1/6 barrel with sankey coupler

So we just bought a kegerator and are going to start kegging our brews. At our local hombrew store, we got this sankey to ball lock coupler to be able to use commercial kegs in our setup as well. As you can see from my photo, we're looking at roughly 6 1/4" for the coupler. I've seen some online diagrams showing commercial kegs at 23 3/8" tall. The inside dimension of our kegerator is 28 1/4". It looks like we're probably too tall overall to fit, but doesn't the coupler sit slightly lower than the top of the keg handles? Will we just barely fit? Or do we need to look into a low profile coupler?

Thanks for any insight you can provide!

The coupler does sit below the keg rim, but not a whole lot. You can get a rough idea by looking at this-



It's going to be really close with an interior height of 28 1/4". Looks like you already bought your corny QD's and got the barbed style. If it were me I would have used the MFL QD's and then picked up a couple MFL tailpieces for the sankey coupler rather than that cumbersome conversion kit. If it doesn't fit, another option that may be cheaper than a low profile coupler is a 90° elbow on the beer out port.

You can get a MFL fitting and reuse your beer nut and then can swap the same beer line between the QD and sankey coupler.

The MFL Fitting:

http://www.homebrewing.org/14-inch-Commercial-Fitting-for-Tap_p_328.html

This is what I do and it does not affect your vertical clearance as much as an addon post.

DrunkleJon said:

You can get a MFL fitting and reuse your beer nut and then can swap the same beer line between the QD and sankey coupler. The MFL Fitting: http://www.homebrewing.org/14-inch-Commercial-Fitting-for-Tap_p_328.html This is what I do and it does not affect your vertical clearance as much as an addon post.

Click to expand...

I already mentioned that, but they're using barbed QD's instead of the MFL's, so they'd need new QD's for that to work.

Touche

I want to do something similar using a MFL fitting and my existing setup. Can you comment on how tall the Sankey coupler is with this fitting and tubing? My minifridge-turned-kegerator is 28" and I'd like to get 1/6 barrels if possible to fit.

I hate that life has become too busy for me to homebrew and I've been spending too much on bottles lately.

DrunkleJon said:

You can get a MFL fitting and reuse your beer nut and then can swap the same beer line between the QD and sankey coupler.

The MFL Fitting:

http://www.homebrewing.org/14-inch-Commercial-Fitting-for-Tap_p_328.html

This is what I do and it does not affect your vertical clearance as much as an addon post.

Click to expand...

If room is tight, get a low profile tap. I converted mind to ball locks. It's only 2" above the bung on the keg. Different kegs can vary on the height, even if they are all sixtels. Mine stsnds just over 27.5" top to bottom.

Thanks for the suggestion but I already have some regular Sankey couplers lying around that I would prefer to use. If I have to, I'll purchase the low profile coupler but the price is a bit steep if you ask me.

I wasnt wild about the price either, but it was the only way my 1/6 barrels would fit in my fridge. Don't ask what the 2 90* SS elbows cost on top of the coupler. Everything is tight, compact, fairly easy to access, universal with the rest of my kegs and fits.

DrunkleJon said:

You can get a MFL fitting and reuse your beer nut and then can swap the same beer line between the QD and sankey coupler.

The MFL Fitting:

http://www.homebrewing.org/14-inch-Commercial-Fitting-for-Tap_p_328.html

This is what I do and it does not affect your vertical clearance as much as an addon post.

Click to expand...

I have everything setup for swivel nuts. It makes it easy to swap over from Sanke to pin lock, to ball lock. No issues.

I also have the low profile Sanke coupler but mainly use it for draining a Sanke after each step in the cleaning/sanitizing process. Just install it and flip the keg upside down over a bucket and let it set for a few mins.

pb

drocu said:

I want to do something similar using a MFL fitting and my existing setup. Can you comment on how tall the Sankey coupler is with this fitting and tubing? My minifridge-turned-kegerator is 28" and I'd like to get 1/6 barrels if possible to fit.

I hate that life has become too busy for me to homebrew and I've been spending too much on bottles lately.

Click to expand...

I will measure when I get home at 3:45, but this page should be accurate
http://www.micromatic.com/beer-questions/sizes-keg-draft-beer-available-aid-11.html

With the coupler you already have you need the standard 5-6 inches clearance above the keg, so 28-29 inches. Should work, will be tight, but should work.

It will be tight but if your first posts 28-1/4" is correct you can just get by. This is with some pinching of the inside of the line so there will be turbulance and a possible small amount of added foaming. If you can find the 90 degree elbow fitting Juan posted or a low profile american sankey coupler you will be set with room to spare. Hope this helps.