Fill 5L kegs from a corny?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

mrgreen4242

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2009
Messages
107
Reaction score
0
Location
Grand Ledge, MI
You know those little mini kegs at the grocery store (not the Heineken ones, but the other brands)? Can I get a couple of those and fill them back up off my keg to bring with me for parties, etc? Obviously it will lose carbonation over a couple days, but if it's a fill and drink (using the standard "gravity tap" that comes in it) the same/next day for a party or BBQ or whatnot there should be no trouble, right? Also, what would be best way to fill it be? Seems like you wouldn't want to just dump it in, so maybe a hose on the faucet that went down to the bottom of the keg so it filled bottom up and gently?

Bell's has Oberon mini kegs available right now and I want to drink some anyways, but it would be nice to reuse the kegs for travelers (no more bottles at all!). They have Two Hearted in the mini kegs, too, so it would be easy to stock up. ;)

Come to think on it, would there be a way to "jumper" into these kegs like people do with cornies? Thanks!
 
I always wondered that, too (my apologies if you subscribed to this thread and was hoping for an answer). Occasionally I can get mini kegs real cheap, but I'd rather them be sitting in a corny in my keezer.

My wife also wonders if we can fill a corny with a bunch of 2-liters of Diet Sprite and keep it cold and carbonated.
 
i bet with a little modification you could use it like that, hell you could probably even modify it with a couple of ball lock posts and use carbonation to move it out.

although at that point it could get as expensive as a 5 gallon corny. but, it would be super cool and much more transportable.
 
I always wondered that, too (my apologies if you subscribed to this thread and was hoping for an answer). Occasionally I can get mini kegs real cheap, but I'd rather them be sitting in a corny in my keezer.

My wife also wonders if we can fill a corny with a bunch of 2-liters of Diet Sprite and keep it cold and carbonated.

if you have it on carbonation then of course you can.
 
VanHorneDog said:
i bet with a little modification you could use it like that, hell you could probably even modify it with a couple of ball lock posts and use carbonation to move it out.

although at that point it could get as expensive as a 5 gallon corny. but, it would be super cool and much more transportable.

Ya, I want to avoid transporting co2, etc. Basically, I thinking of this as 2.5 growlers that I can store on ice for a few people outdoors away from my place, etc. It would be nice to be able to "seal" it in with so e co2 though, so it would stay fresh and car bed until you tapped it (much like a commercially purchased mini keg).
 
ptakers said:
I always wondered that, too (my apologies if you subscribed to this thread and was hoping for an answer). Occasionally I can get mini kegs real cheap, but I'd rather them be sitting in a corny in my keezer.

My wife also wonders if we can fill a corny with a bunch of 2-liters of Diet Sprite and keep it cold and carbonated.

You could do that, but... 1) soda is car bed much higher than beer - like 30psi, so you'll need a second regulator and lots of bev line hooked to it. And, 2) you can get concentrate and just mix it with water in the keg rather than buying and dealing with 8-9 2 liter bottles.
 
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/party-star-deluxe-tap-system.html

I haven't used them but it looks like you would fill and prime like if you were bottling then pop the bung in. Don't see why it would lose carbonation. I mean, the kegs sit on store shelves for a couple months sometimes and don't go flat.


Was just going to post the same thing. We have one and LOVE it! As far as losing carbonation, we treat them like growlers, and fill them with the intention of using them within a few days. I suspect they would last much longer though.
 
Sandy said:
Was just going to post the same thing. We have one and LOVE it! As far as losing carbonation, we treat them like growlers, and fill them with the intention of using them within a few days. I suspect they would last much longer though.

So are you filling them off a tap or are you filling one at bottling time and priming it?
 
I fill them off the tap the same way i fill bottles sometimes. I jam a broken piece of racking cane into the end of a picnic tap (fits perfectly). Just get everything cold, and turn down the pressure on your keg so the beer just barely flows out. I usually put the mini-kegs in the freezer for awhile before filling them. Patience is the key to not getting half a keg of foam.
 
JuanMoore said:
And even more ideas-

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/miller-lite-home-draft-dissected-181602/

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/miller-home-draft-system-173253/

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/my-extra-small-portable-kegerator-238490/

The "home draft" systems hold 6 liters and can be carbed or pushed with standard disposable CO2 cartridges. Great for parties, camping, etc. The downside is that they come full of either Miller Lite or Coors Lite.

I'm not really interested in using (expensive) co2 cartridges and I don't need the beer to last more than a day or two. And I can get a mini keg of Oberon for $18, which can't be much more than the Miller jug... And I don't have to drink Miller Lite.

So, I'm thinking a Bowie Bottler and a drilled bung might be the way to fill these up, and then put in a standard bung and use the gravity tap?
 
I have a set up similar to the Party Star. It's pretty easy to fill off the bottling bucket and naturally carbonate or fill off the keg. I prefer the latter because it's just super convenient at the last minute. The system holds CO2 well, but you only get one batch per CO2 cartridge and they aren't cheap. Still, it's a good compromise between growlers and a full Corny keg in terms of capacity and portability.

The kegs I have (bought at the LHBS) have a bung on top for filling and the tap, but also have a gravity fed tap built into a bung on the side near the bottom. You could use that and not need CO2 cartridges, but I've never tried it.
 
Back
Top