member
The recommendation is to use half the normal priming sugar, but I used between 2/3 and the full amount. I think the keys to success are to chill before tapping, take as much beer out of the 6L before you put any CO2 on (be very patient), put one CO2 cartridge on at a time (no need to risk more CO2 than you have to, in case of an "incident"), make sure you have clean beer to prevent clogs (or like me with my dry hopped chunkville, put plastic window screen on the intake), and I'm sure I'm missing other keys. But this thread should provide them all. If I wasn't actively telling folks to use the MHD kegs instead of TAD, you might think I worked for 'em.
--Dale--
I am having trouble with TAD because the hose sits right in the funk on the bottom. The beers I get from the regular bottles are clear but the TAD is cloudy. I carb in the TAD bottles. I know someone fashioned a filter and I have thought of raising the end of the tube 1/4" off the bottom with an o ring or something. Anybody have an easy fix, maybe share a picture?
Thanks,
Jeff
Thanks,
Jeff
mrgstiffler
Well-Known Member
It's not exactly a "fix" but I've moved to just force carbonating with the TAD system. The biggest problem with that is it's rather tough to control the carbonation level, but I've pretty much found the same thing while naturally carbonating with it too. You could give that a shot and see what you think. With daily shaking, you'll be all carbonated within 3 days or so.
ChshreCat
Well-Known Member
When you first put the system on the bottle and turn it on it's side, it's going to stir up the sediment and that will eventually settle along where the hose is laying. So, the first beer you pull will suck up the sediment that's near the hose. After that, it should be fine.
If you're getting sediment over and over then you are either agitating the bottle in the fridge and causing the sediment to resettle or you aren't leaving your beers long enough before you bottle and are getting a lot of sediment settling out in the fridge.
If you're getting sediment over and over then you are either agitating the bottle in the fridge and causing the sediment to resettle or you aren't leaving your beers long enough before you bottle and are getting a lot of sediment settling out in the fridge.
sengsational
Well-Known Member
I'm with Cheshire on this one. Seems like, too, you might try to be a little more careful in the bottling process...if you're not doing bottle carbonation, there really shouldn't be that much yeast, so the funk you have probably came through when you bottled.
Now, all that being said, I don't think it would be out of the question to lift the pick-up off the bottom by adding a tube to it.
Well, I always ferment 3-4 weeks and I bottle carb but I think it must be agitation of the keg. I have a small fridge and the little keg has to sit in there sideways and be swung around to dispense. Next time I will be more gentle and see if that solves the problem.
Thanks everyone for the replies and great ideals!
Thanks everyone for the replies and great ideals!
I have to move mine to dispense and it always kicks up a small amount of yeast sediment. I just try to be very careful when I move it.
Alright... Need a little help here.
First go with the Tap-A-Draft and I can't get the cartridge to pierce. Laying it flat. Screwing it as far as it will go. Nothing.
This is one of the new 16 oz. systems. Any suggestions?
First go with the Tap-A-Draft and I can't get the cartridge to pierce. Laying it flat. Screwing it as far as it will go. Nothing.
This is one of the new 16 oz. systems. Any suggestions?
Just a question, you are using a 16 gram cartridge?
What type of cartridge are you using, the ones they sell or ones from a different place? Can you see the pin?
I have noticed that the new 16oz TAD is best when you use the cartridges they sell on their site.
I have noticed that the new 16oz TAD is best when you use the cartridges they sell on their site.
Having an issue with piercing the cartridge as well. I just got the TAD starter system from Midwest, and using the CO2 cartridges they provided I can't get them to pierce. I even put a dime in the bottom of the holder to raise the cartridge and still no go. I didn't want to get a wrench out to try and torque the holder on...any ideas on why this isn't working? They are 16 gram cartridges and I can see the pin in the TAD.
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