5L mini kegs

[marcelo]

Is there any way to take out the original top bung in the comercial beer mini kegs, and reuse them? I search a lot and cant find a tutorial. after broke a few, i stop and decide to ask someone help.
pliers, hot water, any help pleasse!

PS: mini kegs, are someting really new in Brazil, and a corny keg system with co2 bottle cost more than U$ 1.000,00 that why i need to reuse the 5L mini kegs.
tks

 

[btprice2001]

I reuse 5L kegs for my homebrew and I've found that there are two types of vent bungs used in commercial 5L kegs. One type is a three-piece unit and is much easier to remove. The other is a two-piece unit. I got started with the 5L because I bought an Avanti 5L keg dispenser (it didn't work well so I've since sold it). The instruction manual has instructions for removing both types of bungs. Here a link:

http://www.avantiproducts.com/manual/mbd5l.pdf

Basically, for the "combined" bung which is the three-piece and easier to remove, you open the vent and remove the plastic vent piece with pliers. This reveals the second plastic part of the bung that can easily be pushed down into the keg. Then you can easily remove the last part of the bung, the large rubber part. I usually use a screwdriver to push/pry it out.

The other type of bung, the "vent" bung, is much harder to remove. First you open the vent and remove the plastic piece. This leaves the rest of the bung which is pretty much one piece. I use pliers to rip it out of the keg. It's much more difficult and for this reason I don't buy commercial kegs with this type of bung anymore.

 

[Homercidal]

Is there any way to take out the original top bung in the comercial beer mini kegs, and reuse them? I search a lot and cant find a tutorial. after broke a few, i stop and decide to ask someone help.
pliers, hot water, any help pleasse!

PS: mini kegs, are someting really new in Brazil, and a corny keg system with co2 bottle cost more than U$ 1.000,00 that why i need to reuse the 5L mini kegs.
tks

The 5L kegs that I have gotten come with a rubber bung with a plastic vent in it. You can push the pin down into the keg to pour beer, then when the beer is gone, you can peel the rubber bung out of the keg and recover the plastic thing.

My local brewing store has replacement bungs, complete for a dollar or two. They even sell new, empty kegs. I think they are like $15.

And FYI, in America we notate thousands with a comma, like $1,000
And pennies with a period, like $1.00

I know it's backwards from some other countries.

 

[marcelo]

tks for your help,

 

[jalc6927]

I used them before kegging with ventable bungs and used same amount of priming sugar as bottles

They work good

Two issues,

1. Once you open bung you have 48 hours before carbonation starts to decline rapidly

2. Kind of a pain to clean. Get the special brush, that helps