DIY 3 Liter Pop Bottle Mini-Kegs

I was googling around for Kegs and I ran across this interesting DIY project
http://home.chattanooga.net/~cdp/3lkeg/3lkeg.htm

I think this DIY project is kind of cool. You could probably use any size bottle you want. Im thinking possibly a 5 gallon culligan water bottle with the screw type top might even work.

Just thought I would check to see if anyone else has attempted this?

BeerCanuck

Or a corny

Not a bad idea, but a 3L bottle is a little small. For the amount of beer it would hold, you could just pour the beer out of the bottle. With a few friends, you'd drink it all before it got warm and/or flat.

A 3 litre bottle is kind of small...

I was researching getting a 3 Gallon cornie for my brewing partner who doesnt have a kegerator yet (just wants to store beer in his fridge)
Those 3 Gallon cornie kegs are hard to come buy and are expensive.
Tap a Draft sounds ok...but mehn.

I was thinking this would work well because its adaptable to whatever PET Bottle you want to attach to it as long as it has a fairly air tight lid..and you only sacrifice the lid on the conversion.

I think I will give it a try and keep you posted

Cheers HBT
BeerCanuck

Very interested in what you find. Keep us informed!
-J

Yup, I think the carbonator caps or even DIY versions of the same are good enough. Four all metal schrader valves at Pep Boys would be $10 and take 10 minutes to insert in four caps. That's 4-12 Liters that you can open at 4 different times.

A 5g water bottle will not hold any pressure.

I have a tap-a-draft, and I use 3 liter "kegs" all the time. I don't consume my beer very quickly, so kegging into six 3-L bottles which I can keep on tap is nice. Plus they only cost a dollar.

Monk

I thought there might be an issue with longterm storage and the metal valve stems. Most screw-in stems are steel which have been chrome coated. I would think that the steel would corrode in the beer in the long term. The brass used in this design wouldn't corrode, though I wonder if it would leech a metal taste into the beer?

-J

Well, good question. I usually fill mine and empty them within a day or two. The stems don't contact with beer though unless you lay the bottles on their side or upside down.

i will use this to adapt my wunderbar pre-mix soda gun to 2Ls...thanks

Would something like this work for a project like this, assuming you could find one with the recycle code 1 or 2. and the bottle would only be holding the contents for about 2 weeks tops, I would like to do something like this for a camping trip

Timber said:

Would something like this work for a project like this, assuming you could find one with the recycle code 1 or 2. and the bottle would only be holding the contents for about 2 weeks tops, I would like to do something like this for a camping trip

Click to expand...

I'm not sure how you would plan to get it to pressurize.
-J

wouldn't you pressurize it the same as you would a 3 liter bottle of soda? I am extremely new to all this (just got my brewing kit last night) but I been lurking for a while and talking in the chat room, so I dont know why it wouldn't be a problem for the 3 liter soda bottles but not this thing

Unless there is a screw top lid capable of holding pressure there will be no way of keeping the bottle pressurized. If you look at a soda PET bottle, there is a neoprene gasket type material on the lid which compresses when you screw the lid on to keep in the pressure.
-J

This is not a pressure vessel!!!



DO NOT attempt to pressurize this thing!!! Let's do some quick math:

Assume that carbonation could result in 15 psi. Let's focus solely on the bottom of the bottle. The surface area of a 10.75" circle is about 91 sq in. 91 sq in * 15 lbs/sq in = 1365 lbs. Do you really want to stress the bottom of that cheap water bottle with over half a ton of force?!?!

Sure, I'm making some gross assumptions, not taking into account the fact that the weight is exactly evenly distributed, etc, etc...but that water bottle wasn't designed for pressure, and I'd bet a large sum of money that it will break/shatter with very little pressure applied.

A vessel will only work if it was intended to hold a carbonated beverage. Even the culligan style 5g bottle with the screw on caps won't work. I think its highly possible that the cap seal would give before the bottle would, but its still not worth trying. I have successfully bottle conditioned in 2 liter and even 20oz soda bottles, but I tried a couple 20oz water bottles (aquafina I think) and they didn't work. I couldn't visibly see a failure, but the beer was flat as hell. The pressure must have escaped through the cap seal. All the other soda bottles were fine. A vessel is either made to hold carb pressure or its not.

++on Yuri's math

As far as simplicity/backup/portability pet bottles are the way to go. When bottling nothing beats naturally carbonating for simplicity. When racking to bottle I like using 2 liter bottles along with the corresponding holder;


simple/practical/portable/redundant/ghetto

Cheers
BeerCanuck

Check this one out http://home.swbell.net/bufkin/cheap_3_liter_kegs.htm, it's pretty much the same idea, but a bit simpler to assemble. I have one I just finished building. I'm currently carbing a 2l of gingerale as a test. It seems to work pretty well.

A couple of hints -

1. Don't use a fiber reinforced rubber washer, it will leak through the fiber!

2. Make sure you have an airtight seal between the brass washer and the compression fitting, it will leak if you dont.

3. Don't overtighten the compression nut holding the bottle cap, it will cut through the plastic.

reference https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=55666 for more information.