Mini Keg System

[clskinsfan]

Hey everyone! Well my wife hooked me up today. She went "shopping" today and came home this afternoon with a bunch of homebrewing supplies someone was giving away on freecycle. She comes home with 2 6 gallon glass carboys and a 5 gallon glass carboy. As well as a bottle rack and a bunch of other stuff. Anyways she also scored me a mini kegging system with about 15 1.33 gallon kegs and the tapping system and some co2 cartridges. Have any of you used one of these mini keg systems and if so how well do they work. I did a little on-line research and it seems some people have been having carbonation issues with them. Its in great condition and I have a Belgian Wit about ready to bottle but I dont want to waste the beer if they dont work. Any knowledge would be helpfull.
Chris

 

[ChshreCat]

I hate you AND your wife.

I never see things like this on freecycle.

 

[clskinsfan]

Yeah. It really suprised the crap out of me to. I thought she hated my homebrew obsession. Then she shows up with this. Go figure.

 

[curt656]

what is this freecycle of which you speak???

 

[clskinsfan]

freecycle.com......its a site where people give stuff away for free if you are willing to come pick it up. I have been looking for a chest freezer on there forever. But this is the best score we have gotten yet off of it.

 

[dontman]

I use the mini keg system. I'm not sure what you are referring to as "carbonation issues." I saw online some people had issues with the seams of the kegs splitting with over carbonation. If that's what you mean I haven't experienced it (yet.) I think you can manage this by not over carbing (3 oz sugar to prime) and cycling the cans out after 7 or 8 uses.

So far for me the system works well. Did you get the 2 piece bungs with all the other equipment? You will need a bunch of those. I just bought a bunch from here:

Welcome to Beer-Wine.com

The only problems I have are: It is very tall with the tap attached. Does your fridge have enough headspace for it? and It leaks slighlty around the tap with each pull when I don't pull the tap all of the way down. Solution - I pull the handle all of the way down to dispense.

 

[clskinsfan]

Thanks for the response dontman. I read on a couple sites that people were having problems getting the beer to carbonate in the kegs. Maybe a leak at the seam like you were talking about? I think I will replace the Kegs there is a little rust on some of them. The kegs seem relatively inexpensive. About 8$ apiece. The tap is what seems to cost the most. So I will give it a try and see what happens. No bungs were included with it. Do I need to replace the bung with each fill?

 

[dontman]

I would get rid of the ones with rust but not the others. No reason to really. The bungs are reusable and inexpensive at Beer wine.com . The kegs are expensive there though. I bought my kegs at Karps for $10 per. Where did you see them for $8.

As far as problems with carbing. No way. If the seam splits the beer is on your floor, not flat. I give a minimum of four weeks to carb so that there is no question that it is done.

 

[clskinsfan]

Havent seen them for $8. Just saw that price quoted on a web discussion. It came with a Flexi-tap but the instructions are in german. It has a bulb that you can put on top of the tap. i assume it is to get the last bit of beer out of the kegs? Anyways I think I will fill one up and bottle the rest of the batch just to see how it works. Thanks for all your input. you have been helpfull.

 

[dontman]

I have the Party Star tap. Obviously different from yours. Mine stands like 16" tall with the tap attached to a keg. Honestly, who has that sort of shelf height in a fridge?

On the plus side, my wife has agreed to make this a condition of the new fridge that we buy.