sengsational said:If I get "too many" I would do it, but based on what I've seen so far, I doubt there's going to be many left. In fact, local folks are coming out of the woodwork here, interested in these units. I'm actually glad for the interest because if we get enough of us (locals) using these, we can pool our funds for a large buy of cartridges to get the unit cost down.
Anyone use the nitrous carts? I am using them now, and with my naturally carbed stout the TAD is still rock hard after i used only 1 n20 cart in the begginging and i only have 1/3 left in the bottle.
Anyone know the dimensions of the dispensing tube for the TAD?
It would seem to me that if there were a leak around where the tap went onto the bottle, you'd have a puddle of beer in your fridge. So it must be where the CO2 cartridge makes contact with the embedded regulator, or between the regulator and the 'tank'. It could also be that the CO2 cartridge you used didn't really contain 8gm (factory defect?). I'd try it again, maybe put a little pad of something in the bottom of the cartridge holder to raise it up a little bit (so you don't have to turn it quite as many turns to get it to fully engage). It goes without saying you need to crank down on that thing pretty hard so the gas doesn't escape...Left it back in the fridge over the weekend and come Monday I pull the tap again and very little beer came out from it.
Another possibility that I should have mentioned...I've never only left one cartridge installed. Even if I knew the other one was empty, I left it installed. Did you have no cartridge on the other side? If so, I wouldn't do that. Since there's no guarantee the two sides don't interact, if I only wanted one active cartridge, I'd go with an empty one in the other slot....come Monday I pull the tap again and very little beer came out from it.
Another idea occurred to me after I had "very little beer (come) out". Today, I tapped (using a MHD tap w/16 gram CO2) a double IPA that I had dry hopped. Almost no beer came out, and I know I didn't loose any gas. What happened was a bit of gunk (hop leaf) got stuck in the inlet, and it wouldn't pour Nothing came out at all! I ended-up pulling off the MHD tap (wasting my CO2) and putting on the TAD. For now, I'm not leaving the bottle horizontal when I pour...I tilt it up at a 45 degree angle for a minute and let any hop particles settle before pouring while tilted. I plan to rig a clearing wire if it happens again.Left it back in the fridge over the weekend and come Monday I pull the tap again and very little beer came out from it.
No doubt. Even before the change-over to the 16 gram, certain components were identical.I'm wondering if the company making Tap a Draft is making them for Coors as well? Hmm...
Alright, tapped my first TAD today... a Peach wheat that I had naturally carbing for almost 2 months. Did a couple of things wrong when doing this... for starters I put the TAD top on when the beer was room temp. I know... stupid.
When i first screwed in the cartridge i heard a hiss... then I heard lots of bubbles in the TAD keg... lots of bubbles. After doing some research i saw that the beer should be cold when adding the cartridge... so i threw it in the freezer for 20 and then in the fridge. Seemed to cool it down quickly.
Drew some off of the tap about three hours ago and it came out fine. Went to dinner, came back and it was completely flat and almost no beer came out.
so... thoughts? other than i did a number of things wrong which to me dont add up to flat beer, is this normal?
Alright, tapped my first TAD today... a Peach wheat that I had naturally carbing for almost 2 months. Did a couple of things wrong when doing this... for starters I put the TAD top on when the beer was room temp. I know... stupid.
When i first screwed in the cartridge i heard a hiss... then I heard lots of bubbles in the TAD keg... lots of bubbles. After doing some research i saw that the beer should be cold when adding the cartridge... so i threw it in the freezer for 20 and then in the fridge. Seemed to cool it down quickly.
Drew some off of the tap about three hours ago and it came out fine. Went to dinner, came back and it was completely flat and almost no beer came out.
so... thoughts? other than i did a number of things wrong which to me dont add up to flat beer, is this normal?
followed your suggestions... when taking out the old carts they released more air... put 2 new ones in... not a good start to my first outing with these.
An update to the cap thing. The Northern Brewer liquid malt extract caps with the added rubber gasket started leaking on me: . The one on the left: leaks. The one on the right: no leak. Besides the metal caps and the rather expensive polyseal caps, what I have found to work well are the plastic caps from the 3L soda bottles. Haven't gotten to the point of reusing any of these caps except the polyseal ones. They have the 3L bottles at the dollar store for, you guessed it, a dollar. I got a couple of these yesterday (since the homebrew store was closed, and the dollar store was a much shorter drive). I chilled the bottles in the freezer, donated the full bottles at my neighborhood pool, but not before removing the capsWhat I do is put a balloon over the capped 6L bottle when it's bottle conditioning. That way, if I see a balloon fill-up, I know I need to tighten the cap. Just to give you an idea of how hard I've had to screw them on, I've had to use pliers to get them off. Different caps make a big difference how tightly they have to be torqued-down. NB liquid malt extract caps are the right size, and I've made rubber seals for those caps, and that seems to work. The first time I used new poly seal caps, they worked great, but the next time, I had to torque down one of them.
Besides the metal caps and the rather expensive polyseal caps, what I have found to work well are the plastic caps from the 3L soda bottles. Haven't gotten to the point of reusing any of these caps except the polyseal ones. They have the 3L bottles at the dollar store for, you guessed it, a dollar. I got a couple of these yesterday (since the homebrew store was closed, and the dollar store was a much shorter drive). I chilled the bottles in the freezer, donated the full bottles at my neighborhood pool, but not before removing the caps
You know the bottles work too. The TAD head fits right on them.
Yep, but the TAD bottles and the MHD bottles are both considered "barrier" bottles, in that they have a layer to prevent O2 and CO2 migration. They're also (obviously) colored to prevent skunking. And since I've got a supply of used MHD bottles, I haven't gone to the 3L ones. I must admit, I do have one that I didn't throw in the recycling, in case I've got some unexpected need.You know the bottles work too. The TAD head fits right on them.
The recommendation is to use half the normal priming sugar, but I used between 2/3 and the full amount. I think the keys to success are to chill before tapping, take as much beer out of the 6L before you put any CO2 on (be very patient), put one CO2 cartridge on at a time (no need to risk more CO2 than you have to, in case of an "incident"), make sure you have clean beer to prevent clogs (or like me with my dry hopped chunkville, put plastic window screen on the intake), and I'm sure I'm missing other keys. But this thread should provide them all. If I wasn't actively telling folks to use the MHD kegs instead of TAD, you might think I worked for 'em.This sound alright or should I use a different amount of priming sugar.
I am having trouble with TAD because the hose sits right in the funk on the bottom. The beers I get from the regular bottles are clear but the TAD is cloudy. I carb in the TAD bottles. I know someone fashioned a filter and I have thought of raising the end of the tube 1/4" off the bottom with an o ring or something. Anybody have an easy fix, maybe share a picture?
Thanks,
Jeff
I am having trouble with TAD because the hose sits right in the funk on the bottom. The beers I get from the regular bottles are clear but the TAD is cloudy. I carb in the TAD bottles. I know someone fashioned a filter and I have thought of raising the end of the tube 1/4" off the bottom with an o ring or something. Anybody have an easy fix, maybe share a picture?
After more research I see post #54 that there is a weight on the end that can be moved in to keep it out of the trub. My TAD purchased about 3 months ago, 2 8gr catridge version, seems to have the weight encased in plastic and it won't move, anybody else have this?
I'm with Cheshire on this one. Seems like, too, you might try to be a little more careful in the bottling process...if you're not doing bottle carbonation, there really shouldn't be that much yeast, so the funk you have probably came through when you bottled.I am having trouble with TAD because the hose sits right in the funk on the bottom.
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