mini keg/bottle beer priming combo

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xpoc454

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I just purchased one of the party star mini keg setup.

Can anyone tell me how they actually primed thier mini keg?

I heard you dont have to prime your mini keg if you want to just use the co2 in this system. Anyone know how that works?

More importantly, Id like to split my 5 gallon batch into maybe 1-2 mini kegs and the rest in bottles, anyone have a suggestion on how to go about this?

thanks
jim
 
Welcome to the forum! :D

Priming it would be just like priming a batch. Add the appropriate amount of sugar and seal it up. Let it sit in a warm area for a few weeks and it'll be good to go.

Forced carbonation is the other type of carbonating you've heard of. I'm not familiar with your specific setup (post a link and I'll check it out). In general, you chill the beer in the keg, then put it under pressure from a CO2 tank...about 30PSI. You can shake it to speed things up. That'll carbonate your beer with no sugar.

As for your last question, I've been thinking about that lately too. I always keg but would like to give away some bottles sometimes. I was thinking the easiest way would be to keg like normal, then fill bottles from the keg and add one of those priming tablets to each bottle. Seems like an easy way to bottle 1, 2 or 10 bottles and keg the rest.

Your other option is to buy a counterpressure bottler which requires a CO2 tank and kegs. Check out www.morebeer.com if you want to check one out. These things can be really tricky to use. Cheers! :D
 
Janx said:
As for your last question, I've been thinking about that lately too. I always keg but would like to give away some bottles sometimes. I was thinking the easiest way would be to keg like normal, then fill bottles from the keg and add one of those priming tablets to each bottle. Seems like an easy way to bottle 1, 2 or 10 bottles and keg the rest.


I'd be curious to see how that works. I assume you would bottle it immediately before force carbing? I think you'd have bottle bombs otherwise. Some CO2 and then a priming tablet would be bad news I'd guess....
 
Here is the link to the setup im purchasing ive seen them in action and they work well for small get togethers, a lot easier than the equal amount of bottles.
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/products/products.asp?category=180&super=20'

I like the way it works compared the philtap setup.
 
xpoc - if you really want a kegging system you'll be happy with, grab some cornelius kegs and a CO2 tank and regulator. It's the way to go. CO2 cartriges and the small size of other systems just don't make sense to me. YMMV.

orrelse - Yes, you bottle with no dissolved CO2, so before force carbonating the kegs.
 
Janx said:
xpoc - if you really want a kegging system you'll be happy with, grab some cornelius kegs and a CO2 tank and regulator. It's the way to go. CO2 cartriges and the small size of other systems just don't make sense to me. YMMV.

orrelse - Yes, you bottle with no dissolved CO2, so before force carbonating the kegs.

Well i plan on doing the cornelius keg, but those wont help me if I want to carry a small amount to a party or a picnic. Specially if I dont want to carry 10+ bottles around.
 
Gotcha. FWIW, with summer coming, I've been thinking about the mobility of keg beer, too. I'm going to build a jockey box and take a corny keg and 5 lb CO2 bottle with me to parties and whatnot. But maybe I and my friends are bigger drunks than you and yours ;)

Cheers! :D
 
xpoc454 said:
I just purchased one of the party star mini keg setup.

Can anyone tell me how they actually primed thier mini keg?

I heard you dont have to prime your mini keg if you want to just use the co2 in this system. Anyone know how that works?

More importantly, Id like to split my 5 gallon batch into maybe 1-2 mini kegs and the rest in bottles, anyone have a suggestion on how to go about this?

thanks
jim
I've been wondering similar things, like if you prime the whole batch for bottling, with 3/4 cup sugar, would that be too much priming for mini kegs? I would idealy like to put 3 gals in those 5 liter kegs and the rest in bottles, but don't want to mess with alot of splitting of batches, dividing conditioning sugar etc.
 
xpoc454 said:
Here is the link to the setup im purchasing ive seen them in action and they work well for small get togethers, a lot easier than the equal amount of bottles.
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/products/products.asp?category=180&super=20'

I like the way it works compared the philtap setup.
What are the differences between the party star and the philtap? I see that the star uses 16 gram cartridges, and the phil uses 12 gram. What else makes the party star better in your opinion?
 
D-brewmeister said:
What are the differences between the party star and the philtap? I see that the star uses 16 gram cartridges, and the phil uses 12 gram. What else makes the party star better in your opinion?

