Curtis Russell
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- Jan 30, 2018
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Recommendations on where to purchase equipment to keg from including regulators, kegs, and hosing with connections. Wasn’t sure on any sites who have best deals or recommended.
Think about using Sanke instead of Corny kegs
The only sanitary way ive been told to clean the sankeys is with acid followed by hot water or alkaline cleaner (with a cleaning rig) You can do it on a homebrew level other ways but they dont pass the mustard for a brewery and im not sure how good of a job they will consistently do.
Hands down Sankes are far better. I've used both. They serve better than cornys and theyre made for beer not soda like cornys. They can be run with 5 ft lines instead of a highway of coiled up line with a corny. Cleaning is a breeze. Fill them with water and some Oxyclean and let them sit overnight and then just rinse them out. Couldn't be any simpler. I only clean mine if I think the last beer was infected otherwise I just rinse them out and refill with the new batch. They never leak..ever so infections are rare at best. Opening them is easy and putting them back together isn't bad. Theres 2 notches were the ring is. I grind down an old screwdriver to fit the groove and pry out the ring. Its takes a little figuring at first but gets real simple once you get the hang of it. I use an autosiphon and just stick the tube in the keg. Not brain surgery. If you already have sankes its a no brainer. Use themMy only problem with this is with cleaning/sanitizing Sanke -vs- Corny kegs. I admit I haven actually tried taking the spear out of a Sanke yet but it looks like a PITA. Also, I've yet to see information on cleaning and sanitizing them (or even filling them for that matter) that makes me feel like I want to try it. And I have two 5G Sanke's sitting in my garage keeping me thinking about it.
So, if you can point me to some info on these topics I'd much appreciate it. I'm sure others reading this would find it helpful too; its very much on topic IMO.
Neither do I. They're different by design. Skinny dips tubes vs one large spear. Somehow it makes a differenceMaybe I'll give it a shot... Not sure how the keg type affects the tubing length though. Regardless, interested in trying it.
whats your method of cleaning them?https://www.google.com/search?q=using sanke kegs for homebrew
Lots of information and opinions out there. I use Sanke and feel they are superior to corny kegs.
Maybe just my biased opinion, but most who use them feel the same way, and most of the negatives presented are by those that use corny kegs and are committed to them.
Removing and reinstalling the stem is easy and takes a few seconds if you’re the least bit handy and use proper technique.
One tip would be to install the spiral ring so the end just passes one of the two notches by a 1/4” or so. This will make removal easier.
Also, if you have to force the spiral ring, you’re doing it wrong and you may bend it, and once bent it will become much more difficult if not impossible to use.
whats your method of cleaning them?
I have 32 sankes I have to clean and I bought everything to build a keg cleaner for the nano once we are operational but im curious how people are doing it effectively at home without the acid used by breweries..
Wouldn't be long before you destroyed that ring with the pliers or marred your seating surface
I'm no physicist but it makes a difference. I used to fight with line balancing like endless other people running ridiculous 12 ft lines and finally gave up. Now I run 4 ft lines without issue. Your never going to find a corny serving well with short lines like that so somehow somewhere it makes a difference. Every kegerator sold comes with 4 or 5 ft lines for a reason, they work with sankes that kegerators are designed for to the masses and not home brewers. If everyone that bought a kegerator had to fight with those short lines they would change them but don't for a reason. They work. You also don't need to worry about orings and hunting down leaks that again there are endless threads about. Theres also the fact that every brewery everywhere and billion dollar companies with endless R&D use sankes. If corneys were better they would use them. Theres also the question of why pepsi/coke ETC used cornys over sankes. I'm sure they did endless tests and found cornys served better with the high carb level of soda or they would have just used sankes.I have to disagree with johnny rotten on the use of shankes over corneys. 1 it makes no difference what they were intended to be used for they are both vessels disigned to hold liquid under pressure.
I don't know about cleaning a ton of them for a Nano brewery but for homebrewing and just a few kegs believe me when I tell ya that Oxyclean and nothing else works awesome. 5 years with the same kegs and I've never stuck a brush or anything else in them and they're nice and shiny clean inside. They never leak so if you forget about them after kicking a keg they don't get funky inside. A simple rinse is all they needNo naysaying here, I'm just curious how people were cleaning them at home is all as ive heard others who tried them post they are not as freindly to use for homebrewing in other threads.... I dont have the means to caustic cleaners ,acids or use a pressurewasher indoors during the winter (thats how I read some cleaned them in the past.) and I switched from carboys to conicals to get away from dealing with trying to clean a large vessel through a small opening but it makes sense that additional hardware like cip cleaners (carboy cleaners) would work if one removed the spear each time.
Honestly it would be something I would consider but I have dozens of cornies and even a number of 10 gallon cornies I dont use much now because I like being able to cram 3 5 gallon cornies in my kegerator and have 3 styles on tap... 11ft lines vs 4ft aside but that is a compelling reason.
So you ferment in the kegs?I do I can barely get my arm into them but usually try to wipe them out with a sponge if they've been sitting awhile it takes some scrubbing to get the krausen ring out of the inside
I often wonder how many corny keg users are actually reaching inside their kegs and scrubbing them out, I would think most are soaking with a cleaner as mentioned above vs actual hand washing. Just cause you can doesn’t mean that most do...
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