I have read a lot of folks having success using the Miller / Coors home draft kits to dispense and sometimes carbonate homebrew.
I picked one of these up a few weeks ago and disposed of the Miller Lite. Cleaned, sanitized, and refilled with 1.5 gallons of some of the best beer I've made to date - a 90 minute IPA.
In anticipation of ths event, I ordered some 16g Co2 cartridges from eBay. The cartridges I received are very similar - exact in length but the neck of the cartridges I received is significantly smaller than the neck of the cartridge included with the Miller tap / regulator.
So after my buddy and I filled the pig and bottled the rest, I decided I was going to try and force carbonate in the keg. I've read where people say it has been done and works well, but would require two or three Co2 cartridges to make it work. Since I ordered 20 of them, I figured I'd give it a shot.
I removed the plastic holder that contains the Co2 cartridge. Removed the Miller provided cartridge and inserted a new one that I had. As I was screwing it on, I heard some pressure start to escape, the draft pig got really hard, and then all of a sudden the cartridge basically vented to the atomosphere.
My buddy and I guessed that maybe the cartridge might have vented to either the regulator pressure, so I left it on until Tuesday (We bottled on Sunday). I twisted the cartidge off and not a hiss - the cartridge had vented itself entirely to the atmosphere. Also the little silver peg that pierces the cartridge was in the end of the cartridge I removed.
I didn't notice any obvious damage, so I used some needle nose pilers and re-inserted the piercing peg into the regulator and decided to fire up another cartridge. This one did the same thing, but I noticed that there was a point in which I turned the cartridge to that it would pressurize the keg and not hiss out as much gas. I tried a third cartridge and only turned to that point. After about 30 seconds, the gas started to vent to the atmosphere again, just slower. The pig was rock hard at this time so I started to rock it like one would when trying to force carbonate a corny keg.
I took a draw of the beer into a 4 ounce juice glass. Mostly head, about a half an inch of flat beer, and the beer shot out like it was under a LOT of pressure. (I realize it will take a day or two to carbonate fully when things are working correctly..)
Do I have the wrong Co2 cartridges? Is the neck size causing an issue, or is the fact that the peg fell out causing more issues? These cartridges I purchased were 16g and labeled as food grade. I went and looked at the 12g cartridges they sell for pellet guns at Wal-Mart and they too had the skinny neck. Do I need to find cartridges with fatter necks or am I missing something?
(Btw.. I have access to about 4 other Coors taps like this. The local liquor store was clearing out Coors Light home drafts for $8 because they were dated Jun 2011. I just have to wait for my friends and family to choke down the Coors to get the taps and bottles back
)
I picked one of these up a few weeks ago and disposed of the Miller Lite. Cleaned, sanitized, and refilled with 1.5 gallons of some of the best beer I've made to date - a 90 minute IPA.
In anticipation of ths event, I ordered some 16g Co2 cartridges from eBay. The cartridges I received are very similar - exact in length but the neck of the cartridges I received is significantly smaller than the neck of the cartridge included with the Miller tap / regulator.
So after my buddy and I filled the pig and bottled the rest, I decided I was going to try and force carbonate in the keg. I've read where people say it has been done and works well, but would require two or three Co2 cartridges to make it work. Since I ordered 20 of them, I figured I'd give it a shot.
I removed the plastic holder that contains the Co2 cartridge. Removed the Miller provided cartridge and inserted a new one that I had. As I was screwing it on, I heard some pressure start to escape, the draft pig got really hard, and then all of a sudden the cartridge basically vented to the atomosphere.
My buddy and I guessed that maybe the cartridge might have vented to either the regulator pressure, so I left it on until Tuesday (We bottled on Sunday). I twisted the cartidge off and not a hiss - the cartridge had vented itself entirely to the atmosphere. Also the little silver peg that pierces the cartridge was in the end of the cartridge I removed.
I didn't notice any obvious damage, so I used some needle nose pilers and re-inserted the piercing peg into the regulator and decided to fire up another cartridge. This one did the same thing, but I noticed that there was a point in which I turned the cartridge to that it would pressurize the keg and not hiss out as much gas. I tried a third cartridge and only turned to that point. After about 30 seconds, the gas started to vent to the atmosphere again, just slower. The pig was rock hard at this time so I started to rock it like one would when trying to force carbonate a corny keg.
I took a draw of the beer into a 4 ounce juice glass. Mostly head, about a half an inch of flat beer, and the beer shot out like it was under a LOT of pressure. (I realize it will take a day or two to carbonate fully when things are working correctly..)
Do I have the wrong Co2 cartridges? Is the neck size causing an issue, or is the fact that the peg fell out causing more issues? These cartridges I purchased were 16g and labeled as food grade. I went and looked at the 12g cartridges they sell for pellet guns at Wal-Mart and they too had the skinny neck. Do I need to find cartridges with fatter necks or am I missing something?
(Btw.. I have access to about 4 other Coors taps like this. The local liquor store was clearing out Coors Light home drafts for $8 because they were dated Jun 2011. I just have to wait for my friends and family to choke down the Coors to get the taps and bottles back
)