Well i have seen the party star in action and was told by that guy that he didnt like the phil tap. SO that helped my decision, but also the part star has like a built in handle that is the pump. This is nice cause you can carry the keg around with the pump. The phil tap apparatus doesnt look sturdy enough to carry around with the pump.
Carrying it around is kidna fun in parties if you want to go around and fill people up. :p
 
Janx said:
Gotcha. FWIW, with summer coming, I've been thinking about the mobility of keg beer, too. I'm going to build a jockey box and take a corny keg and 5 lb CO2 bottle with me to parties and whatnot. But maybe I and my friends are bigger drunks than you and yours ;)

Cheers! :D
Heh yeah, they like to drink all right, Though im not sure if im ready for beer drinking moocher friends to drink all my beer in one sitting that takes so long to make. I figure it will be easier to do 5L at a time than to use up an entire batch at once. :p
 
The mini-kegs are primed at 1/3 C priming sugar each.

You need to prime the kegs fiirst. You need to recalculate for whatever beer you have left in the bottling bucket and prime that seperately.

That's another good reason to have measurements on the side of the bucket.
 
1/3 cup? Can you fill 4-5L kegs approximatetly with a 5 gallon batch?
If so, is the 1/3 cup a higher priming than you would normally do for bottles?
 
Yes, kegging is primed higher (w/o the CO2).

Kegging all of it in 5L Party Fass (keg) would be 20 L not 19 as in 5 gals. You would need to adjust the volume UP by 1 liter.

Still 1/3 C priming sugar per keg would be easier to add to the keg first.
 
homebrewer_99 said:
Yes, kegging is primed higher (w/o the CO2).

Kegging all of it in 5L Party Fass (keg) would be 20 L not 19 as in 5 gals. You would need to adjust the volume UP by 1 liter.

Still 1/3 C priming sugar per keg would be easier to add to the keg first.

Just add the 1/3 cup dry to the mini keg? ANy issues with it being sterile?
 
homebrewer_99 said:
Yes, just spoon it in (dry) and fill it up.

I've never had any problems that I am aware of.

Im going to be using a co2 cartridge for this setup. Does that mean I still use the 1/3 cup? Or can i use the normal amount for the entuire batch and use 10 L for 2 mini kegs and the rest for bottles.
Than the co2 cartridge would make up the rest in the keg?
 
I prime as I stated earlier and use those little CO2 cartridges for the same keg.

I also have a couple of the gravity flow ones where I can't put a pump through (just turn the small red knob), but I prime the same (seems like a waste of CO2 now that I think about it).

I got the gravity flow bungs from the kegs I brought back from Germany so I don't know how they were primed at the local gasthaus...I'll need to experiment (pay more attention) on the carbonation level they produce.
 
xpoc454 said:
1/3 cup? Can you fill 4-5L kegs approximatetly with a 5 gallon batch?
If so, is the 1/3 cup a higher priming than you would normally do for bottles?
Yea, that seems like alot of sugar to add to 5 liters. I thought that it was 1/3 cup for the whole 5 gal batch, which would make sense, since you just prime enough to get an initial carbonation, then you use the co2 cartridges to dispense the rest of the beer. If you prime way more than bottles, then don't add co2 halfway through drinking a keg, I would imagine you would have really foamy beer for the first few pints/days and then it would end up getting flat (unless all that sugar would keep fermenting as the pressure drops back down, sort of an organic pressure regulator?!? Hmm. . . ) Am I totally off on this?
 
xpoc454 said:
I just purchased one of the party star mini keg setup.
Does this system have to be vertical to dispense beer? Can it be stored horizontaly in your frige and still pour well when you stand it up? How tall is the keg and tap? (I have a small frige and wonder if it would fit in there)
 
D-brewmeister said:
Does this system have to be vertical to dispense beer? Can it be stored horizontaly in your frige and still pour well when you stand it up? How tall is the keg and tap? (I have a small frige and wonder if it would fit in there)

Im not sure about going horizontal, looks like I will be getting it around tuesday in the mail, I can check than. M6y guess is it has to stay vertical.
 
Well i tried out my first mini keg this weekend. I put my keg in the fridge got it cold and added the tap w CO2.

The result was a very large amount of foam.
I would guess 1/4 inch beer and 16 ozs of foam in a 16 oz cup. It was the real creamy foam.

I slowly turned down the co2 and still got foam so i started releaseing the co2 pressure. It was foamy until I run the co2 all the way out then of course it didnt come out at all.

I than started to use the drain tap on the mini keg and it was 90% less foam, just about what I would expect.

SO it looks like either the co2 is way overkill or I need a lot more fine tuning. Maybe let the co2 sit on the mini keg overnight in a fridge?
 
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