Please help me figure out what I have???

Background: SWMBO made a new friend whose husband had been a homebrewer 20 years ago and the new friend wanted the gear out of the house. All I had to do was show up and haul it away.

Here's what I got: An ancient fridge/kegerator deep enough to hold a keg. 3 AB kegs, 3 CO2 tanks, boxes of keg parts, taps, gauges and handles. Not entirely sure what some of the items are, so I'm linking to photos and hoping for some help.

The first photo is of the kegs & tanks. The red tank is a "large Coke type" with gauge and CO2 still in the tank. I'm assuming I can replace the hose & fitting to use on a cornie. One of the smaller tanks still has CO2 as well. The keg on the right is interesting... it has a bung and a fitting on the top and bottom. Not sure how I might use it.
http://www.themacisp.net/~tkarlen/fotos/kegs.jpg

Here are the keg parts. The 3 to the right are standard fittings for kegs.... I think. The rest of the stuff... I haven't a clue



http://www.themacisp.net/`tkarlen/fotos/kegparts.jpg

Here are the taps. The second one down from the top is interesting. Seems pretty old. I can't find any markings or brands on them.

http://www.themacisp.net/~tkarlen/fotos/taps.jpg

And the gauges:

http://www.themacisp.net/~tkarlen/fotos/gauges.jpg

And finally the handles!! These may end up on eBay, although the are a few that are nice enough to keep. Have to research whether there's any collector's market.

http://www.themacisp.net/~tkarlen/fotos/handles.jpg


TIA for your suggestions, help & feedback

Nice find. Have the CO2 tanks checked before use, there may be internal corrosion. That hand pump and cask could make for interesting experiments.

vtchuck said:

http://www.themacisp.net/~tkarlen/fotos/kegs.jpg

Click to expand...

Okay here you have 2 sanke kegs which will make great brewpots. Alot of conversion info here on the forum. You won't be able to refill them with homebrew feasibly, but you will be able have a nice 15 gallon brew kettle and a 15 gallon HLT (or mashtun even)

I will check the other photos but I cannot tell what that gas tank is. If it is CO2 tank (the larger one) that is a monster and you SCORED if it is still in good shape! You won't have to refill that very often.

The other keg on the far right could be used for kettles and such also but, you will have to get the bung hole welded shut. Some folks have talked about using that style (golden gate I think?) as a cask of sorts...

vtchuck said:

Here are the keg parts. The 3 to the right are standard fittings for kegs.... I think. The rest of the stuff... I haven't a clue

http://www.themacisp.net/`tkarlen/fotos/kegparts.jpg

Click to expand...

Here you have several kinds of sanke couplers (taps) for the sanke kegs. Again not much use to your homebrew setup but if you buy any commercial kegs of beer to serve they will come in handy. I don't know specifically what types of kegs (there are different styles) these go to. You may want to sell some of the ones you don't need off and use the money towards some corny keg setups.

You also appear to have some shanks in the upper left corner of the pic. These go through the wall or door of your keg fridge and attach to the faucets. A little below those is a faucet wrench for tightening your faucets to the shanks.

vtchuck said:

Here are the taps. The second one down from the top is interesting. Seems pretty old. I can't find any markings or brands on them.

http://www.themacisp.net/~tkarlen/fotos/taps.jpg

Click to expand...

The one with the red line attached looks like an air pump style tap. No CO2 tank needed, but only good for a keg you are going to use up quickly. For a party for instance.

The one you mention does look interesting. Not sure what that is either. The others just seem to be standard chrome faucets.

vtchuck said:

And the gauges:

http://www.themacisp.net/~tkarlen/fotos/gauges.jpg

Click to expand...

Those regulators look pretty ANCIENT! However that doesn't mean they are bad. Have someone check them out maybe tough? Like a welding shop maybe? The one on the left seems to be maybe a secondary regulator body? Though it does seem to have the post to attach to the tank.

vtchuck said:

And finally the handles!! These may end up on eBay, although the are a few that are nice enough to keep. Have to research whether there's any collector's market.

http://www.themacisp.net/~tkarlen/fotos/handles.jpg


TIA for your suggestions, help & feedback

Click to expand...

