Quarter Kegs......Any use for them at all?

title says it all

breweries sometimes use them to store beer in for sale to consumers...I use the one in my basement as a stepstool sometimes.

so nothing then in your opinion?

Cut the top off, and you've got a 7.75 gallon pot. Prolly too small to use for a brew kettle, but good for heating sparge water.

Straight sided or Bung sided? If bung sided, you can easily clean, fill and use for dispensing your homebrew (provided you have the right tap connector, Sanke, Hoff Stevens, Golden Gate, etc.). I just bought a quarter barrel Golden Gate cask that I plan on using for cask ales.

the_bird said:

Cut the top off, and you've got a 7.75 gallon pot. Prolly too small to use for a brew kettle, but good for heating sparge water.

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inital thought

Brewtopia said:

Straight sided or Bung sided? If bung sided, you can easily clean, fill and use for dispensing your homebrew (provided you have the right tap connector, Sanke, Hoff Stevens, Golden Gate, etc.). I just bought a quarter barrel Golden Gate cask that I plan on using for cask ales.

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I'm confused by what side...like a half keg, but a quarter is what I have

Does it have a hole in the side that you can pound a wooden bung into?

I guess I should say, does it look like this?
View attachment hoff-stevens-keg.bmp

nope, doesn't look like that

You can still use it to dispense your homebrew, it's just a PITA to clean. Sounds like conversion to a small keggle would be your best bet.

I'm wondering if it's worth anything as a small keggle

I had one that I cut the top off for a kettle. Used it a lot for doing extract beers. The 7.75 gallon size is perfect. Love the handles that a keg has too. Only thing I didn't like about the one I had was I couldn't drill it and use a weldless fitting due to the curve it had on the bottom. I suppose I could have one welded in though. Have a 1/2 barrel keg with a spigot that I use for a kettle now. Probably sell off my 1/4 barrel kettle soon.

really, it worked well for you as a brew pot for extract brews? Interesting

I cut the top out of one, added 8 stainless steel bolts to hold my distillation column. I only distill essential oils of course. Small batch potstill.......

did the same thing with a 15 gallon keg. Large batch potstill........

Amazing how much essential oil is in a 50 lb bag of corn

I cut the top off one for a brew kettle. A little extra care to avoid boil overs and it works great.

fretman124 said:

I cut the top out of one, added 8 stainless steel bolts to hold my distillation column. I only distill essential oils of course. Small batch potstill.......

did the same thing with a 15 gallon keg. Large batch potstill........

Amazing how much essential oil is in a 50 lb bag of corn

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I'm curious...got any pics?

EXL -

I've used mine for small size AG batches, in the kitchen no less. It sat over 2 burners, and basically worked great. (be careful if you do, it tends to reach over the counter top, which gets very very hot.)

I know what you're all thinking: "buy a burner," "get a full size keggle," and "small AG batches? WHY?!" - but I don't really mind them, and I'm moving from this apartment to another in NYC in the spring - room for a burner is way out of the question.
I'm considering doing a split boil on the stove top with 2 pots - a steam mash, and back up to full 5 gal batches..

but for now, yes, my 1/4 barrel keggle is doing just fine. I don't have a spigot on mine either, we just siphoned it out... no problem.

kvh

I'm wondering if I could fill this thing up with beer.......you can depress the ball bearing, and get stuff out, why not in?

98EXL said:

I'm wondering if I could fill this thing up with beer.......you can depress the ball bearing, and get stuff out, why not in?

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You can also take the fitting and spear out and fill it that way and then dispence from it. Or you could take it to a micro and ask them to fill it with their beer.

Cheers

Originally posted by 98EXL
I'm wondering if I could fill this thing up with beer.......you can depress the ball bearing, and get stuff out, why not in?

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Just get a Sanke tap (you'll need one anyway to dispense the beer) and first rack into a corny keg and carb. Then rack from the out post on the corny to the outlet on the Sanke (top) under pressure. This way you'll slowly fill from the bottom up on the Sanke keg. This is exactly how we fill kegs from the bright tanks at both Stix and Lazy Boy.

I used one with a valve installed to do a couple full boils. It does get very close to boiling over and doesn't hold the 7.75 gallons with the top cut. I'm going to use it as a HLT now that I have acquired a 1/2 barrel.

I use mine as a fermentor for 5 gallon batches. I just took the sprear out and put a stopper with and air lock in. I love it because it has hard core handles built in and if you drop it the keg will not break the way a carboy does. I want to get like 3 more.

madewithchicken said:

I use mine as a fermentor for 5 gallon batches. I just took the sprear out and put a stopper with and air lock in. I love it because it has hard core handles built in and if you drop it the keg will not break the way a carboy does. I want to get like 3 more.

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Best use yet. IMHO Is the weight comparable to a glass carboy? Seems like they should be close.

RonRock said:

Best use yet. IMHO Is the weight comparable to a glass carboy? Seems like they should be close.

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I think it is about the same. It feels lighter actually but I think that is because you carry it with the big handles and you are not too afraid of dropping it.

My only problem with a quarter barrel fermentor is you can not see the inside of it when you are cleaning it. So I have been soaking it in One Step No Rinse Cleaner (though I need to make sure it is okay for stainless.)

Well I use two of these quarter kegs for my portable 5 gallon system. The only issue I have had is I usually need to add extra water to the HLT because it does not quite hold enough water to perform a complete sparge.
Below is a picture of the HLT. This is an old picture and since then I have equipped both of them with dial temp gauges, 1/2 inch ball valves and pickup tubes.

There is nothing wrong with using these kegs. Heck I have even done a 7 gallon boil for 90 minutes before with no problems. You just need to bring the wort up to a boil slowely and it also helps to add fermcap as well.

I use one for small sparges and one for fermentation. I also use a slim 1/4 keg for fermenting in. Fits the fridge much better than the short 1/4's

I just picked up one of the rubber styles. May use it for kegging, but I already have a couple older style 1/4's that I'll be using for kegging. I figured it would make a great fermenter none the less. Getting the spear out is easy, it is getting it apart and back in that is the tricky part.