Fermenting in Hoff-Stevens Keg

I don't know why I'm just thinking of this now.

I have an old Beer Meister from the 70s. The only kegs that seem to fit in it are Hoff-Stevens 1/4-bbl kegs (football shaped) which have the removable bung plug in the side. I dispensed a few batches of my beer and apfelwein through it in the HS 1/4 bbl that came with it, but then I bought & converted a chest freezer and switched to Cornies, so the old Beer Meister and 1/4-bbl keg have been sitting around collecting dust.

Then it dawned on me--I could just stick a big stopper and airlock in the bung hole, and ferment right in the keg.

Has anyone ever fermented in an old Hoff-Stevens keg? I bet you can score these things pretty cheaply these days since none of the major breweries use them anymore. (That is, if they haven't all been scrapped by now.)

I could also part-out my old kegerator (sell the tower, faucet, and CO2 stuff) and use the remaining fridge for lager fermentations.

I don't see why not, might be a PITA to clean though?

Heh, you said bung hole...

Sea said:

I don't see why not, might be a PITA to clean though?

Click to expand...

Yeah, I might want to remove the dip tube at least, and even then I'd want to be careful about sanitizing the tap fixture with its CO2 check valve and whatnot.

I'll probably just sell the whole kegerator, keg, etc. like I had planned. I need the money to pay for more beer equipment.