6.5 Gallon Corny Keg

[FunkedOut]

I found these kegs while looking through Ali Express:

Left to right: 6.5 gallon, 5 gallon, 2.5 gallon, 1.5 gallon

Pricing is not great. The 6.5 gallon can be had for $180 shipped.
That is crazy expensive compared to a 5 gallon keg.
But when you compare it to the trending price of a 10 gallon corny, it's not bad.
Anybody have any input on these?
Or will I have to be the guinea pig?

Only reason I am considering this is for fermenting a ~5 gallon batch.
Using a 5 gallon keg to ferment in, leaving a couple of quarts of headspace, leaving a couple quarts behind when racking to the serving keg, I am only getting 4 gallons into the serving keg.
I feel like it may be worth the investment to get an extra gallon of beer out of every brew for no additional work and a pittance of ingredients.

 

[tjmac5071]

I have been waiting for a 7.5 gallon keg forever to ferment IPAs. Wondering if 6.5 will have to do. If you do try it out I am very interested in your experience. I wonder if we could get a group buy together...180 seems a bit high when a new 5 gallon in like 80 now

 

[shoo]

While it would definitely be nice to ferment in a 6.5 gallon corny keg, doesn't sound worth it for $180.

For nearly $200, why are you considering something like this instead of a dedicated fermentation tank? You can get a SS Brewtech brewbucket for that price, or one of the new Anvil fermenters for $130. Both have ample headspace for full 5 gallon batches, are fully stainless, and would work great for that purpose.

As for 7.5 gallon kegs, I just got a 1/4 slim sanke keg for this purpose, which I am pretty excited about.

 

[FunkedOut]

I've looked at the brew bucket a lot.
I'm not a fan of the racking port being weld-less down low like that.
The anvil and the chapman look good.
But I must have closed transfer.

Fermentation chamber (chest freezer) is in a shed, 200' across & 10' down sand, dirt, grass and bugs from the kitchen.
Making that trek with 5 gallons in a primary stirs thing up and warms them up no matter how smooth/fast I am. I'm in FL.
The shed is no environment for a siphon job.
Did I mention I hate siphoning?

While a closed transfer is possible with a bucket, I like the idea of being mostly carbed when fermentation is done with a 15-20psi tank.
Not sure if the anvil or chapman is up to that much pressure.
Brew bucket is good for about 2-5psi, no?

Sanke kegs are the other logical choice for me.
Just seems like I'd drop another $125 with norcal for their sanke solution on top of the cost of the keg.
All this corny needs is a thermowell, which I already have.

 

[FunkedOut]

As for 7.5 gallon kegs, I just got a 1/4 slim sanke keg for this purpose, which I am pretty excited about.

How are you going about cleaning and racking and blow off and spunding?

 

[shoo]

How are you going about cleaning and racking and blow off and spunding?

Not 100% sure yet, still figuring out how I want to put everything together. I managed to get my keg for $20, so I am attempting to see how far I can get by spending $0 more. For cleaning, I'll just have to improvise a bit, but I'm not terribly worried. I might eventually invest in a spray arm.

For racking and blow off, dead simple: standard carboy orange cap with racking arm. $0 additional investment. I know from experience that you can add JUST a bit of pressure from a CO2 tank on one of those to get an oxygenless siphon going for a transfer, set up like this. I've been doing basically this exact thing with both carboys and even plastic buckets for a while now.

Bonus: the first attempt is also going to involve a mylar balloon for an attempt at oxygenless transfer using captured CO2 to both start the siphon and fill the tanks. Should work just fine with the orange cap.

I don't worry about spunding, since I am secondary/ force carbonating in a 5 gallon corny keg.

Edit: I may eventually invest in one of the norcal sanke conversion kits for convenience in the future, but seems like I can get 95% of that functionality with just a regular old orange cap without too much extra annoyance, especially as I figure out what works in my system.

 

[BeardedBrews]

I have been waiting for a 7.5 gallon keg forever to ferment IPAs.

Wouldn't you be better off with a slim quarter keg? Shipped they're only like $110.

http://www.beveragefactory.com/draftbeer/empty_kegs/quarter_slims/HS-K7.75G-DDI.shtml

 

[FunkedOut]

found this thread:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/...ffordable-stainless-fermenter-finally.543706/

 

[Harry482]

I bought two smaller ones from the site a few years ago. The welds where the handles meet the keg have started to rust heavily. Id stay away.

 

[FunkedOut]

well, I ended up finding a couple of eyewash stations that i will be converting for just a few dollars more.
it sucks when you miss the good ole days, but if you do, you gotta pay to play.
thanks for the feedback.

 

[tjmac5071]

Wouldn't you be better off with a slim quarter keg? Shipped they're only like $110.

http://www.beveragefactory.com/draftbeer/empty_kegs/quarter_slims/HS-K7.75G-DDI.shtml

Cleaning seems like a bit of a pain. I use a keg washer on my cornies and can pre clean by adding a little water and pouring out gunk and once it's off the keg washer I can look and verify everything is clean, not sure how you do that with a sanke, especially when it is full of yeast / dry hops. Sanke just seems more difficult to deal with

 

[BeardedBrews]

Cleaning seems like a bit of a pain. I use a keg washer on my cornies and can pre clean by adding a little water and pouring out gunk and once it's off the keg washer I can look and verify everything is clean, not sure how you do that with a sanke, especially when it is full of yeast / dry hops. Sanke just seems more difficult to deal with

I think most folks using sankeys at home will pull the spear to clean and then re-insert:


Doing a brewery style clean-in-place at home has been discussed in the threads here but seems very hardware and effort intensive to me.

 

[augiedoggy]

10 gallon corny style kegs are out there..pepsi used them for a long time. I found 5 for $20 each just looking on craigslist.. just have to look in local places like facebook and craiglist classifieds where people do dont want to ship and less idea what things are worth.