My Experience With The Coors Lite Home Draft (Video)

[brew2enjoy]

Don't worry about it. It has a built in pressure release valve if it gets too high.

Cool! Will the valve still work when the tank is full and laying on its side? seems like it would release beer lol.

 

[buckeyejb]

I may have to throw in the towel on this one. After blowing through 2 CO2 cartridges, when I removed the 2nd cart the needle was stuck in the top. Tried to see if I could reattach it but it fell down the sink. The Miller Lite gods were frowning on the experiemntal use of their product.

I'll probably try to find a cap so I can use the tank for small batch. Any thoughts on what would work, I'm thinking maybe a bung and using it for fermentation.

My draft tower is en route, and I should be building my kegerator next weekend. It would have been nice to have some portability with the small system.

 

[sudsmcgee]

Cool! Will the valve still work when the tank is full and laying on its side? seems like it would release beer lol.

I carbed mine standing upright. I'd say stand it up.

 

[Magua]

I've read through this thread and a few others and couldn't find a definitive answer.

Has anyone tried using the standard Tap-A-Draft bottles with these?

 

[raf1919]

I've read through this thread and a few others and couldn't find a definitive answer.

Has anyone tried using the standard Tap-A-Draft bottles with these?

yes they are identical. i have a tap a draft system and i have miller light sys too. can swap back and forth.

 

[Magua]

yes they are identical. i have a tap a draft system and i have miller light sys too. can swap back and forth.

Perfect. Thanks!

 

[Primo]

I got mine and hopefully more will come on Saturday for my birthday!!!

 

[Dahoov]

I decided to experiment with the Coors Light Home Draft kegs. I bought one and was eventually able to work my way through the carbonated water it contained. I decided to put an Schrader air valve into the end of the little CO2 cylinder so I could charge it with a regular CO2 bottle and regulator. I went to my local Ace and found a Schrader valve with 1/4 NPT. I drilled and tapped the end of the cylinder, and modified the plastic housing so it would fit. I later found out that Home Depot has the Schrader valves with 1/8 NPT. This should work without modifying the plastic housing. Also since the cylinder housing is so thin teflon tape isn't enough to seal it up. I wound up using 5 minute 2 part "Epoxy" to seal things up.

I put some finished cider into the "Keg", and put the tap back on and installed my modified cylinder. I put an air chuck on the end of my CO2 hose and started filling the keg with CO2. Unfortunately the pressure regulator valve built into the Home Draft tap really restricted the flow into the keg. I made a trip to the dollar store and picked up a 3 litre soda bottle , then stopped at an auto parts store and picked up a pair of valve stems so I could make a carbonator cap. After I got that made up and installed the carbonating process speed up dramatically. I dialed the pressure up on my CO2 tank to 30 psi and filled, shook, filled until there wasn't much more CO2 going into the bottle. Maybe 10 or so filling and shaking sessions. I put it back into the fridge to let things settle for a couple hours. I then removed the carbonator cap and attached the tap. I re pressurized and pulled my first sparkling cider from my new keg. It all worked great. At 30 psi I can get 2 or 3 12oz pulls before I need to re pressurize the tank. I suppose after the carbonating is done one could install a new 16gram CO2 cylinder and be done with it. Here is a link to some pics I took of the various modifications.

http://picasaweb.google.com/dahoov/HomeDraft#

 

[raf1919]

dahoov,

that is exactly what i would like to do. and just use a paintball tank. how well did it hold pressure? will Schrader air valve allow for the tank to just stay on?

 

[Dahoov]

dahoov,

that is exactly what i would like to do. and just use a paintball tank. how well did it hold pressure? will Schrader air valve allow for the tank to just stay on?

I now have 2 of the Kegs so I really like the air chuck arrangement, but if you wanted something that was a little more permanent you could replace the 1/4 NPT to Schrader with something that had a barb end and hook the CO2 line directly to that. You could also pick up one of the chucks with the lever that clamps onto the Schrader valve. I want a quick disconnect system so it eases the changover with the 5 gallon corny kegs. I was thinking along the lines of the air hose quick disconnects, but those may be an option as well.

 

[ibintinknockin]

has anyone tried to dismantle this thing after the co2 port? like bypass the 16 gram cart?
brand new brewer, and i got 4 of these. got a lot of coors light to drink. i figured its a better buy than TAD considering that i got 4 taps, 4 bottles, no shipping, and 6 gallons of ''beer'' (as long as these things can handle multiple uses. if not i can just buy the TAD tap for about $40). i've read that 16 gram threaded is a perfect fit but would love not to have to keep buying carts... i also dont like the idea of soldering or tapping a valve on a disposable cart. when i get done with a second mini keg, maybe ill butcher one up to see. or what d'ya think about maybe drilling a stem right near the neck of the PET bottle?

 

[raf1919]

well you can tap into the 16g co2 cartridge or...

http://hbd.org/cdp/3lkeg/3lkeg.htm

http://home.swbell.net/bufkin/cheap_3_liter_kegs.htm#top

 

[LiquidLunch5211]

Interesting, is there any sugestion on how much if any priming malt to use when transferring from secondary to the keg?

 

[Dahoov]

For kegging the common approach is to use 50-75% of what you would use for bottling.

 

[LiquidLunch5211]

For kegging the common approach is to use 50-75% of what you would use for bottling.

I am new at kegging and I plan to keg my primary stock, but I thought the CO2 was the carbination. why do you need to add priming malt if you plan to keg?

