I have 6 TAD bottles and about 24 extra caps. You definitely want to stand them upright when naturally carbonating. If the TAD caps fit these Coors and Miller bottles, you should get some extra since the liner inside does not hold up to too many re-uses. The good news is, I have a TAD bottle that was filled last November and the beer is still good. Once you remove the storage cap and then add the tap, it has to be consumed pretty quickly. This fall when I start brewing again, I will bottle half of each batch and "keg" half in TAD bottles. I'm also going to buy some Nitrogen cartridges.
Miller Lite Home Draft Dissected
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BGJ223
Active Member
Just an idea here.
It has been reported that the 3 liter soda bottles would also fit the Mill/coors - lite taps. If you were to naturally carb your beer in the 3 liter bottles, could you store the bottles cap side down? If you did this you could pour off the dregs right before you tapped the bottle. Any input of why this would be a good or bad idea would be greatly appreciated.
It has been reported that the 3 liter soda bottles would also fit the Mill/coors - lite taps. If you were to naturally carb your beer in the 3 liter bottles, could you store the bottles cap side down? If you did this you could pour off the dregs right before you tapped the bottle. Any input of why this would be a good or bad idea would be greatly appreciated.
BGJ223
Active Member
Update: After 2 days force carbing in the fridge, my beer seems to be pretty good carbonation. On 9/12 I put a Witbier in the Coors TAD, beer was cold before I inserted the first 16 gram cart. Put the second cart in on 9/13, and took a sample today.
HSM
Well-Known Member
The Bike Shop/inflator cartridges are also billed as "food safe". The oil in Paintball/BB gun cartridges is not added, it's just left over from the manufacturing process. It's not a lot, but IMO any is too much.
Please disregard everything I previously posted on this subject. I was wrong. Some of the cartridges do contain lubricant or some other nasty stuff along with the CO2. I put a Copper Head cartridge in my keg charger and discharged it into a two liter flask. I put about 500 ml of water in the flask to see if I could detect any oil on the water surface. Well, one whiff of that stuff was enough to convince me. It had a very strong odor. I could not detect any oil on the water surface initially, but I did not bother to investigate it further once I smelled it. This was not a faint odor. It was very intense and unmistakable as something that should not be in your beer. I don't know if the oil is intentionally added or not, but I don't want it anywhere near my beer.
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BGJ223
Active Member
Just tried to put The Coors-lite keg cap on a 3 liter bottle. It does not create a seal. You could probably get it to work if you used some plumbers tape on it, but I don't think I want to risk it. I need to order a tap a draft bottle to confirm that it will work with the tap.
Please let us know as soon as you know. I have a call out on a Subaru forum for anyone with the HD systems to give me their empties, but I don't know that I'll get that many (maybe I should put a post up on the Camaro forums as well
)I'm looking forward to doing one of these for Thanksgiving and kegging the remainder
Ibrewaletx
Well-Known Member
As a side note, but related.
I now have bought a tap-a-draft dispenser since my Miller experiment failed (believe I lost the plastic seal for the co2 bottle).
I have successfully used tap-a-draft with 3L soda bottles. It seals fine. Curious that the Miller/Coors draft doesn't seal with the 3L bottles.
Special Hops
Well-Known Member
Picked up the Miller lite draft version this weekend. Drank about 3/4 of it and then dumped the rest. Will be trying this out soon.
BGJ223
Active Member
Another way to cut down on the CO2 cart cost can be found at the following linke
http://www.fizzgiz.com/Refillable16gOrderForm.htm
Basically you can refill this CO2 cart yourself. Would require a Larger CO2 tank and an inflator needle. I am sure that could be DIY'ed also. Just food for thought.
http://www.fizzgiz.com/Refillable16gOrderForm.htm
Basically you can refill this CO2 cart yourself. Would require a Larger CO2 tank and an inflator needle. I am sure that could be DIY'ed also. Just food for thought.
KrayzieVanh
Member
Great idea but it looks likes the valve can damage the piercing needle in the dispenser.
I'm thinking of something like this:
http://www.pyramydair.com/s/a/Air_Venturi_IZH_Drozd_Bulk_Fill_Adapter/1180
BGJ223
Active Member
My only issue I see with that is getting it to mount inside of the screw on CO2 cart holder. If that could be worked out, it might be a good way of doing it
Has anyone looked into using nitrogen in these or their TAD systems?
I am planning on picking up a coors system to add to my TAD collection and while looking for good 16g prices found some nitrogen cream chargers and was thinking it might be nice on a stout but have no idea if it would work, even if I could find the right size.
