Bottling 5 liter pony kegs?

I recently got one of those 5 liter pony kegs (like Heineken and Spaten and a quite a few beers sell) of Widmer Hefeweizen. I soon had the idea of trying to bottle one of my own beers in one (or possibly more) of these babies. With a little effort you can pop off the top/tab and could definitely go about bottling/kegging in it. I'm just wondering if there are any good reasons not to try this out. It seems possible to me. Will the beer carbonate properly? Are there any suggestions?

You sure can. Just check out any homebrew store for more of these kegs and accessories. You will need a reusable bung which is 2 piece, and you can even get pressure relief valves. I have been doing it for several years now and am moving up to bigger kegs. Remember-- only 1 tablespoon of priming sugar per 5 liter keg. Works great. You can use them about 8 times before they get a metalic taste because the lining wears out.

Wayne

waynemil said:

Remember-- only 1 tablespoon of priming sugar per 5 liter keg.
Wayne

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I ended up trying it out already, but what I did was use 3/4 cup of brown sugar for priming the whole 5 gallon batch and then made sure to put exactly 5 liters into the keg. If my math is correct, that turns out to be a little less than 3 tbs. in the keg. Do you think I have a bomb getting ready to blow?

hopefully not. 3/4 cup is closer to the volume for bottleing. You need less sugar to carbonate a keg. Usually closer to 1/3 cup for a 5gal cornie.

I've been using minikegs for over 10 years...you definitely overprimed.

DO NOT let them get warm or they will start bulging from the overpressure and then they will explode at a seam.

I would place them all in a fridge after about 1 month of conditioning.

homebrewer_99 said:

DO NOT let them get warm or they will start bulging from the overpressure and then they will explode at a seam.

I would place them all in a fridge after about 1 month of conditioning.

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Thanks for the advice. I'll definitely do exactly that.