Mini Kegs

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Bulldog21

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I have been checking out these little mini-keg counter top units. Has anyone had any luck with them with home brew? Are there mini-kegs out there for purchase with home brewing?

I am getting ready to bottle a batch and this would be good to know beforehand.

Thanks!
 
Yes there are mini-keg kits out there. I started with them, but the tap kept breaking and that kit is no longer available.
 
Which kind are you talking about? I got one that is for Heineken kegs and uses a plastic line to dispense the beer. I haven't gotten around to getting a keg of Heiny to see if I could refill it and reuse. Honestly I should've returned it for the $100 the in-laws spent on it. Would've bought a couple Perlicks for a keezer.
 
I have the Krups B100. It has a Peltier chiller but no pressure source, this comes from the Heineken (or Newcastle) minikegs. I haven't looked closely at the keg itself to know if there is going to be a way to refill and pressurize. The hookup line from the tap to the keg is just a little disposable plastic thing.

All in all I think it might be more trouble than its worth to rig it up to work. ITs kind of why I haven't done anything with it, and I REALLY don't need a 5L keg of commercial beer which I'll have to buy if I want to hook this thing up.
 
I saw one review that said the Avanti unit has an adapter for converting for non-pressurized kegs. That might be the way to go, I bet those are more easily refilled.
 
I got some of the ones for homebrew when i was ready to bottle my first two batches. I never used them again. Simply put, I think they suck donkey balls. :eek: You need to use less sugar to prime them and then they'll leak once you put the CO2 tap device on one. You'll go through more than a few of the cartridges if you don't drain it within a day of tapping it. Cleaning one isn't that easy either.

I ended up selling all of the hardware I had for those at a decent loss. I just wanted them gone. I just hope the person who bought them has had better luck.
 
Based on donkey balls I'll stick with traditional bottling for the time being... Thanks all!!

I would recommend waiting until you have either the space, funds, or are otherwise ready and go with traditional kegging methods. You can get smaller corny kegs if you don't want to have the 5 gallon sized ones. I use mostly 3 gallon corny kegs (I have a pair of 2.5 gallon for some beers and I use a 5 gallon for somethings, but not regularly). My brew fridge can hold four 2.5 or 3 gallon kegs easily. With three taps, I always have something great going into my glass. :rockin: :D :drunk:
 
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