Just a thought.
I am planning on picking up a coors system to add to my TAD collection and while looking for good 16g prices found some nitrogen cream chargers and was thinking it might be nice on a stout but have no idea if it would work, even if I could find the right size.
Just a thought.
Yes, there are people who use Nitrogen in the TAD.
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/box-of-24-no2-nitrogen-cartridges.html
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/box-of-24-no2-nitrogen-cartridges.html
I've been using one of the home draft kits for several months and have been quite pleased with it - up to this point. I was refilling it for the third time and when I had it fully assembled, inserted the CO2 cartridge and screwed it in to puncture it. I didn't hear anything that sounded like gas moving so I slowly unscrewed the cartridge. No leaking gas either. The cartridge had not been punctured.
The pin that punctures the cartridge was not in the unit. I didn't see it anywhere so I could at least test if it could be reinstalled.
Has anyone else experienced this issue with the Home Draft Kit?
The pin that punctures the cartridge was not in the unit. I didn't see it anywhere so I could at least test if it could be reinstalled.
Has anyone else experienced this issue with the Home Draft Kit?
That's great. Thanks for the link. These are going on the short list.
You bet they are. I have a steam beer carbing up in my home draft at the moment, but I think I'll get a stout going tomorrow night to try with the nitro. Now I have to consider other styles that would go well. I'm kind of thinking a black IPA would be pretty sweet on nitrogen or maybe that Xocoatl recipe someone was posting about a few days ago.
ericw
Well-Known Member
Actually, the Miller version has 2 gold emblems on the side that do the same as the Coors.
I got a free one this weekend and I plan to use it with the beer I made this weekend, but how much headspace should I leave when I fill the bottle for natural carbing?
Are those 16g cartridges? I can't tell from the link, so I'm worried that they are 8g.
I think they are 8g. I have a TAD as well so I'll just plan accordingly. I would search on Ebay for some 16g. There were a couple sellers with 16g CO2 pretty cheap compared to the local stuff around here. Though the earlier link of williamson supply was the cheapest non-ebay I saw on a quick search yesterday. Good luck.
http://www.gas-depot.com/nitrous-oxide-cartridges/16-gram-n2o-chargers-5-pack
Here is a 16 gram N2O 5 pack for $4.49 + ~ $9 shipping.
Edit: I bought two for $10 shipping, so there is some economy there.
Here is a 16 gram N2O 5 pack for $4.49 + ~ $9 shipping.
Edit: I bought two for $10 shipping, so there is some economy there.
My question is this: I'm wondering do you need to force carb these with an existing keg setup and then just use one cartridge to push the beer? -or- Can these be an easy and cheap way to start kegging on a budget? I'm unemployed at the moment, but really can't stand bottling beer anymore. What with the spilling from the leaky o-rings on the bottling bucket and the cleaning of each individual bottle. Ahhhhhhhh, it's enough to drive a man insane or at least drive one to drink!
You can naturally carb it just a like a bottle and then use a cartridge to push the beer. No need for a full keg set up. You can also force carb with the cartridges, but you'll use one or two to get it carbed and then another one to push, and if you drink slow maybe two.
Depending where you find them online the 16g can cost roughly around 1.50 each including shipping.
I typically let mine carb naturally then use the CO2 to push, saves some money. But if I don't have time then I carb that baby up and get to pouring.
Good luck.
Swcoxe
Active Member
So do you ferment your beer then add priming sugar, then put it in the mini kegs? If so once it sit do you wait until you are ready for the party to use it?
I use Tap A Draft mini kegs and I naturally carb in the TAD kegs for about 3weeks. They are then dispensed with CO2 carts. I just recently finished one that had been in the TAD since Dec, 2009 and it was excellent.
Swcoxe
Active Member
It kept that long?? holly crap.
It had been kept in a fridge for most of that period untapped. I also store them upright. I'm not sure that makes a difference. Once I tap them, they remain on their side under pressure. It took me about three weeks to drink it all after I tapped it and it was still good. Even when I took the cap off to drain the sludge and clean the empty bottle, there was a nice hiss.
Swcoxe
Active Member
So how much priming sugar do you add?
I transferred the beer to a bottling bucket with enough priming sugar for a 5gal batch. I'll have to look at my notes to find the exact amount. Then I racked that into the TAD bottles. I left brewing for 15yrs and started back last autumn. I plan to fire it up again maybe next week.
