Using 5 gallon cornies for 2.5 gallons of beer

[wetzie]

I am starting to keg my beer but want to take some to parties. I have several 5 gl kegs. Is it possible to put 2.5 gl in a 5 gl keg? Will it carb properly? I am thinking of buying a 2.5 gl keg soon but wanted to be sure.
Thank you

 

[poptarts]

yea it will work fine, you kind of waste a little bit of co2 but thats the only down fall.

 

[beersk]

It's harder to make sure the lids are sealed. Use some keg lube on the o-ring and make sure you purge the keg plenty. The downside is as poptarts describes...

 

[chickypad]

It's harder to make sure the lids are sealed. Use some keg lube on the o-ring and make sure you purge the keg plenty. The downside is as poptarts describes...

Why is it harder to check the lid seal? You can do that on an empty keg.

 

[beersk]

Why is it harder to check the lid seal? You can do that on an empty keg.

Just is in my experience. More headspace to fill which creates less pressure on the lid. I don't know, maybe I was doing something wrong, but using keg lubed pretty much solved the problem.

My only other worry is oxidation, but I don't think that's much of an issue if you just give the headspace a good few purges with 30 PSI.

 

[chickypad]

It will only create less pressure if you don't let it fill. Once it hits equilibrium the pressure is what it is, it will seal the same whether the keg is empty or not. Of course you will use more gas as already pointed out.

 

[Agentaaron]

Do you plan on kegging full 5 gallon batches? I recently sold 6 of my 5 gallon kegs on Craigslist to turn around a buy 3 gallon kegs from adventures in home brewing. Still ended up with 6 kegs and some money in my pocket for other stuff.

I like to bottle half my batches because they are easier to transport...and I like the look of a well labeled bottle for presentation