Tap-A-Draft Alternatives

[Zimm9]

The Tap-A-Draft systems have been out of production for several years, from what I can find about them on the net. It's a shame because that would've been perfect for me. I'd like to discuss other options. The cost of kegging is too expensive and requires too much space for me right now but I want a solution that will "gateway" into kegging. So, no proprietary systems like the Party Star.

I'm thinking the 5 liter mini kegs converted to use standard CO2 hardware. That way I can purchase a regulator, tank, etc. that I can continue using once I start buying 5 gal kegs. Has anyone tried this?

Edit: I have seen various instructions online for converting the mini kegs. Mostly just curious if anyone on HBT has had success with it. I bought one last night and will try it once I've emptied the (hopefully) delicious Bavarian bier from it.

 

[byronyasgur]

I am thinking of doing something like this - [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYbNhjAdIXc[/ame]

 

[jschein]

My wife bought me one of these, it's 1.75 gallons
https://www.northernbrewer.com/draf...MIk_jVrJq_1wIVXIezCh0MogUvEAQYBiABEgJQD_D_BwE

I get it filled at growler shops when it isn't filled with homebrew

 

[madscientist451]

I'll suggest using 1.75 gallon kegs, they go on sale every now and then for about $75.
They are expensive for their size, but you can add a 5' hose and a picnic tap and just put it in the shelf in your regular fridge. So you save the cost of getting a separate refridgerator/freezer to hold kegs. You'll need a standard C02 tank and regulator, see if you can find any used on your local craigslist. You don't have to keep the C02 hooked up all the time, as you pour off beers, you can take the keg out and give it some more pressure.
Right now you can get new, small 5.5 cu/ft chest freezers for $130 or less. Add a temp control and it will hold two 5 gallon kegs that you can get used for about $40/each.
There will also be room to keep cold bottled beer or a smaller keg and you can use it with 3 gallon carboys as a fermentation chamber, use it to cold crash, or if you take a break from brewing, use it as an actual freezer.
Do you have a total amount in mind you want to spend?

 

[byronyasgur]

You don't have to keep the C02 hooked up all the time, as you pour off beers, you can take the keg out and give it some more pressure.

wow - didn't know that - that completely changes things for me

is that the case with all kegs or this one in particular

 

[madscientist451]

No I do it all the time, you might have your carbonation get a little low, but I have 4 kegs on tap and usually just draw off a pint at time, and rotate around, and I just hook it up to the tank when I notice the carbonation seems weak or the pout seems slow. Note this is "breaking all the rules" and not really a recommended practice.
If you are taking one keg to a party and getting lots of pours, you SHOULD hook it up to a tank.

 

[Zimm9]

Thanks for the idea and info about 1.75 kegs. They are definitely pricey for their size, though! Part of the idea for going small is so I can have several different brews on tap at once. If I have to share fridge space until I can buy a better set up then small kegs are even more necessary. Just bought a new house so money is tight. My budget is "as cheap as possible" for right now. lol

 

[bfish]

Why not use PET bottles with carbonator cap or Kent quick connect along with a 2.5 or 5 lb tank?

 

[brew_darrymore]

I recently switched from Tap-a-draft (TAD) to 1.75g mini kegs. Yes, they are more expensive but will definitely last longer than TAD bottles and their parts are interchangable with regular ball lock corny kegs. They fit in a regular fridge and take pretty much the same space as a TAD bottle. I carbonate mine outside a fridge due to space limitations. I brew 5 gallon batches that will fill 3 mini kegs. Carbonate them and keep just one inside the fridge. Once carbonated, I hook it up to a CO2 tank only for serving with a keg faucet ball lock adapter assembly.

Carbonation caps are a much cheaper alternative, as suggested by @bfish but much more time consuming if you have to carbonate 10 x 2 ltr pop bottles individually.

 

[brewbama]

You could save the $ you’ll pay towards an alternative and apply it to a keg, a Co2 tank, lines and a picnic tap and be kegging. If you put your $ into a TAD alternate and then go to kegs later you’ll have spent 1.5x +. IOW it’s cheaper to save for the keg.