 

[Dahoov]

I am new at kegging and I plan to keg my primary stock, but I thought the CO2 was the carbination. why do you need to add priming malt if you plan to keg?

You don't need to if you plan to force carbonate with the pressurized CO2.

 

[LiquidLunch5211]

You don't need to if you plan to force carbonate with the pressurized CO2.

Great thanks for the info.
Cheers!

 

[brew2enjoy]

I finally got to try this out last night. I went with the threaded cartridges mentioned earlier in this thread. I re-used the rubber gasket that was on the neck of the original cartridge and everything worked fine, no leaks.

First pull was a little foamy and much to my surprise the beer was still a little flat. I let it naturally carb at room temps for 3 weeks prior to putting in the fridge. It was rock hard from the C02. I guess it just needed more time? I am gonna let it sit for a few days with the C02 cart and see if it carbs up a little more.

Other than the carbing issue this thing works great and I will be using it again!

 

[johnboy1313]

It was rock hard from the C02. I guess it just needed more time? I am gonna let it sit for a few days with the C02 cart and see if it carbs up a little more. QUOTE]

You may find that it's ready to drink after one day with the CO2 cart added. I just finished two of them last month. I primed them both with sugar and left them to carb in a cabinet at room temperature. Like with yours, mine were both rock hard when I put them in the fridge. One went in after 4 weeks. The initial pull was foamy, but kinda flat. I added a cart and saw a big difference the next day. After a few weeks, I had emptied the first one, though it took three carts to keep it carbed and flowing well. I put the second one in after roughly seven weeks of natural carbing and had a similar experience. The beer was carbonated well, but after one glass, the pressure was not enough to push the beer out more than a trickle. I added a cart and it was fine, though again, I think I had to use three carts to actually keep the beer from going flat and keep enough pressure in the thing to push it out at a decent rate. Overall, I had to use six carts for two mini kegs. At 2.00 a pop, I believe could have filled a five lb. tank with CO2, so this really isn’t cost effective. I’m going to fill one this batch and bottle the rest. Eventually, I will get into kegging, but right now I don’t have a second refrigerator and with all the snow we just got, I don’t have the desire to try to get one to my house and down in the basement.

 

[brew2enjoy]

It was rock hard from the C02. I guess it just needed more time? I am gonna let it sit for a few days with the C02 cart and see if it carbs up a little more. QUOTE]

You may find that it's ready to drink after one day with the CO2 cart added. I just finished two of them last month. I primed them both with sugar and left them to carb in a cabinet at room temperature. Like with yours, mine were both rock hard when I put them in the fridge. One went in after 4 weeks. The initial pull was foamy, but kinda flat. I added a cart and saw a big difference the next day. After a few weeks, I had emptied the first one, though it took three carts to keep it carbed and flowing well. I put the second one in after roughly seven weeks of natural carbing and had a similar experience. The beer was carbonated well, but after one glass, the pressure was not enough to push the beer out more than a trickle. I added a cart and it was fine, though again, I think I had to use three carts to actually keep the beer from going flat and keep enough pressure in the thing to push it out at a decent rate. Overall, I had to use six carts for two mini kegs. At 2.00 a pop, I believe could have filled a five lb. tank with CO2, so this really isn’t cost effective. I’m going to fill one this batch and bottle the rest. Eventually, I will get into kegging, but right now I don’t have a second refrigerator and with all the snow we just got, I don’t have the desire to try to get one to my house and down in the basement.

Thanks for the info. I actually think I will be getting some keg equipment soon. I would still like to use these to take to football party's etc..

 

[brew2enjoy]

Well I pulled a couple more pints tonight and they are practically all foam. Any ideas?

 

[ibintinknockin]

Well I pulled a couple more pints tonight and they are practically all foam. Any ideas?

may be a dumb question but, are you pulling the handle all the way to you when you pour? because i know if you don't you get a lot of foam.

 

[smokewater]

may be a dumb question but, are you pulling the handle all the way to you when you pour? because i know if you don't you get a lot of foam.

That was my thought as well. The directions on the original Coors Beer box mentioned it.

 

[brew2enjoy]

may be a dumb question but, are you pulling the handle all the way to you when you pour? because i know if you don't you get a lot of foam.

Yeah I made sure it was open all the way.

 

[raf1919]

That is strange because I have opp problem no foam have close halfway at end to get some head

 

[dotsun]

Thanks for the awesome R & D! I'm enjoying English Pale Ale tonight from a Miller minikeg.

 

[jiggs_casey]

I've been collecting the Miller ones... I did a little bottling tonight! 9G of homebrew patiently aging...

 

[skyzo]

Nice! I've been wanting to keg for some time now, but didn't have the money to go full scale, so I think I'm going to try this. One question I have though, is do most people only have to use 1 16g cartridge to dispense all the beer? I've read through this entire thread, and I saw one person saying they needed 3 to dispense all the beer. Thats not very cost effective, since the cartridges cost like $2 a piece.
I plan on carbonating the beer naturally, not force-carbing.
Thanks

 

[ThreeRatBastards]

I carbed mine naturally as mentioned in the videos and was able to dispense fully with 1 cartridge. If you choose to force carb it, it will take 2 or more cartridges. My guess is that the person that used 3 either had a leak or force carbed.

 

[skyzo]

I carbed mine naturally as mentioned in the videos and was able to dispense fully with 1 cartridge. If you choose to force carb it, it will take 2 or more cartridges. My guess is that the person that used 3 either had a leak or force carbed.

Awesome thanks for the quick reply. Do you use threaded or non-threaded?