Cornelius keg

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Adam's Apples

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I have done a bit more research into the cornelius keg and found an online stockist that does them for £55 ($110 ish). The product is described as

'Our most popular set a complete keg kit with inlet valve and a bar type sparkler tap fitted into the top handle. Tap has an adjustable sparkler nozzle as used in the pub trade to control your beers head for that perfect pint every time.'

I realise this isn't a great deal of information, but I think this is a 'ball-lock' model. If I bought this, what would I need in addition to this setup? Do you just buy Co2 cylinders and do they screw on to the top of this? Also, I would need a pressure gauge as well, wouldn't I?

Any help would be appreciated, after seeing the set up some of you guys have in place I'm dreaming of collecting a few of these, then eventually a fridge to do the whole kegerator conversion with.

Cheers
 
That's pretty nifty how they put the tap through the rubber. That doesn't seem too bad, particularly if they are brand new - or really well cleaned and all seals replaced. Depending on what pressures you want to serve beer at, a tube that short can lead to foaming. Typically, one would also need to pruchase a Co2 tank, a regulator (hooks to the tanks), some tubing and a disconnect for the keg (this is similar to the beer out disconnect, but is typically grey in color and a slightly different size). In the States, that would all probably run you $140. Without the CO2, you'll be able to pour a couple beers before the pressure dropped to low to push the beer. If you now wait overnight, the beer will release some CO2 and you can pour some more beers. Of course your beer will become flatter with each pour.

Now, if you were looking to serve mildly carbed at celler temp, it might be interested to serve it cask style (by gravity). To do this you'd put the keg horizontal and serve the beer out of the gas IN port (using a gas in disconnect). You will then also need some kind of pressure relief system attached to what normally would be the beer in port. As mentioned above, the same pressure drop will occur, but because you can relieve the pressure (partial vacuum now) you can let gravity do the work. Of course this let's O2 in so the beer won't last as long and will need to be drunk up quickly. They do make fancy doo-hickeys that use a CO2 tank and several parts that limit the CO2 going in to only equal that of the beer beer poured, mimicing the cask-style but avoiding the O2 problem.
 
Cheers guys.

Thanks for the links Rhoobarb, that's a great step by step guide to making a kegerator.

Cheers
 
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