 

[PADave]

You could save the $ you’ll pay towards an alternative and apply it to a keg, a Co2 tank, lines and a picnic tap and be kegging. If you put your $ into a TAD alternate and then go to kegs later you’ll have spent 1.5x +. IOW it’s cheaper to save for the keg.

This ^^^. Before getting into kegging I was looking at things like the TAD, and other alternatives. Glad I didn't waste any money on them. Kept my eyes open on craigs list and found a single keg setup. This allowed me to see what kegging was all about, didn't cost a lot, and most of the stuff can be used for my keezer build, or doing pressure transfers.

Sure, having only one beer on tap isn't ideal, but it's better than none. Start with a keg and picnic tap in your fridge and go from there.

 

[BrunDog]

No I do it all the time, you might have your carbonation get a little low, but I have 4 kegs on tap and usually just draw off a pint at time, and rotate around, and I just hook it up to the tank when I notice the carbonation seems weak or the pout seems slow. Note this is "breaking all the rules" and not really a recommended practice.
If you are taking one keg to a party and getting lots of pours, you SHOULD hook it up to a tank.

I don't think this breaks any rules. Once a keg is fully carbonated, there is no reason for the carbonation/pressure to drop down much, except during the beginning where there is little head space.

This said, I think you should not crap around with keg alternatives. Buy legit keg hardware, then grow from there. A 2.5 G keg doesn't take much space. If you really need to do it cheaply, carbonate it naturally, then dispense using cartridges. Otherwise get a basic regulator, tank, and manual/picnic tap.

 

[byronyasgur]

Carbonation caps are a much cheaper alternative, as suggested by @bfish but much more time consuming if you have to carbonate 10 x 2 ltr pop bottles individually.

will this work with 5 litre PET bottles

 

[bfish]

will this work with 5 litre PET bottles

If it has the same size cap as a 1 and 2 liter bottle, then yes it will work.

 

[Zimm9]

Thanks for all the feedback and discussion! I'm definitely trying to avoid wasting money on things I won't use long term. The carbonation cap might just be the best option for now. I can purchase a standard CO2 tank and regulator to use with the caps (equipment that I would keep using once I'm able to buy kegs), the caps aren't expensive, and I can get 3 liter bottles really cheap so I won't need as many caps.

 

[brew_darrymore]

will this work with 5 litre PET bottles

The regular PET bottle caps are 28mm. The carbonation cap in the picture below is designed to fit a PET bottle.

Tap-a-draft bottles use 38mm (growler) caps. There are carbonation caps for that size as well.

What is the ID of the cap of the 5 litre bottle you have? Is that a water/juice bottle or a bottle designed for carbonated drinks? You should not carbonate in a spring water bottle as it will not hold the pressure.

 

[brew_darrymore]

I can purchase a standard CO2 tank and regulator to use with the caps (equipment that I would keep using once I'm able to buy kegs), the caps aren't expensive, and I can get 3 liter bottles really cheap so I won't need as many caps.

I believe the 3 litre bottles also use growler caps (38mm). You can get a carbonation cap for those bottles online. You technically need just one 38mm carbonation cap, as you can only carbonate one bottle at a time. I recently did just that - after filling my 3 x 1.75 gallon mini kegs with my Chinook single hop IPA, I ended up with some more beer in the fermenter which I racked to a 2-litre PET bottle. The beer was previously cold crashed, so it was near 45-50F. I installed the carbonation cap and set the CO2 regulator to 15 psi and started shaking the bottle. Took about 5 minutes of shaking for the beer to get saturated with CO2. No more CO2 was getting into the bottle, so I removed the carbonation cap and replaced it with the original PET bottle cap (the one you see in the picture above...) and then put the bottle in the fridge. The following evening the beer was perfectly carbonated and chilled to perfection.

 

[Zimm9]

....You technically need just one 38mm carbonation cap....

That's great info to know. I was thinking of it as not wanting to take the carb cap off and lose a bunch of CO2. Makes that an even better plan to only buy one cap. Thanks again!

