No, this is not an article about drinking beer while driving around (very bad idea). This is an article about how to keep homebrew chilled and carbonated in mini-kegs for tail-gating, BBQs and camping trips. It is about having portable homebrew that does not require hauling bottles that may have different levels of carbonation, the added costs of labels, carriers and other nice things we like to do to personalize our home made craft beers not to mention the removal of the empties when done.
This story starts 22 years ago when a group of friends celebrated the 10 year anniversary of their college graduation camping trip. It was 1994 the same year as the Woodstock II. When we told family and friends we were going to NY to camp out and listen to music, drink beer and hang with friends they all thought we were going to Woodstock II. This became the running joke and when the only beer we could afford and find was Budweiser we dubbed the event "Budstock". That name has stuck for all these years. Many of us brewed our own beer thanks to Charlie Papazian’s Joy of Homebrew (relax, don’t worry and have a homebrew). Over the years as our skills in brewing got better more homebrew came to Budstock. This also started a friendly competition of one-upmanship. When all the little inconsistencies of bottled beer became a pain, we eventually we bought 5 gal corny kegs and it was grand. But the bulk and setup/breakdown made this cumbersome. This is where the story of the GKeg begins. I wanted to have kegged beer for Budstock in a small convenient dispenser that not only kept the beer at proper temp but also proper carbonation all without the use of electricity. Being an engineer by trade and a DIYer (like many on this forum) I had a homebrew and began to think of how to accomplish this. I figured a cooler was the best starting point the next would be how to get a keg into a cooler because a 5gal corny is just too big and heavy.
Fortunately I had 2 SS 2.5gal mini-kegs that I had been using in for backyard events. It had a CO2 injector and a cobra tap. You put this in a bucket of ice and water and you are good to go. But this was for Budstock and there is always a friendly competition in everything we do from cooking to DIY projects. Also the carbonation was inconsistent because you had to randomly decide when to inject more CO2 and the cobra tap reminded me of the Beer Balls of the 90s. This was homebrew and it deserved more than this treatment. So now I had a suitable small vessel and needed an insulator cooler to house it. Amazingly enough those 5 gal orange igloo coolers are perfect for this and the mini keg slides in with room for ice around the keg. Once filled the lid screws back on and keeps everything tidy. Next up on the hit list was a viable consistent source of CO2.
This was easily solved by a Leland Mini CO2 Regulator that uses 45 gram disposable CO2 cartridges. This was more than enough gas to push beer thru several minis. I mounted the regulator on the outside of the cooler and ran a gas line with ball lock to the inside. The unfortunate part is once the CO2 cartridge was pierced it could not be sealed. This was not an issue during the 4 days of Budstock but I feared it would eventually leak out in the months it would sit Dispensing the beer deserved more than a cobra tap- it needed a spigot. Fortunately like most on this forum I have spare parts all over and I had a spigot for a kegerator available. Unfortunately due to the lack of room in the GKeg once the mini keg was in, I needed a 90 degree down spout spigot with a short shank for this task. A shank for a beer tower worked just fine.
Building the Serving Vessel for Mini-Kegs
layout for the mini-keg serving deviceHere is a drawing I made of the final construction. This design had an external bottle of Co2 not the mini regulator. Because I wanted this as compact as possible and in a singular unit I opted for the mounted mini regulator. I took two different brews with me to Budstock and won a Budstock Innovation Award for that year. This is coveted honor that does not get awarded every year. Maybe in a future article I will go into other Budstock Innovations and the gastronomical competitions we have. I can guarantee that what is done in a wilderness site at Budstock far exceeds what many think is camping.
Parts list for the GKeg
- 5 gallon Igloo type cooler
- 2.5 gallon SS mini corny keg
- Leland mini regulator with disposable cartridge
- Tower type beer shank and spigot
- Liquid and gas beer line connectors
- Beer line
Alas I do not have a picture of the final GKeg as it was cannibalized to create the GKeg v2.0 which is a wheeled version with a handle that holds 2 kegs and sports a nice chrome 2 tap beer tower. This was bought to Budstock and earned another Budstock Innovation Award. I may do an article on that beauty at a later date. Like most of you DIYers I re-purposed the Igloo cooler and it now serves as a Mash Tun in my brew system.
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