S.S. Growler Carbonator

I have a couple of "Lifeline's" 50/50 stainless steel vacuum insulated, 64oz. growlers and converted one cap into a carbonator cap.

Drilled a 1/8" Pilot hole through the center of the cap.
The drilled a 7/16" hole for a 1/4"x18 NPT tap.
Took a Dremel tool and cut the thin plastic off the inside of the cap.
Next I tapped the 7/16" hole with a 1/4"x18 pipe tap.
Then I threaded 1/4" NPT ball lock post adapter into the cap.
Last I screwed the gas post onto the adapter.

It has worked perfectly.

Growler info:
•The Lifeline 50/50 Stainless Steel Growler MSRP $39.99
•64oz DOUBLE-WALL GROWLER is VACUUM-INSULATED to keep liquids hot or cold all day
•Double-wall technology prevents condensation & keeps outside wall of bottle at a comfortable temperature
•Lightweight 18/8 stainless steel is 100% recyclable
•It has no liner and will not retain odor or taste
•We recommend hand washing your stainless steel water bottle with a non-abrasive dish-soap. For a more thorough cleaning, add 1 teaspoon white vinegar or baking soda to the bottle, fill 3/4 of the way with warm water, close and gently shake. Rinse thoroughly and let your bottle air dry with the cap off.
•Available in Black, White or Silver Stainless Steel

Great idea

I have found that spare caps are available on amazon for $5.95.

Wide Mouth Water Bottle Cap/Lid
•Replacement Cap for Fifty/Fifty Wide Mouth Double-wall Vacuum Insulated Stainless Steel Bottles by Lifeline and Pinemeadow Green
•Cap Fits: 18oz, 40oz, 64oz Wide Mouth Double-wall Vacuum Insulated Stainless Steel Bottles
•Cap will fit only Fifty/Fifty Wide Mouth Double-wall Vacuum Insulated Stainless Steel bottles by Lifeline First Aid & Pinemeadow Green

I had a couple of requests to make carbonator caps and found amazon has raised the spare caps to $6.95 (3/21/14).

That's cool. It's not a big leap to add a liquid out tap to that lid as well.

Something like this but with only one post, put a thumb tap on the other side.

Can you post pictures of the parts disassembled? I'm looking to do something similar, but with a normal growler size lid with my tap a draft system for force carbonating. I've found fittings to screw into the the gas posts, but they don't put pressure on the popit valve to keep in in place.

If anybody has thoughts, it would be greatly appreciated.

I hate to be "that guy", but if I understand your concept correctly you are force carbing in this thing. What PSI are you putting it at. I can't imagine these things are designed to be under pressure...

you're supposed to use CO2 cartridges to force carbonate them. Mine is an older one that uses 8 gram cartridges, the new ones us 1 16g cartridge. The product manual says it automatically vents through the spout at 70psi. So, letting it sit at 14 psi for a week shouldn't be a big deal. I just don't want to buy the stupid little cartridges since I have a CO2 tank for my kegging system. I'd like to carbonate with my co2 tank and then give to a friend and he can use the cartridges for dispensing the beer.

http://morebeer.com/products/tapadraft-homebrew-setup.html

KevyWevy said:

you're supposed to use CO2 cartridges to force carbonate them. Mine is an older one that uses 8 gram cartridges, the new ones us 1 16g cartridge. The product manual says it automatically vents through the spout at 70psi. So, letting it sit at 14 psi for a week shouldn't be a big deal. I just don't want to buy the stupid little cartridges since I have a CO2 tank for my kegging system. I'd like to carbonate with my co2 tank and then give to a friend and he can use the cartridges for dispensing the beer.

http://morebeer.com/products/tapadraft-homebrew-setup.html

Click to expand...

Okay, good to know! I didn't realize they could be used as a pressure vessel. Today I learned!

I thought I'd share my tap a draft solution for carbonating.

http://imgur.com/a/5gdAi

This is my DIY carbonating growler lid. I have a tap a draft system I use to give beer to friends and I was looking for a simple way to force carbonate the beer without needing to buy a tone of little cartridges. The tap a draft lid is the same size as a growler lid so you would think somebody out there would be producing a ball lock growler lid like the do for 2L bottles. Apparently not! I search high and low for a way to add a ball lock post to the lid but couldn't find and post adapters locally. So finally it dawned on me to use tubing quick disconnects. It's simple and works great. I can use it on my growler too... Just to purge, I don't know how much pressure the glass can take. The tap a draft is meant for bottle conditioning and force carbonating, so it's fine.

I don't have the washer sizes, but all of this was at the local hardware store and the disconnects were at the local homebrew store. I can't remember what the rubber washers are made of. The metal washers aren't stainless at this point and since the rubber washers probably aren't food grade, I'll just be sure not to let the beer touch the lid. It cost about $10

Thoughts?

Could you bottle condition in one of these?

If you're asking about the tap a draft bottles, yes. I'm just too impatient to bottle condition when I have a co2 tank hanging around.

If you're asking about the original ss growler at the being of the thread, probably. I have one of those as well if OP is force carbonating then I don't see why you couldn't bottle condition, but those cost a lot more than pet bottles.

I like this idea very much, so much so that I ordered the various items to make this very thing. Everything arrived today, I got the threaded post into the lid with little difficulty, and pressurized it to 10 psi. To test it I stuck it, lid-down, into a bucket of water and unfortunately found that the lid leaks, not where I inserted the ball-lock post, but from the seal between the top of the growler and the lid!

Not really sure why this is... there's a white, soft plastic gasket in the inside top of the lid that seems like it would make an air-tight seal with the neck, but it definitely isn't. No matter how hard I tighten the lid, it won't hold pressure for more than 5 minutes.

Bummer!! Has anyone else encountered this and, even better, found a fix for it??

Thanks,
Bryan

Well, doesn't seem like there's a solution using these SS growlers (or perhaps I'm the only one who has determined that they leak), so I'm returning mine and ordered one of these instead:

http://deepwoodbrew.com/stainless-steel-growlers/10-stainless-steel-growler-2l-mini-keg.html

It'll be a bit more work tapping this stainless steel cap, but hopefully I'll end up with an air-tight solution.