My Experience With The Coors Lite Home Draft (Video)

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raf1919 said:
awesome to hear. sudsmcgee which co2 cart did you use. did you order orings online ?
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I just used the 16g ones my LHBS keeps in stock. The cartridge is stamped "16 gram Premium Cartridge" from genuineinnovations.com. They also had the o-rings in stock and just sized them to fit snugly over the cartridge neck. Your LHBS should have all of these in stock, and needed three to hold a tight seal. Two resulted in a slight leak.

They look just like this
image.php
 
Beerbeque said:
It's curious to me that several of you guys have mentioned o rings because my CLHD came with a rubber cup thing instead of an o ring. the cup is larger on the cartridge side and smaller on the other side. It's hard to describe the part. Maybe Coors experimented with different types of seals for the CO2 cartridge.
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My Miller Lite unit has a black rubber cup thing as well that is supposed to seal the cartridge, but the cartridges I use have a different neck taper and won't seal with this cup thingy alone. I am adding the o-rings to effectively change the taper, and the black rubber cup thingy is still in place and works in conjunction with the 0-rings.
 
Beerbeque said:
How long will the beer stay fresh in it?
Plenty long enough I'm sure.
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I'm going on three weeks (as a test, I am drinking from bottles in the meantime) and it's still holding pressure and tastes great! Try it!

I'm seriously considering picking up another one because it's so damned easy to do.
 
great to hear. i bought one last weekend so working on finishing it. only beer drinker at home. wife is of no help.

sudsmcgee i see you're in IL.. which LHBS do you go to? brew and grow?
 
Yes, usually Brew and Grow in Roselle. I plan on also shopping at Two Brother's as well next year because I can buy supplies from their HBS and try their beers.
 
could anyone post a picture of how they modify the cartridge with the O rings? and maybe some info on what type of O rings you used? Thanks! Just had a few blowouts
 
Here is a photo of how I use the 0-rings.

IMAG0074.jpg


And this is built in rubber basket/needle valve that they seal against. Two o-rings was not enough to create a tight seal.

IMAG0075.jpg
 
I had hissing when I used two orings on mine, but with three there was none. I'd try adding o-rings next time to see if that helps.

One cartridge should be enough to empty the whole unit if the beer was already carbed up. If it's not enough it's probably leaking.
 
Tapped my second and had an issue. It went just llike the first which worked perfectly but when I went to open the tap the beer barely came out. I thought maybe it was sediment but it wasn't. I assume I had a leak but never hear anything. Luckily this was on NYE so we drank the whole thing in one night but we had to unscrew the top and just pour from the thing. I am not sure where the leak was. I never hear anything.
 
Just filled one up yesterday with some of my IPA. About how long does it take to condition/carb in these? is it about the same 2-3 weeks as regular bottles?
 
brew2enjoy said:
Just filled one up yesterday with some of my IPA. About how long does it take to condition/carb in these? is it about the same 2-3 weeks as regular bottles?
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yes. still carb normally and than use co2 to push it out. you can force carb it but that will eat up a few co2 cartidges.
 
I'm starting to wonder if I over filled this thing. It's only been 3 days and it is ROCK HARD already! can I just use the tap and pour a small glass out of it to relieve some pressure or am I being paranoid?
 
brew2enjoy said:
I'm starting to wonder if I over filled this thing. It's only been 3 days and it is ROCK HARD already! can I just use the tap and pour a small glass out of it to relieve some pressure or am I being paranoid?
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I filled both of mine almost all the way up. I left about an inch from the top. I think you will be fine.
 
I may have to throw in the towel on this one. After blowing through 2 CO2 cartridges, when I removed the 2nd cart the needle was stuck in the top. Tried to see if I could reattach it but it fell down the sink. The Miller Lite gods were frowning on the experiemntal use of their product.

I'll probably try to find a cap so I can use the tank for small batch. Any thoughts on what would work, I'm thinking maybe a bung and using it for fermentation.

My draft tower is en route, and I should be building my kegerator next weekend. It would have been nice to have some portability with the small system.
 
I've read through this thread and a few others and couldn't find a definitive answer.

Has anyone tried using the standard Tap-A-Draft bottles with these?
 
Magua said:
I've read through this thread and a few others and couldn't find a definitive answer.

Has anyone tried using the standard Tap-A-Draft bottles with these?
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yes they are identical. i have a tap a draft system and i have miller light sys too. can swap back and forth.
 
I decided to experiment with the Coors Light Home Draft kegs. I bought one and was eventually able to work my way through the carbonated water it contained. I decided to put an Schrader air valve into the end of the little CO2 cylinder so I could charge it with a regular CO2 bottle and regulator. I went to my local Ace and found a Schrader valve with 1/4 NPT. I drilled and tapped the end of the cylinder, and modified the plastic housing so it would fit. I later found out that Home Depot has the Schrader valves with 1/8 NPT. This should work without modifying the plastic housing. Also since the cylinder housing is so thin teflon tape isn't enough to seal it up. I wound up using 5 minute 2 part "Epoxy" to seal things up.

I put some finished cider into the "Keg", and put the tap back on and installed my modified cylinder. I put an air chuck on the end of my CO2 hose and started filling the keg with CO2. Unfortunately the pressure regulator valve built into the Home Draft tap really restricted the flow into the keg. I made a trip to the dollar store and picked up a 3 litre soda bottle , then stopped at an auto parts store and picked up a pair of valve stems so I could make a carbonator cap. After I got that made up and installed the carbonating process speed up dramatically. I dialed the pressure up on my CO2 tank to 30 psi and filled, shook, filled until there wasn't much more CO2 going into the bottle. Maybe 10 or so filling and shaking sessions. I put it back into the fridge to let things settle for a couple hours. I then removed the carbonator cap and attached the tap. I re pressurized and pulled my first sparkling cider from my new keg. It all worked great. At 30 psi I can get 2 or 3 12oz pulls before I need to re pressurize the tank. I suppose after the carbonating is done one could install a new 16gram CO2 cylinder and be done with it. Here is a link to some pics I took of the various modifications.

http://picasaweb.google.com/dahoov/HomeDraft#
 
dahoov,

that is exactly what i would like to do. and just use a paintball tank. how well did it hold pressure? will Schrader air valve allow for the tank to just stay on?
 
raf1919 said:
dahoov,

that is exactly what i would like to do. and just use a paintball tank. how well did it hold pressure? will Schrader air valve allow for the tank to just stay on?
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I now have 2 of the Kegs so I really like the air chuck arrangement, but if you wanted something that was a little more permanent you could replace the 1/4 NPT to Schrader with something that had a barb end and hook the CO2 line directly to that. You could also pick up one of the chucks with the lever that clamps onto the Schrader valve. I want a quick disconnect system so it eases the changover with the 5 gallon corny kegs. I was thinking along the lines of the air hose quick disconnects, but those may be an option as well.
 
has anyone tried to dismantle this thing after the co2 port? like bypass the 16 gram cart?
brand new brewer, and i got 4 of these. got a lot of coors light to drink. i figured its a better buy than TAD considering that i got 4 taps, 4 bottles, no shipping, and 6 gallons of ''beer'' (as long as these things can handle multiple uses. if not i can just buy the TAD tap for about $40). i've read that 16 gram threaded is a perfect fit but would love not to have to keep buying carts... i also dont like the idea of soldering or tapping a valve on a disposable cart. when i get done with a second mini keg, maybe ill butcher one up to see. or what d'ya think about maybe drilling a stem right near the neck of the PET bottle?
 
I finally got to try this out last night. I went with the threaded cartridges mentioned earlier in this thread. I re-used the rubber gasket that was on the neck of the original cartridge and everything worked fine, no leaks.

First pull was a little foamy and much to my surprise the beer was still a little flat. I let it naturally carb at room temps for 3 weeks prior to putting in the fridge. It was rock hard from the C02. I guess it just needed more time? I am gonna let it sit for a few days with the C02 cart and see if it carbs up a little more.

Other than the carbing issue this thing works great and I will be using it again!
 
brew2enjoy said:
It was rock hard from the C02. I guess it just needed more time? I am gonna let it sit for a few days with the C02 cart and see if it carbs up a little more. QUOTE]

You may find that it's ready to drink after one day with the CO2 cart added. I just finished two of them last month. I primed them both with sugar and left them to carb in a cabinet at room temperature. Like with yours, mine were both rock hard when I put them in the fridge. One went in after 4 weeks. The initial pull was foamy, but kinda flat. I added a cart and saw a big difference the next day. After a few weeks, I had emptied the first one, though it took three carts to keep it carbed and flowing well. I put the second one in after roughly seven weeks of natural carbing and had a similar experience. The beer was carbonated well, but after one glass, the pressure was not enough to push the beer out more than a trickle. I added a cart and it was fine, though again, I think I had to use three carts to actually keep the beer from going flat and keep enough pressure in the thing to push it out at a decent rate. Overall, I had to use six carts for two mini kegs. At 2.00 a pop, I believe could have filled a five lb. tank with CO2, so this really isn’t cost effective. I’m going to fill one this batch and bottle the rest. Eventually, I will get into kegging, but right now I don’t have a second refrigerator and with all the snow we just got, I don’t have the desire to try to get one to my house and down in the basement.
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johnboy1313 said:
brew2enjoy said:
It was rock hard from the C02. I guess it just needed more time? I am gonna let it sit for a few days with the C02 cart and see if it carbs up a little more. QUOTE]

You may find that it's ready to drink after one day with the CO2 cart added. I just finished two of them last month. I primed them both with sugar and left them to carb in a cabinet at room temperature. Like with yours, mine were both rock hard when I put them in the fridge. One went in after 4 weeks. The initial pull was foamy, but kinda flat. I added a cart and saw a big difference the next day. After a few weeks, I had emptied the first one, though it took three carts to keep it carbed and flowing well. I put the second one in after roughly seven weeks of natural carbing and had a similar experience. The beer was carbonated well, but after one glass, the pressure was not enough to push the beer out more than a trickle. I added a cart and it was fine, though again, I think I had to use three carts to actually keep the beer from going flat and keep enough pressure in the thing to push it out at a decent rate. Overall, I had to use six carts for two mini kegs. At 2.00 a pop, I believe could have filled a five lb. tank with CO2, so this really isn’t cost effective. I’m going to fill one this batch and bottle the rest. Eventually, I will get into kegging, but right now I don’t have a second refrigerator and with all the snow we just got, I don’t have the desire to try to get one to my house and down in the basement.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. I actually think I will be getting some keg equipment soon. I would still like to use these to take to football party's etc..
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