Nice collection. I have no idea on the market value but that sounds like a plan. You can always use the proceeds for more gear! I got a really nice pub style Catamount tap handle with a bunch of keg gear I bought. I hope to use it someday it is a beaut!

Nice score! Have fun.

knights of Gambrinus said:

The one with the rad line attached looks like an air pump style tap. No CO2 tank needed, but only good for a keg you are going to use up quickly. For a party for instance.

Click to expand...

Actually, that appears to be a beer engine. They are AWESOME for serving beer real ale style. However, you do need to be prepared to drink the entire keg within a few days, as it will go stale quickly.

Yuri_Rage said:

Actually, that appears to be a beer engine. They are AWESOME for serving beer real ale style. However, you do need to be prepared to drink the entire keg within a few days, as it will go stale quickly.

Click to expand...

Hey Yuri,
Is it really? I have never seen one, but I wondered about them. Cool. So you could possibly build a beer engine with a air pump type tap then? That would be cool, I would like to do that some day. That is a super score then if it is.

knights of Gambrinus said:

Hey Yuri,
Is it really? I have never seen one, but I wondered about them. Cool. So you could possibly build a beer engine with a air pump type tap then? That would be cool, I would like to do that some day. That is a super score then if it is.

Click to expand...

Well, I'm not 100% convinced that it's a beer engine, but it doesn't really look like your standard air pump party tap, either.

All a beer engine is is a pump for beer.
You can surve the beer with a keg breather attached to C02.
That way it will last for weeks/months.

Bah Humbug said:

All a beer engine is is a pump for beer.

Click to expand...

Yup, familiar, Orfy. The thing is, the piece in question looks neither like a traditional beer engine nor party tap.

knights of Gambrinus said:

Some folks have talked about using that style (gloden gate I think?) as a cask of sorts...

Click to expand...

From his description, that does sound like a golden gate keg. Here's one that I have where you can see both fittings.


The hard part about using them to serve with is finding the keys for it. They look like this:

Yuri_Rage said:

Well, I'm not 100% convinced that it's a beer engine, but it doesn't really look like your standard air pump party tap, either.

Click to expand...

It's not a beer engine. It's just a standard air pump party tap.
http://www.micromatic.com/draft-keg-beer/keg-pumps-cid-829.html

A beer engine PULLS beer out of the cask. What he has pumps air into the keg which PUSHES the beer out of the keg.

vtchuck said:

Here are the keg parts. The 3 to the right are standard fittings for kegs.... I think. The rest of the stuff... I haven't a clue

http://www.themacisp.net/`tkarlen/fotos/kegparts.jpg

Click to expand...

That one just below and to the left of center is I think a hoff stephens tap (Can't tell for sure from this angle does it have two probes coming out the side facing away from the camera?). The only thing I've seen that still uses it is some commercial rootbeer kegs.

The bottom row to the left is a european sankey (I think) assuming it is in the open position you will note that the probe extends a bit past the bottom o ring where on the US sankey the probe does not extend that far down.

http://www.kegworks.com/company/keg-coupler-list

I have a few more details on the equipment. The former owner brewed 15 gallon batches of homebrew and used one of the kegs to dispense the brew. He says he shortened the uptake tube to prevent drawing up the trub. Also some of the hardware came from his father...so that explains why it appears ancient. The big red CO2 tank is a 30 lb version...I scraped off the "Property of Coca Cola" labels today. After 20 + years, I don't think they'll miss it.

Planning on putting the BMC tap handles on eBay.... The lucite models are pretty tacky anyway.

I'll be keeping the tanks and kegs and a few of the taps, but the rest of the stuff is available.... maybe for trade????

When you do post the handles on Ebay, do you mind posting a link? There are a couple there that are pretty cool and I wouldn't mind bidding.

Good Luck!
Ize

The taps are for a golden gate keg, they are pretty much just collectors items now. looks like a Hoff Stevens coupler in the middle, I dont know of any brewers that still use them, it will have two probes on it. The rightmost keg is proly a Hoff Stevens, not sure if it is of any use, maybe a collector item if it has a brewery stamped on it that is no longer.