Making a keg portable?

[TheGrouch]

Assuming I have fully carbed my keg, what is the minimum equipment I need to take a keg on a trip? My annual dirtbike trip to West Virginia is coming up and I'd like to take a keg with me and packing light is a must.

What are the downsides to those faucets that mount directly to the ball lock? Will this just create a glass full of foam?

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/kegging/portable-dispensing/compact-chrome-faucet-assembly.html

Aside from burning through 4-5 mini-cartridges, are there any downsides to using a compact CO2 injector? Just have to be careful not to over-inject? Seems like a small price to pay compared to the $$$ for a mini-regulator.

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/kegg...r-ball-lock-fitting-compact-co2-injector.html

Any creative ideas on keeping the keg cold? Any old garbage can? Something specialized?

 

[Varmintman]

I too am interested about this. I go camping and lets face it I do not want to deal with 10 gallons of empty beer bottles after a week up in the hills. Nor do I want to try and deal with keeping a ton of ice handy for a garbage can.

I have heard that you can use a plate chiller though and a small cooler ful of ice and run the beer through that before the tap. Has anyone tried this and how much ice would it use

 

[JoeyChopps]

I had a buddy that did the plate chiller route. It worked really well but with a cheap cooler u will need a bag of ice everyday. If it was me I would build a jocky box with either a plate chiller or a ss coil. I would use one of those expensive Coleman metal coolers ( my little sister has one and if u keep the lid close a bag of ice will last 2 or 3 days) on the co2 I would get a paint ball tank and regulator. That way your not carrying around all those co2 cartages. Just my 2 cents Chopps

 

[tjpfeister]

For what it is worth, here is how I go portable (spaceman style):

I grab my backpack (http://www.rei.com/product/795621/osprey-aether-60-pack) and two cheapo fleece blankets. My picnic taps have about 14' of hose to them (http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/catalogsearch/result/?q=picnic) to avoid foaming. I wrap the hose around the outside of the keg to keep it cool then wrap the keg in the two blankets for insulation. The insulated keg is slipped into my backpack and the picnic faucet comes out of the hydration-tube port. I then keep serving pressure on the keg using one of those keg chargers (http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/soda-keg-co2-charger.html). If you happen to be a cyclist, these are like the same devices you can use to air up your tires. Anywho, I carry 3 crossman co2 cartridges and I can dispense the entire keg whilst also being the center of attention

For longer/hotter periods of time I will forgo the backpack and put the keg into one of my fermenter buckets and pack the open space with ice.

 

[spearko520]

i use a home depot round cooler with a jockey coil and a tap in the bottom of it (the tap shank fits in the faucet hole). i put ice on the coil, put the keg on that, pack ice around the keg and put a blanket over it. i don't worry too much about ice melt, since 5 gallons doesn't last forever...

 

[BrewThruYou]

What are the downsides to those faucets that mount directly to the ball lock? Will this just create a glass full of foam?

I use that one. You have to purge the keg first all the way and just give it little shots of co2 from the charger...just enough to get the beer coming out at an acceptable rate. You are correct that if you didn't purge, you'd get a blast of foam.

Aside from burning through 4-5 mini-cartridges, are there any downsides to using a compact CO2 injector? Just have to be careful not to over-inject? Seems like a small price to pay compared to the $$$ for a mini-regulator.

Downsides are the cost ($1/cart on ebay), not being able to totally dial in the pressure, preventing someone from overinjecting and being careful connecting/disconnecting the unit.

Overinjecting isn't really an issue...it's just a waste of a cart and you'd have to purge it. As long as you instruct people to give it little bursts of co2, dialing in the pressure isn't bad either.

The two no-nos are pulling the trigger when not connected to the keg and unscrewing the cartridge when connected to the keg. The first is really dangerous. The second happened to me....I unscrewed it not realizing that the keg still have residual pressure and the cartridge shot off like a rocket about 25 feet onto the lawn. If it was facing the house, I'd probably have a broken window. So when switching carts, TOTALLY empty the cartridge into keg, disconnect unit from keg, unscrew cart.

Any creative ideas on keeping the keg cold? Any old garbage can? Something specialized?

You can try the kegloves. I have a 2.5G one with ice blanket and the 5G without an ice blanket. I think they really need the ice blanket...just the keglove itself isn't enough in hot weather IMO.

Since the dip tube runs to the bottom, you really just need the bottom in ice if you are using a trash can or cooler. You can try to find a 5G rubbermaid cooler on CL or something...or a trash can. I worry a little bit about a thin-walled trash can with all that ice and beer...might not hold up if moving around.

Here's my 2.5G guy: