can you cannibalize a corny keg to work on a sanke tap?

[trvsbrnk]

hi, i just got a sanke tap on a drunken whim and now i'm puzzling at a cheap and effective solution for immediately dispensing beer.

i know there are conversion kits online, but that is not the nature of my question. i will get a kit, but that means i have to wait for it to arrive in the mail, and it's saturday, yadda yadda yadda, i'm wondering if there's a way for me to be dispensing beer before the sun goes down.

my local homebrew shop doesn't have much in terms of kegging equipment, so that's not an option.

i have a corny keg i'm willing to sacrifice now. i want to buy a keg from the liquor store this afternoon...can i get some kind of fitting(s) at my local hardware store to connect my ball lock posts onto the sanke tap?

why is this concept a hard thing to research online? there's no way i'm the only person to look at a corny keg and a sanke tap and want to meld the two.

 

[ThreeDogsNE]

Maybe?? I have not seen a fitting that puts ball lock posts on a Sanke tap. I suppose one could be made, but they are odd sizes, and would require a base that supports the poppet spring. You could probably buy 100 feet of beer line for the price of a fitting. I just have the 1/4" MFL taper fittings on the taps and the lines, so I can switch back and forth with a wrench (and some StarSan). If your LHBS has those, you are in business. Otherwise, if you want to tap it tonight I'd just move the lines off of their barbs.

Here is a link with the thread sizes for Cornie keg posts. http://www.dresselbrew.com/Keg_Info.htm

 

[mattd2]

I am a bit confused with the wording of you question - are you asking "how do I tap a corny keg with a sanke tap?" - If you are I would say there is no way.
If what you are actually asking is how do you tap your commercial sanke keg you get from the liquor store today, when all you have are Corny disconnects on your beer/gas lines then 3dogs probably has the best solution - cut the corny QDs off and connect the tubes to the sanke tap.

 

[Wahoo]

I would guess that it would be cheaper to just buy corny QD's that try to retrofit a corny keg to use a sanke tap.

 

[ajdelange]

...can i get some kind of fitting(s) at my local hardware store to connect my ball lock posts onto the sanke tap?.

Not unless it is a most unusual hardware store. First, you will, in any case, need 'tail pieces' to connect anything to a Sankey coupler. You can buy these from draught equipment suppliers with flare fittings on the tubing side and this is doubtless the easiest way to connect a Sankey coupler into a Cornelius keg system assuming your Cornelius connectors use flare connectors. If your Cornelius connectors are the barbed fitting type then you will have to pull them off the beer and gas lines and use tail pieces with barbed fittings (more commonly available) and this has to be done each time you switch from ball to Sankey. You will also need 'beer nuts' to secure the tail pieces to the coupler.

I think you are asking whether there are tail pieces with nipples threaded to accept the thread of Cornelius posts. AFAIK the answer is 'no'.

 

[jhay_x7]

Yes.

A friend of mine has a jockey box built for sankey kegs that I use to dispense homebrew out of my corny kegs.

I assume the end of your tap beer line has a nut fitting that looks like this:

It might not have a wingnut but either way, it is a 7/8" connector. All you need is a fitting with 7/8" MIP flare on one side and a 1/2" MIP on the other. You can then attach a 1/2" FIP to 1/4" barb adapter to it and then you should just need a piece of 1/4" tubing to connect this adapter to your liquid post on your corny keg. The adapters are just converting the 7/8" FIP to a 1/4" barb.

Just take the tap and your liquid corny connector to HomeDepot/Lowes and you should be able to put it together!

 

[ajdelange]

All you need is a fitting with 7/8" MIP flare on one side and a 1/2" MIP on the other.

The threads on a coupler are 7/8 x 14. That's not the same as 7/8 MIP (if that even exists) which would be the wrong size anyway as 3/4 IP is over an inch in diameter so that 7/8 would be well over an inch while the major diameter in a 7/8 x 14 thread is, believe it or not, 7/8". IOW you will not find a '7/8" MIP flare' as there is no such thing. A 'flare' is a separate kind of connector altogether such as what you may have on your Corny keg connectors and what you do have on your air conditioner. Furthermore, the connection is intended to be made with a tail piece - not just by connecting a pipe. The tail piece mates with the surface of the coupler and the seal is made by a rubber washer inside the beer nut. As I noted in an earlier post you probably have a home bar supplier in your vicinity who will have tail pieces with barbs. Stop there, and be sure to pick up a couple of washers too, before you go to the Despot and you'll be OK.

 

[GilSwillBasementBrews]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=478096g

Check out this thread and see if that helps you out or are you trying to go the other way?



Sent from somewhere to someone

 

[stratslinger]

You can also look into this - though it's not quite as easy or quick as going down to your LHBS:

http://www.thekeggingpart.com/

I picked up a set of these at last year's NHC, and they work great. Just install them on your Sanke tap, and your Sanke tap now has ball lock connectors on it. Stupid simple.

 

[Wahoo]

stratslinger, he's trying to do the opposite-- use a corny keg with a sanky tap. At least, that's how I understand the question.

 

[stratslinger]

stratslinger, he's trying to do the opposite-- use a corny keg with a sanky tap. At least, that's how I understand the question.

That's certainly how the subject of the thread reads - but reading his first post, there's this line that gets to the meat of what he's actually trying to do:

i have a corny keg i'm willing to sacrifice now. i want to buy a keg from the liquor store this afternoon...can i get some kind of fitting(s) at my local hardware store to connect my ball lock posts onto the sanke tap?


He's trying to do exactly what "The Kegging Part" does, I think. Another poster or two have suggested MFL's, which is what I used for a while - it works, but it gets to be a pain in the butt to disconnect and reconnect your QD's anytime you want to tap a commercial keg, where this little gem lets you just snap your QD's right onto your sanke tap.

 

[PosterGuy]

Did your keg coupler come with tail pieces? (most do)

Why not just get a couple of quick connect fittings or repair barbs for your line size(s) and swap the keg tap/corny connectors as needed?
Local hardware or a gas supplier would have either of these.