How easy is filling commercial (Sanke) kegs?

Forum n00b alert, go easy on me!

I just ran across half a dozen empty, free commercial 6 barrels with Sanke taps. How simple is it to fill them with homemade? Can I pull the valve, top up, and reinstall the valve? And if yes, will I need to replace gaskets/o-rings with each refill? Or do I need a keg filler? I'd hate to turn down free, but I've got so much beer gear already I'd hate to tell the wife there's more coming unless I can put it to use quickly. Thanks

Get a small but strong flathead screwdriver, put it in the tab closest to the end of the ring and pry the end of the ring out. Get some pliers and go around the ring pulling little by little until you get the whole thing out. Twist the spear in the middle lining up the tabs and you will be able to pull it straight out. To reassemble start putting the ring in by hand, and use the pliers to force it in going around. Easy process takes maybe 30 seconds each.

Disassembling
http://www.physics.arizona.edu/~workman/homebrew/Sanke.html

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

Thanks for the reply. I knew they were easy to remove, I pulled one when I plasma cut the top of the half barrel I use for boiling. I just wasn't sure if it was as easy to reassemble or if it would even be airtight again. Will I be able to reuse the o-rings or would I be better served to replace them?

JackBurton said:

Will I be able to reuse the o-rings ........?

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yes you can reuse them

Thanks. Now I need to make room in the garage for more beer gear.

But riddle me this. If it really is this easy (and I'm not doubting it for a minute) why the heck does anyone (including myself) put all that effort and money into a corny keg draft system?

Don't forget to jam something in by the ball to vent the barrel, even if you vented it to zero pressure with your tap. Temp change will create enough pressure to surprise you.

JackBurton said:

Thanks. Now I need to make room in the garage for more beer gear.

But riddle me this. If it really is this easy (and I'm not doubting it for a minute) why the heck does anyone (including myself) put all that effort and money into a corny keg draft system?

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i use both, sankes are not easy to come by, i got lucky when i got mine, cornys are cheap, easy to use and even easier to clean. they are also smaller . i like my ball lock better then the sanke for sure.

I just did this this morning. I have a sankey set up so that I can get beer from my local craft brewer but had never kegged home brew before. If I can also recommend that even easier than removing the valve assembly is to siphon the beer in through the top of the coupling head while it's engaged and the ball check valve is removed. My coupling head didn't come with one so it's easy. I just took off the beer line and the gas line, removed the check valve from the gas in so it could vent when siphoning the beer in and away I went.

Clean, rinse and sanitize first, of course and you should be off to the races.

http://kegman.net/keg_kit.htm

The One & Only Original KegMan Kit

The KegMan kit is the first and only practical device to allow the opening and closing of all " single valve " & " Sankey Type " (Bud, Miller, Coors, etc.) beer kegs with out special tooling and effort. With the KegMan's specially selected draw tube retainer and OEM O-Ring, anyone can open or close a keg in seconds. Now both homebrewers and professionals can enjoy the benefits of the easy to clean & easy to care for kegs that the "Big Boys" use.

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I've read that that kit can be problematic. First you need special pliers, or just ones that fit the 2 holes. The ends stick out some, sometimes being an issue with couplers. Sealing could be an issue. I think someone said it wouldn't seal for them. Also, durability.

The design and parts that the sankey come with are the best. All you need is a screwdriver that fits and some pliers and it's a 30 second job either way.

The kegman kit is not bad once you get used to it, and know where to put the "tabs" so that it doesn't interfere with the coupler. Plus once you get a good set of snap ring pliers, it goes in and comes out really quickly.

The first couple times were a bit of a pain, but I can now uninstall or install the snap ring in about a minute.

I have a 5 gallon sanky that i use but only once or twice and i have 2 15 gallons that i have cleaned and sanitized but have yet to fully use as a keg. The first time it took me no time to take the ring off, clean out the keg and fill it with beer and then when it came to putting the ring back in it took me half hour atleast. Biggest pain ever. I have since looked into using my coupler and found when i take out the little ball in the beer line (takes 2 seconds to do) and fix the gas line so it bleeds out, it is very quick to fill and you never have to take out the center piece ever again. I like sankys because my friends have keggoraters and its nice to be able to just bring over the keg.

All you need to do is get the ring started then use a set of pliers (channel locks work best) to compress the ring in the rest of the way. Takes me no more than 30 seconds with channel locks.

If you are filling the beer from the fermenter to the sanke using the engaged coupler method, do you have to push the beer into the sanke with CO2 or can you use gravity?

