Mini Keg to larger CO2 tank + connectors

[rocket_man]

Hi guys,

I have never kegged before and have no experience with pressurising other than bottling. I just managed to get my hands on 4 cheap 5L mini kegs (see picture below) with mini regulators for 16g threaded CO2 cartridges. The keg doesn't have ball lock disconnects. Instead of buying the cartridges, I'd like get a 2kg bottle of CO2 and hook it up to the mini kegs if possible. My questions would be:

- Could I get a 2-way or 4-way splitter and connect a bigger CO2 bottler to the mini regulators? If so, what kind of connectors would I need? Would I be able to adjust the pressure of each keg individually?
- If I can only connect a CO2 bottle to one of the legs, could I possibly force carb the kegs separately, set the regulator to 0 and disconnect the gas hose without losing pressure?
- Any other solutions/ideas of how to make the system work?

I have limited space and plan on eventually getting a hotel mini bar fridge that would fit two of the kegs, and drink those while I brew/condition the other two. In the meantime, I'll mostly rely on Winter to keep them cold.

Any tips are much welcome!

Cheers!

 

[draftvader]

Hiya. Interested in this. I have a CO2 2.5kg tank attached to these through a mini regulator. I am also curious as to how well this setup will handle a splitter to 3 * 5l

Following but also happy for us to share our own findings with each other as we progress.

 

[rocket_man]

Hiya. Interested in this. I have a CO2 2.5kg tank attached to these through a mini regulator. I am also curious as to how well this setup will handle a splitter to 3 * 5l

Following but also happy for us to share our own findings with each other as we progress.

Cool, great to hear it's working for you! Is your mini regulator attached to the CO2 tank or to the keg? Hose out of the keg into the regulator? What connectors are you using? Sorry if these are all obvious questions.

Hopefully someone else has tried to connect it to multiple kegs and can give us some input.

 

[jseyfert3]

Could I get a 2-way or 4-way splitter and connect a bigger CO2 bottler to the mini regulators? If so, what kind of connectors would I need? Would I be able to adjust the pressure of each keg individually?

In theory, yes. But you'd be talking specialty metal braided hoses and fittings rated to something like 2000 psi, or whatever the CO2 tank blowoff is (I think it's around there).

A better way would be to remove the regulator from the mini tank and adapt to standard ball lock fitting. Get a regular CO2 regulator, run it to a manifold, and run to each of the four kegs. It would look something like my setup, except with mini instead of 5 gallon kegs (I've unfortunately got nothing in my kreezer now as it need repair).

If you want all 4 to have different pressures then they make downstream regulators, the main regulator puts out enough for the highest pressure you want and then you have seperate regulators that drop that down to something lower for the other kegs. You can also easily buy dual tank regulators, where instead of the one regulator I have on my tank there are two side by side, that would be an easy way to get two different pressures at least a bunch cheaper than 4 different pressures.

 

[draftvader]

In theory, yes. But you'd be talking specialty metal braided hoses and fittings rated to something like 2000 psi, or whatever the CO2 tank blowoff is (I think it's around there).

A better way would be to remove the regulator from the mini tank and adapt to standard ball lock fitting. Get a regular CO2 regulator, run it to a manifold, and run to each of the four kegs. It would look something like my setup, except with mini instead of 5 gallon kegs (I've unfortunately got nothing in my kreezer now as it need repair).
View attachment 701829

If you want all 4 to have different pressures then they make downstream regulators, the main regulator puts out enough for the highest pressure you want and then you have seperate regulators that drop that down to something lower for the other kegs. You can also easily buy dual tank regulators, where instead of the one regulator I have on my tank there are two side by side, that would be an easy way to get two different pressures at least a bunch cheaper than 4 different pressures.

What a superb reply. Thank you. Something to build towards. For this Christmas (what I am brewing towards) I should be OK with what I have but the downstream regulators are now on my todoist to get a bit more knowledge on.

Great post!

 

[draftvader]

Cool, great to hear it's working for you! Is your mini regulator attached to the CO2 tank or to the keg? Hose out of the keg into the regulator? What connectors are you using? Sorry if these are all obvious questions.

Hopefully someone else has tried to connect it to multiple kegs and can give us some input.

I believe that jseyfert3 has answered almost all of this for us. I am just getting started on my journey too. My set up, at present, is CO2 -> Mini Regulator -> Keg via ball lock on the dispenser you have. If you unclip the CO2 cartridge adapter you have now you should be able to push on a gas ball lock. I'd keep hold of the CO2 cartridge adapter and get yourself a 2l mini keg for intimate picnic situations or overnighting.

I am just waiting for 2 more 2l mini kegs as this will allow me to brew 2 * 4l carboys with 5l going into the 5l keg, 2l into the smallest keg and whatever is left above the trub going into a bottle or 2. For me it will give me a chance to add flavours in the 2l and bottles as experiments whilst getting a reasonable drinking quantity (for 2 or 3 people) out of the 5l. With 5 * 5l and 3 *2l it will be easy to get rotation going with low volume consumption.

 

[rocket_man]

Super. Lots of great information here. I'll play around with it and let you guys know if I run into any trouble. Thanks a bunch!

 

[draftvader]

Hi guys. I finally got round to posting my 4*5l mini keg kegerator solution. Hope this is of interest to you. Happy to answer any questions.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/4-5l-mini-keg-kegerator.688883/