Switching from Corny Kegs to Sankey

I recently purchased a kegerator and it came with the gear to tap sankey type D kegs; this is fine but I also have 2-5 gallon corny kegs that I am planning on using for home brew type beer.

My question is: is there a way to easily switch from sankey to corny w/out adding too much hardware to the mix?

you can get quick releases for lines and just keep the different taps on hand.

so quick releases for both the gas and beer lines?

If anyone has some pics of this setup, that would be great.


Thanks

I have that same scenario working.

I have standard air QR couplers in my gas line. Found in teh air compressor part of your hardware store.

For the liquid lines I used the QR couplers made of food grade plastic found at morebeer.com and used those. (they have a kit that you could use that comes with all the parts if you want).

This way I can have my beer on tap all the time and then, when I've got a big event that I don't want to 'waste' my beer on or I have a supply shortfall I can order up a tall 1/4 barrel of local brew (I use New Glarus Brewery--- they use tall 1/4 barrels instead of half height) and throw that in for the event.

At one point I was short on beer in general (had a dumper batch cause of a bad seal) and had New Glarus Squirrel Nut ale on tap for about a month.

Thanks for the replies...

I don't have the kegerator as of yet so I'm having a hard time visualizing the setup and not to mention, I'm newbie so if you have some pics that you can post, I'd appreciate it.

thanks again

umm... are you familiar with how a standard air compressor quick disconnect hose works? You would have the beer equivalent of those on your gas line going to your CO2 tank, and another one on your beer line going to your faucet. At a moments notice you can quickly disconnect the tap/s from the lines, replace with a different tap system, and fire up a new and different kind of keg.

Without the quick disconnects you would be constantly cutting your lines to get the taps off.

"Tap System" terminology is easily confused....

Taps are the devices that connect to your keg. Some come in pairs like corni kegs, and some are built into one "tap" like sanke.

Lines are the actual hoses that connect your CO2 bottle to the gas tap/keg, and the beer tap/keg to the shank/faucet assembly.

Shanks are what your beer lines connect to on one side, and your faucet screws into the shank on the other side (outside). Its an intermediary for flexibility in installation (they come in many lengths including elbow shanks for tight installs (draft towers) , and allows the faucets to be quickly removed for cleaning.

Faucets are the actual "spickets" where the beer comes out. This is commonly (and incorrectly) called a "tap" which is where the confusion stems from.


So when I say we are switching taps, that just means you are switching the keg connectors at the keg. The faucets remain in place.

I'll see about photos when I get home.

Adventures in Homebrewing has a kit you can buy that will let you switch between the two. Here is the link

If you've got most of the parts already, you can see in this picture the nut and threaded nipples that you add to your commercial tap (you should already have one nut). With it, your tapper works with a quick-disconnect set-up. I have mine set up, but have yet to use it with a commercial keg.

is it just me or do those look like ball lock taps? They list them as pin lock on the site...

sirsloop said:

is it just me or do those look like ball lock taps? They list them as pin lock on the site...

Click to expand...

Those are ball locks. I don't see where it says pin, but it says ball lock several times in the description

HAHAHH!!!...those pin lock taps were in my shopping cart (duh)

Sorry-- spaced taking pics.