So I get that opening a Sanke isn't too hard, and that filling can be accomplished in a couple of ways. What about force carbonating a keg? How does a brother from another mother do that?

Maltose said:

If you are filling the beer from the fermenter to the sanke using the engaged coupler method, do you have to push the beer into the sanke with CO2 or can you use gravity?

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I just use gravity, works like a charm and I have yet to run out of it.

BrewingTRouble said:

So I get that opening a Sanke isn't too hard, and that filling can be accomplished in a couple of ways. What about force carbonating a keg? How does a brother from another mother do that?

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I just remove the check valves and put the gas line on the beer out port and a coin in behind the gasket on the beer line and attach that to the gas in port. Set your CO2 to 20psi, purge the keg and leave overnight. Shake in the morning and you should be good to go by evening.

How do you remove the coupler check valve? Thanks

I am also interested in this. I am having trouble finding specific info on how to fill purge or carbonate beer in a sanke

Remove keg stem, fill with beer, reinstall keg stem, hook up coupler, turn on gas and pull pressure release several times to purge air for co2.

Force carbing is no different than any other keg. I like to do 30 psi for 36 hours on cold beer and then set to serving pressure. The check valves are behind the fittings on the keg coupler, easy to remove. Be warned if you remove the check valves, they are there for a reason.

Using the links above, stem remove land replacement is easy with a little practice.
A small sharp flat blade screwdriver works well for removing the spiral ring, just be careful that you are only prying on the top ring of the spiral and work it free. Small channel lock pliers make installation easy.

Wilserbrewer
Http://biabbags.webs.com/

I assume when filling with gravity through the coupler do you place the siphon tube all the way into the bottom of the keg or just in the liquid out hole of the coupler? If just putting the tube into the liquid out hole is oxidation a concern? Side note: I ask because I'm hoping to use my sanke to ball lock connectors, adding a liquid ball lock post to the liquid out position, attaching my liquid qd to the end of the spigot tube and transferring beer through the sanke coupler.

makisupapolice14 said:

I assume when filling with gravity through the coupler do you place the siphon tube all the way into the bottom of the keg or just in the liquid out hole of the coupler? If just putting the tube into the liquid out hole is oxidation a concern? Side note: I ask because I'm hoping to use my sanke to ball lock connectors, adding a liquid ball lock post to the liquid out position, attaching my liquid qd to the end of the spigot tube and transferring beer through the sanke coupler.

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I'm sorry, I don't fully understand your post? If you are filling a sanke keg through the coupler, the coupler and fittings will provide line resistance that gravity alone may not overcome, resilting in very slow flow. Typically, if one is filling kegs through the keg fittings, it is done under Co2 pressure for this reason. You can fill a sanke keg through the coupler, if the sanke check valve is removed, and the pressure release is pulled on the recieving keg to remove pressure from the receiving keg. I have never filled a sanke through the coupler using a gravity siphon, only through a pressurized co2 transfer. Not saying it won't work, but I imagine the flow would be very slow to zero.

^sorry ...my sanke d coupler check valves have been removed. The keg is depressurized. I use these sanke to ball lock conversion posts on my coupler

http://www.cornykeg.com/resources/corny-keg-tips/converting-sanke-ball-lock-keg/

And I'm trying to emulate this method https://itswhatsontap.wordpress.com/2012/05/21/filling-a-sanke-keg-tutorial/

I'm just worried that when filling through the beer out coupler area I'll have excess splashing but if it's transferred down the spear should I be ok?

Is there an easy way for me to do a co2 forced transfer from primary to sanke? Ideally I'd transfer from corny to sanke using co2 but my only corny is currently filled with beer.

Thanks and I hope this makes a bit of sense

Why don't you remove the sanke spear and fill the sanke keg, then reinstall the spear? Same as you would siphon from any vessel to another. I have used sanke for years, and that link seems like a hassle.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZPfZ_AL380[/ame]

wilserbrewer said:

Why don't you remove the sanke spear and fill the sanke keg, then reinstall the spear? Same as you would siphon from any vessel to another. I have used sanke for years, and that link seems like a hassle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZPfZ_AL380

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I've tried and failed many times so far....I've tried a variety of tools and damaged one ring already.

it's actually easy to transfer the liquid with the ball lock qd post, cleaning is the more difficult part.

So I just did this. Took out the ring, removed the spearheaded disassembled the spear and then filled and reassembled. Wasn't too bad. The ring was pretty easy to get out, just pry up with a flat bladed screw driver.

The hard part to figure out was how to flush it after filling.