Anyone Naturally Carb in 50L Kegs?

Hey all,

I have a 50L keg that a friend from university gave to me when he moved back home at the end of the semester and I'd like to use it! It's obviously a sanke and I have yet to inspect the inside of the keg but I'm going to open it up tomorrow and have a look-see.

Once it's cleaned I'd like to brew a couple big batches of Hefe, siphon into it and let it naturally carbonate. I have a small chest freezer that I can use to chill it for a couple of days before serving and your standard sanke tap for serving. Does anyone use this method? I'm only considering it for the occasional party brew, my financial situation has kept me from trying force carbonation and this seems like a good compromise.

What was the question? I'm rather distracted...wow.

Sure you can prime a keg and tap it...sorry not quite sure how much sugar to add though....search around.

Ha ha ha! I shouldn't have posted such a distracting picture.

I've found through some reading that priming a 19L cornie keg requires about 1/3 cup of sugar, or in the case of a Hefe a heaped 1/3 cup as it needs mucho-carbo. I'm going to be brewing a beer of approximately 5% ABV so when I fill the keg I can add enough water to reduce the head space in the keg while reducing it to a session-strength beer. The water will have a heaped 3/4 cup of sugar dissolved into it for priming, we'll see how it goes.

If my experiment is a giant failure then I'll have to go out into the world and try and find someone kind enough to lend me some kegging equipment!

I've decided to hold off on brewing 46L of beer for the keg using an unproven method...

Instead I'm going to pitch the Nottingham yeast cake from my batch of Graff into 46L of water/sugar solution (treated with campden tablets). I'll dissolve a heaped 3/4 cup of dextrose into the water and hopefully this will give me an idea of how much CO2 will dissolve into a solution when there is still approximately 4L of head space left in the keg.

Should I reduce the head space?

If the carbonation in the water is acceptable enough to meet "draft" standards (this is party beer after all ha ha) and I can dispense 42-44L using a party tap then I'll consider the experiment a success and I'll go ahead with the real deal.

It's not an unproven method! Please, prime the keg w/ beer...really easier ways to make soda water.