What do I need with my pressure keg?

[woldsweather]

So I have racked 23 l of cider into a 23 l Wilcos pressure keg. Now I look at buying the valve and gas it looks like a minefield of different possibilities - what do I need?

 

[dyqik]

I have the relevant valves for a pressure barrel, as I was trying to build one as they are unavailable in the US. The only options using the pre-made valves for gas appear to the be the S30 cylinders or the tiny 8g cartridges. The pre-made valves have a _very_ proprietary fitting (M18x2.0 thread, with flats, and an internal o-ring in the middle of the fitting). At least you can buy the S30 cylinders in the UK...

Another option is to fit a ball-lock or pin-lock gas post to the plastic lid of the barrel, and use that to connect to a standard corny keg type gas setup. You can buy posts that connect to a NPT pipe thread, and use that to fit to the pressure barrel.

Or you can naturally carbonate in the pressure barrel, provided that your cider still has some viable yeast in it (you haven't added Campden tabs or sorbate, or pasteurized it).

 

[woldsweather]

Thanks for that. Not knowing what I was doing, but I had left it 'naturally carbonating' as you say. A man at the homebrewshop.co.uk has put me right and I have ordered a valve + 8g bottles.

I have the relevant valves for a pressure barrel, as I was trying to build one as they are unavailable in the US. The only options using the pre-made valves for gas appear to the be the S30 cylinders or the tiny 8g cartridges. The pre-made valves have a _very_ proprietary fitting (M18x2.0 thread, with flats, and an internal o-ring in the middle of the fitting). At least you can buy the S30 cylinders in the UK...

Another option is to fit a ball-lock or pin-lock gas post to the plastic lid of the barrel, and use that to connect to a standard corny keg type gas setup. You can buy posts that connect to a NPT pipe thread, and use that to fit to the pressure barrel.

Or you can naturally carbonate in the pressure barrel, provided that your cider still has some viable yeast in it (you haven't added Campden tabs or sorbate, or pasteurized it).

 

[dyqik]

Yeah, that's fine if you're going to naturally carbonate. You just want to replace the beer/cider that you run out of the barrel with CO2 rather than air.

Unfortunately, those little CO2 bulbs just release the whole thing into the barrel, and then the pressure relief valve lets your expensive CO2 back out again. The bigger cylinders are a better bet in the long run as you can reseal them once you've put enough CO2 into the barrel.

 

[woldsweather]

Right - steep learning curve here - they sound a total waste of time|!

Yeah, that's fine if you're going to naturally carbonate. You just want to replace the beer/cider that you run out of the barrel with CO2 rather than air.

Unfortunately, those little CO2 bulbs just release the whole thing into the barrel, and then the pressure relief valve lets your expensive CO2 back out again. The bigger cylinders are a better bet in the long run as you can reseal them once you've put enough CO2 into the barrel.