 

[MaryB]

Watch for sales and pin lock 5 gallon kegs are $25! Start buying and stocking up until you can build a keg fridge or keezer! In the long run you are going to save yourself a lot of headaches with things that are not made to hold pressure and be refilled!

 

[myndflyte]

Watch for sales and pin lock 5 gallon kegs are $25! Start buying and stocking up until you can build a keg fridge or keezer! In the long run you are going to save yourself a lot of headaches with things that are not made to hold pressure and be refilled!

This. I only bought my kegs when a site had a sale going on. I think the first time I bought kegs I got 2 ball locks for $50. I had them for a year before I even had the chest freezer to start kegging. So if you don't need something right now, watch for sales, get products that'll last a long time, and build up to something you really want.

 

[McKnuckle]

I invested in a bunch of TAD bottles and 4 of their custom caps, plus adaptive hardware that a guy built to force carbonate them (which did not work, what a PITA). I still occasionally package in a TAD, because you can kinda-sorta simulate cask conditioning in them. But the serving geometry is a pain. You can't stand them up, so putting them in a chest freezer is impossible. They need to go in an upright fridge or on a shelf, and they have lousy stability so they can be a pain to prevent from rolling around or tipping. In short, it's not a satisfying long-term option.

Eventually I got a small fridge and two 5 gallon kegs. But then I wanted to brew more variety and I don't drink that much, so I converted a chest freezer into a 6 tap keezer and started buying 2.5 gallon kegs. I now have 8 of those! And I love it, I'm all set. But I definitely do not recommend the steps I took, spending money on interim solutions. I did re-purpose the small fridge for fermentation though, so that was not a misstep. And I ferment in the 5 gallon cornies. I guess it's all good.

 

[byronyasgur]

What is the ID of the cap of the 5 litre bottle you have? Is that a water/juice bottle or a bottle designed for carbonated drinks? You should not carbonate in a spring water bottle as it will not hold the pressure.

no it's a spring water bottle - didn't know that ... well I was wondering. I will stay away from pressurising that, thanks

 

[MidniTreeBandit]

The Tap-A-Draft systems have been out of production for several years, from what I can find about them on the net. It's a shame because that would've been perfect for me. I'd like to discuss other options. The cost of kegging is too expensive and requires too much space for me right now but I want a solution that will "gateway" into kegging. So, no proprietary systems like the Party Star.

I'm thinking the 5 liter mini kegs converted to use standard CO2 hardware. That way I can purchase a regulator, tank, etc. that I can continue using once I start buying 5 gal kegs. Has anyone tried this

Late to the party, but I may have something to contribute.

I am bummed to hear that Tap-A-Draft is out of business. I have had two of their taps (the white double 8g cartridge and the black single 16g cartridge) for years and I've been using them with the with aluminum 5 liter kegs ($16-30 depending on source, usually tagged as PicoBrew or Party Star) the whole time. These kegs come with their own tap built in, but I don't like it -- when pressure is high it comes out all head, and once you have to allow air in, you have to drink faster before the beer spoils. So someone made an adapter for using the TAD on a Pico mini keg with the gray center-hole bung. They've worked well for me for years. My house is small and the kitchen provides no space for a kegerator or 5 gallon keg or forced carbonation systems so I'll be using this systems for the forseeable future.

But you couldn't get a TAD in time, so never mind that...

These 5 liter minis don't work with standard keg tap systems without many adapters, but Party Star makes a simple tapping system that works similarly to my old TAD rig with the adapter. It has a tube that goes into the grey bung hole and snaps to the top, and uses a 16g CO2 cartridge (airsoft type, or the kind you see in old fashioned seltzer bottles).

There are a few table-top kegerators (thermoelectric) made to work with the aluminum kegs as well as the Heineken/Beck mini kegs (if you must). They run about $150 - $300 depending what you get. I have not gotten any of those yet but I'm considering them as a better looking upgrade from the TAD. I've noticed Nostalgia has one that has its own growler but also accepts minikegs. Most of these use 12g or 16g CO2 cartridges for pressure. Changing them is easy. Of course the downside is that it feeds from the bottom, so there will be a few cloudy glasses of beer if you condition in the keg.