Party Pigs Rock!

Wow, I went to the brewpub while visiting Lubbock, TX and they have started serving party pigs for $30. I thought, wow that is pretty good pricing for a case of good beer. I was also thinking how perfect this things are for taking on a trip. If you haven't seen one of these you should check it out. I plan on buying two and rigging them for the little CO2 cartridges instead of the self inflating ones they are sold with, but other than that these are a perfect solution for fridge room and to-go party beer. I would never think about using a Mr. beer or anything like that, but this product is extremely durable and fits inside a cooler with ease. They even have a model that comes with a cooler with the tap hanging out. I see multiple uses for these and just wanted to put the word about it out there, no affiliation with the company but i give them thanks for a great idea. Its a reusable party ball!!!

Is there an accessory for external CO2? I looked on the manufacturers site and didn't see anything.

Nope, you would have to drill into the plastic serving face and plumb in your CO2 injector there. Or you could pay for the self inflating sacks if you wanted, I just think I would like the CO2 cartridges better is why I would do that.

What brought you through Lubbock? I assume you were at Triple J's??

yep, my friend is getting married and I used to live here two summers ago. I did an internship at the Hub city brewery.

Nice! I heard a rumor, maybe you can confirm it if you're still in touch with anybody around there? My waiter told me that Marks had left, and that the "guy who trained him" has taken over as brewmaster.

So is Jason Courtney back in town.....have you any idea about it?

It isn't Courtney, but this guy was there before. Marks did leave a couple of weeks back. I haven't tried anything the new guy has brewed yet cause Marks's beers are still on tap. Excellent pilsner, and rye pale ale.

Gotcha! And where are you from?

SORRY TO HIJACK THIS THREAD BTW.

Just looking into the Pigs. I got to say, I'm intrigued!

If you were thinking of getting them from the brewery and using them there might be some kind of hitch in that plan:

partypig.com said:

(Note that the PartyPig Home Brew Kit is made specifically for home brewing.
The Craft brew Pigs used by micro breweries may look the same but have industrial features that make them inappropriate for home brewers.)

Click to expand...

Also, there's apparently One-Trip and Mult-Trip pigs for breweries. See http://partypig.com/commercial.htm

That said, I'm unable to find any actual info on what the difference between homebrew, one-trip and multi-trip might be.

Step 7 in the instructions (http://partypig.com/images/PP_instr_8_2005.pdf) says that you can get the initial pressure needed to activate the pouch from the pump (which I assume pumps air into the pig, probably not a good thing) or from a CO2 system. Maybe you can just rig CO2 to that and forget about the pouch? Nevermind, the pump or CO2 goes in through the valve. That wouldn't work.

Moon

Used as directed, with the pouch and all, how much control do you have over final carbonation? The directions say 1/4 to 1/3 cups corn sugar (so what maybe 1/2 to 2/3 DME?).

It just seems like the mechanics of the situation are going to determine the final carbonation, not priming. Are you going to be able to make your English styles less carbed and your hefes more carbed and various gradations in between?

Does anyone know how the Party Pigs compare to the Tap-a-draft system? http://www.williamsbrewing.com/Prod...29&ParentType=1&Category_ID=120&StartRecord=1

Seems like the tap-a-drafts might be a better deal if you want the CO2 dispensing.

Well, as far as the trips on the pig, they were telling us how they do when they come back in. Simple, they open the 4 screw clamp and pull out the inflated sack. So, it sounds like it isn't any different than a growler is to fill up except the addition of a CO2 producing bladder and then charging/starting the system and purging the remaining O2 before serving. Growlers break and don't have a tap built in, lol.

As, far as tap-a-draft, that seems expensive for such a small setup and it doesn't look as rugged as the pig. A pig really is simple to upgrade/change into cartridge serving pressure with little invested in the charger and cartridges compaired to the bladders over time of course. Heck, you could still use the bladders if you wanted and have the ability of both. Just seems great either way. I wuldn't use it with any additions of sugar. I plan on purging with CO2, then fill with post secondary beer (already carbed) and simple let the gas out of pig while filling. Same as a keg. Seems very easy.

Like I said, I have no idea about buying one from a brewery vs. ordering one for homebrewers, but looking at one right now I see nothing but what I have stated is possible with one. Hope everyone has a chance to see one upclose cause they are really cool. Tap-a-draft is cool too, just not as tight of a package if you ask me, maybe a better application for someone else who wants smaller serving vessels. Personally i am sticking with two party pigs for a 5 gallon batch.

Also, looking at the pig, it seems another cool later addition might be to get a big clover clamp to attach the tap to the bottle. Just a way to make it hands instead of handtools compatible. everytime I look at this thing I get more excited.

I had 4 of these puppies for a couple years and they served me well. The pouches can get expensive though, at $8 per 5 gallon batch.

Yep, I was thinking they were great except the expense of the bladder. Tere is another thread that started yesterday about the pigs and a guy has a cool alternative setup with a CO2 bike tire inflater and a bike tube valve. I think that would be cool cause you can still use it the old way when you wanted to. I was wondering, do you have to tip the pig towards the tap to get all the beer out? It doesn't look like there is a dip tube on the tap (assuming they didn't need to put one there cause the swelling bladder squeezes everything to the tap). I wonder how easy a retrofit would be to get a dip tube in there for CO2 not Bladder charged pigs.

I'm not that familiar with the Party Pig as a bottle only brewer. I see that people use them on the go. Is the sediment a problem in this situation as when you move it I would expect this to be disturbed resulting in slightly cloudy beer?

I would think using it as a conditioning vessel would stir up yeast while serving. I really look at it as a traveling sort of thing so I will only use the two I bought for filling from my tap. I am still interested in the CO2 charger idea someone had on another thread and might fit my piggies with the same type of thing. The way the bag opens is my only source for opinion for stirring up the yeast.

I finally got to see the inside of my piggies. Looks like with a machined part made out of foodgrade nylon and some sort of weighted dip tubing it could be real nice as a CO2 injected party to go.:rockin:

HAHA I used to work at Hub city, their used to be some shady ass people working there

Has anybody here tried to mount a tire valve and used the portable tire inflator?

I found it. Here's the link.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=25831&highlight=Pigs

I'd like to know if it works!!

I would too, however I got to thinking, you have to pressurize the pig while using the pouches. I think you might not even need to hook something like this up, just keep recharging through the tap when needed. It is just an idea, may not work at all.

Once you start modding to add a CO2 connection, you might as well just buy a bunch of Walmart soda in 3 liter bottles and use those. Plumb in a bulkhead into the cap, run it to a TEE. One end of the T goes to your picnic hose/faucet, the other goes to your CO2 charger. You'd just need a way to hold the bottle inverted so you wouldn't mess with a dip tube.

This setup could be used to carb and serve while never having to expose the contents to oxygen until it's all gone.

For my portable setup, when I just want to bring a liter or two to a brew club for tasting in one sitting, I put a schrader valve (tire fill valve) into a 2 liter bottle cap. I fill from the keg faucet, squeeze the bottle to remove all the headspace, cap, then top it off with 15psi of CO2. One of the outlets on my manifold has a schrader female (what you use to fill your tires).