Are 5 Gallon commercial kegs ball or pin lock?

[Hophead2011]

New to brewing and kegging, help me out. I'm building a keezer and trying to choose between the 2. I've read the other posts about advantages of both, but my main question is which fittings will work with the "torpedo" kegs that's my liqour store sales? Does that even matter? I plan on having 2 kegs of homebrew and one keg of commercial and want to have the same fittings.

 

[pompeiisneaks]

The answer is no. Kegs sold from a liquor stor are usually sanke fittings. There are many types as well. You can get sanke connectors as well for your keezer though.

 

[TomSD]

Commercial kegs use Sankey fittings, even the sixth barrels (5 gal, roughly the same size as a cornie keg). You can get a sankey fitting though and plumb it for your keezer or set it up to do transfers. I usually just do a transfer to one of mine then return the sixth the next day to get my deposit back.

 

[Hophead2011]

Thanks for the quick replies. Tom I'm actually using your keezer build as my template! Completed the collar and first coat of paint today.

How easy is it to transfer between kegs?

 

[TomSD]

Good to know, I think you'll like it once you get it all setup.

As for transfers... not hard once you have the setup. Vent the keg, transfer through the beer out on the destination keg to minimize disturbing the beer and throw the keg in the keezer the night before to minimize the amount of CO2 that comes out of solution. Either push with low pressure CO2 or get it started with CO2 then let it continue using gravity. I like closed system and pushing with CO2 to keep oxygen away from the beer the entire time.

The big keys are disturb the beer as little as possible, keep the pressure low and go as cold as you can to keep the CO2 in solution.

 

[jjotmo]

Or you could look up how to remove the sanke keg's spear and reuse the 1/6th. I have one now a friend was given and it really is easy to do.

 

[SBC]

Sanke Tap to Homebrew Conversion Kit, with disconnects
"D" Sanke Tap with MFL Tailpieces

No affilliation, just nice pictures

With the MFL tail pieces on the sanke coupler and flare fitting disconnects on the homebrew side, you can switch over fairly easily. A little more expensive but flexible. You can even switch between pin lock and ball lock as long as you use flare pin lock connectors. You should never have to cut your tubing to switch this way.

 

[Hophead2011]

Ok, so if I buy the above sanke tap, I can keep all the plumbing in place and use both cornys and sankes? I think one line in my keezer will most likely always be a commercial brew ( I'm gone every week for work but wanna have something on tap when I get home!), but it would nice to switch that line to a homebrew if I'm able to brew enough.

What other equipment variations do I need to be thinking about to have a dedicated commercial tap alongside my home-brews?

 

[TomSD]

That second link is pretty much all you need if you want to make a dedicated commercial tap. Of course you can shop around, most places that handle kegs for home brewers will have a sanke for keezer use product in stock.