sanke kegs??

[Plumeja]

i was wondering how hard this are to use in home brewing. just talked to the local brew shop and he said that it is a hard way to go about it so i was looking for in put. i have used the Cornelius kegs before and realize that they are easy but i can get free sanke kegs.
thanks

 

[Natdavis777]

I think the main thing is sanitizing the keg and transferring beer into it. There are special tools used to depress the ball valve and clean/sanitize the inside, which isn't really practical for the homebrewing community. It's also not as cut and dry to use your auto siphon to transfer beer from the carboy into a sanke.

If you can get them free, look into converting them to MLTs and BKs. I have a keggle system and love it.

If you know any of the brewers at any of the local breweries, I would see if they would fill the kegs for you. That's what my brother and I do with our 1/6 barrel kegs




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[WildTim]

SO go into the keggle business.

 

[wilserbrewer]

I have used sanke kegs for years for home brew. They work very well, search around a bit on how to remove and replace the spear with a small screwdriver, and replacing with pliers / channel locks.
Replacing spear here...
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/installing-retaining-ring-sanke-keg-64128/

I think the sanke kegs are more sturdy and less prone to leaks...JMO.

 

[Backslide]

I have used sanke kegs for years for home brew. They work very well, search around a bit on how to remove and replace the spear with a small screwdriver, and replacing with pliers / channel locks.
Replacing spear here...
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/installing-retaining-ring-sanke-keg-64128/

I think the sanke kegs are more sturdy and less prone to leaks...JMO.

I totally agree. I started brewing/kegging less than 6months ago and have only used Sanke 1/6th's. It really eerks me when people complain about how hard it is to keg in em (it's not). It's also just as easy to clean. People that say they're harder prob has never done it or us just parroting what they've read elsewhere. The other benefit to kegging in commercial kegs is the ability to share your brew with friends. Most of my friends have commercial kegerators, it's nice to gift a keg of brew to a buddy.

I also like the styling of the coulpers and kegs themselves, much better looking than 25year old repurposed soda containers IMHO.

Jason

 

[Backslide]

I think the main thing is sanitizing the keg and transferring beer into it. There are special tools used to depress the ball valve and clean/sanitize the inside, which isn't really practical for the homebrewing community. It's also not as cut and dry to use your auto siphon to transfer beer from the carboy into a sanke.

If you can get them free, look into converting them to MLTs and BKs. I have a keggle system and love it.

If you know any of the brewers at any of the local breweries, I would see if they would fill the kegs for you. That's what my brother and I do with our 1/6 barrel kegs




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All you need to do is let the keg sit in oxyclean for an hr or so, rinse well, add starsan. I wouldn't call this difficult at all.
Humm, you don't need a special tool at all! Where did you get this information? All you need is pliars, and a standard screwdriver. It takes about 35sec to remove the spear and about 90sec to install it.

You can auto siphon from your fermenter right into the keg with no issues what so ever, again false information. You only need an extra coupler with the check valves removed if you want to do keg to keg transfers or your to lazy to remove the spear.

Jason

 

[Natdavis777]

All you need to do is let the keg sit in oxyclean for an hr or so, rinse well, add starsan. I wouldn't call this difficult at all.
Humm, you don't need a special tool at all! Where did you get this information? All you need is pliars, and a standard screwdriver. It takes 35sec to remove the spear and about 90sec to install it.

You can auto siphon from your fermenter right into the keg with no issues what so ever, again false information. You only need an extra coupler with the check valves removed if you want to do keg to keg transfers or your to lazy to remove the spear.

Jason

Maybe I'm too lazy, or as with the majority of the homebrew community I find corney kegs easier. I wasn't trying to provide false info. I can see if you remove the ball valve, how one could could siphon into it. Yet again, I don't see any home brewers that I know, or even on this site touching up on the subject. Maybe because they too find it somewhat of a hassle.

You've been brewing for 6 months, congratulations. You seem to have it all figured out by your overly confident response. Maybe when you ask a question here or respond to a post and you aren't 100% correct, someone else can respond to you in a similar fashion...


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[ajdelange]

I switched over to Sanke about 10 yrs ago and never looked back. Filling them is not at all difficult. Just remove pea and gas check valve from a coupler, replace with manual valves and fill against CO2 counter pressure using a needle valve and pressure gauge on the gas port.

Cleaning is easily facilitated by putting together a rig that pumps hot caustic (and later phosphoric/nitric acid rinse then rinse water) up the spear, from a tank thereof into which same tank the liquid drains from the gas port of the same coupler used for filling.

Removal/replacement of the spear is facilitated with the proper tool but can be done without it. Disassembly of the spear is done easily by drilling a hole in a 2 x 4 and screwing in 3 screws 120 ° apart. Push the spear onto those 3 screws enough to compress the its spring and turn.

 

[sumbrewindude]

Only major large con I can think about with Sanke kegs are the initial buy in for low volume kegs (5gal and under). For kegs over 5gal, Sanke's definitely the way to go. After that it's just like any other keg in terms of cleaning. As a small batch brewer I didn't consider them, but now I see GEB's offering 10L kegs for sale - and that's pretty awesome.

You can't do the cool "dryhop in the keg" thing as easily, but I'm starting to lean the Randell route over more crap in the keg anyway.

If I had access to free Sanke's, you could be sure I'd have a Keggle/Tun for a bottom drain Brutus20 setup, a couple half barrel's setup for pressure fermenting, and more than few quarter slims/sixtel's for serving.

:rockin: