Crazy keg idea - Need thoughts

[Iceman6409]

Ok so here I am bored at work today looking at all these beautiful brewing setups and portable kegs. So a potentially stupid "kegging" idea crept into my feeble little head. Hear me out.

Would this work? Let's say you have a round Igloo cooler, say a 5 gallon for example only. The kind that has the screw top, not a picnic cooler. Let's say said cooler is already fitted with a spigot and all that just like it would be to be used for mashing. Let's say that you have 5 gallons ready to be bottled or kegged. Would it work if you transferred the beer into this cooler, put your priming sugar in and tightly screwed on the lid. Then let it sit at room temperature for however long you desire. This SHOULD create your carbonation. Then when ready simply move the cooler into a fridge or a real cold place until the beer is nice and cold. Obviously let it sit there until you want to use it. So at that point since you already have your spigot installed you could simple attach a small hose to it, open the line and pour into a glass. You obviously wouldn't need any co2. Let's say you are going to a party at a friends house. Simply put the cooler i your vehicle and go to the party and let it sit on a table or whatever. The cooler is insulated so it should keep everything nice and cold for quite a few hours or more I am thinking. And if there is any left over just carefully bring it home, put back in fridge until next use.

I would be concerned that you need to be careful not to shake the cooler up if possible but that could be easily accomplished as it would be a big heavy object. You wouldn't have to worry about bottle explosions, or getting ice or co2 or hardly anything.

So my question is in theory would that be at all possible? It's just something fun to think about. $25 for the cooler, another $15-@20 for spigot stuff and away you go.

So I would be interested to hear your thoughts. Again it is just a fun thought I was having.

 

[weaselchew]

If the screw top is airtight, it could work for carbonation (you might be able to fabricate a gasket for the lid if it's just a little leaky) but you'd need a way to admit air or probably more preferably CO2 when dispensing. This could be as simple as cracking the lid open a bit while dispensing. If you weren't going to be drinking the entire amount, I'd probably rig up a propane regulator w/ CO2 to fill the displaced area in the cooler.

I'd say this is more of a "cask" than a "keg". It'd definitely be interesting to give it a try.

Depending on how you'd make an air/CO2 admittance port, you could probably even use it as a fermentation vessel with an airlock in the opening.

 

[Misplaced_Canuck]

Can you imagine how long it would take for the beer to cool down, since you wouldn't open the lid as there might be carbonation?

In any case, igloo's aren't pressure tested nor approved.

MC

 

[LarMoeCur]

I doubt the cooler would hold. The smallest of leaks and all is lost. Add pressure and what you thought was air tight is not.

 

[horseinmay]

This won't work for several reasons. The lid won't seal enough to create carbonation in the beer, and placing this thing in the cold to chill the beer won't work because it is insulated. Something along these lines that you could do is to use the same cooler, and put a corny keg of conditioned beer in it with ice. Then serve it out of the keg. I also would be wary of the beer sitting in a plastic cooler for so long.

 

[TomSD]

That would make a fine bottle bomb if the lid failed and not some other small part like the valve or a seam.

 

[weaselchew]

I doubt it would "bomb", if anything the plastic would warp and leak out the carbonation. I think the bigger problem would be sealing it well enough to carbonate in the first place.

Beer sitting in the plastic shouldn't be a big issue since people bottle in plastic and cask in polypins, etc. You'd still probably want to verify the plastic type.

Chilling it would definitely take some additional time, for sure.

In the end, a corny keg wouldn't be much more anyway. You could chill it faster and they obviously can seal and handle pressure. If the main reason the OP wanted to use a cooler was to skip the CO2 dispensing hardware, people also gravity dispense corny kegs by turning them upside-down and dispensing from the gas in port while letting air/CO2 in through the liquid out port.

 

[Iceman6409]

Since I am a newbie at all this this is all great info.

Now still just having fun here. The big issue seems to be the lid and leaks. WHAT IF you did something like duct tape the lid around the crease. Or something else similar.

 

[LandoLincoln]

There's just no way that the cooler is going to be able to hold pressure AND be able to be opened easily when you need it be opened. Ain't gonna happen.

 

[outside92129]

This insulated liquid dispenser (usually for coffee) has 4 clasps and has a rubber seal on the opening, i'd say it's 5% a better cooler for the gravity drain idea than the igloo, i recall there being an airlock on the lid which one could seal if you wanted to turn it in to a keg-bomb too. But i wouldn't do it, too expensive, and you still have air pressure issues.