Building And Using Garden Sprayer Party Kegs

[Thirsty Boy]

In the interest of historical accuracy, converting a garden sprayer to a keg was covered by Graham Sanders on the Craftbrewer site about 6 years ago.

But of course it was - thats where I got the idea from for mine. Graham's site is the earliest mention I have found for this sort of thing, so as near as I can tell, the concept is his.

The refinement of the design to the form detailed in this thread is a little bit "general AHB" a little bit me and a lot of Spillsmostofit - and the writing of the guide documents at the start of this thread is a little bit Spillsmostofit and a lot of me.

And its not like the way we do it is even close to the only way it could be done - a look at the info on Grahams site shows you where it came from, and an AHB search on "Party Keg" will reveal probably a dozen variations on the theme

I just kind of assumed that people would be aware of that and took the compliments as credit for the work we had done .. not for an idea I didn't actually come up with. (although I did mention the fact in the opening post.)

Glad bigfridge clarified it for people who mightn't have known

TB

 

[katzke]

2 things to clear up.

1984, a book by George Orwell.

I emailed one of the sprayer companies over here, Root-Lowell. Could not nail the person down as to if they would drink out of one of the tanks but did get this. There is nothing harmful in the plastic. The entire question of is HDPE food grade is a bit murky at best. Guess sometimes a person just needs to not worry about stuff. I think I will run one down and try the conversion.

 

[flattop]

Look i don't want to weigh into the debate of if the device is good or not, but on the subject of food grade plastic i think that anything coming out of China is suspect atm.
Particularly childrens milk powder supposedly designed for human consumption.
If the Chinese would willingly taint milk powder to make a profit i wouldn't have any confidence in "food grade plastics".
China estimates 6 deaths and 294,000 injuries due to this error (and i wouldn't trust that data either), the EU has banned Milk, soya based foods and baking powder from importation

For those who didn't follow the story, the Chinese manufacturers of baby formula wanted to water down the powder to make more profit, so they added melamine to make up for the lost body.... the WHO has now made a ruling on safe levels due to this
http://news.theage.com.au/world/who-sets-f...81206-6smh.html

 

[dogger]

If you're worried about PE-HD, HDPE, MDPE or HPPE, then best to stop drinking coke from PET bottles, and mains/town water for that matter. For example - exactly the same Polyethylene is used in extruding pipe for both mains water and gas supply (the only difference is an external colour stripe); there's no cost (or other) advantages to be had in adding any heavy metal stablisers or other additives for that matter to "natural" PE (unlike PVC - which is used for plenty of water supply anyway).

PE is naturally an opaque white, so for these I'd suggest no concern even on pigments - just keep them out of the sun. PE is basically an inert compound, and apart from the the usual doomsayers about anything synthetic, perfectly safe. Even from China.

 

[Carbonator]

I know I'm responsible for alerting you good home-brewers to the danger of using garden sprayers for party beer dispensing, however, I know little about the actual plastic, it's components or manufacturing process and I understand the plastic may be food grade, but the processes, systems and safety may not be there to ensure a vessel manufactured for the sole intention of containing pesticides/herbicides would follow the strict "framework" for vessels intended for human food products.

I don't care what you do with the thing, as long as you are not a friend or relative of mine.

Apart from all that, GSB (Garden Sprayer Beer) is a great concept!

 

[geoffi]

Today I modified my four existing sprayer kegs using Thirsty Boy's chopping-board method. I'd had some problems with this setup, but I think this solves them all.

My setup is a bit different. The beer-out goes through the same outlet as the original sprayer hose, but I use a hose and bronco tap from Craftbrewer. The tyre valves are in the body of the sprayer. As that's the way I made them originally, I've left them there. I've used screws, nuts, washers to close the hole at the top, with some pieces of silicon baking tray to make the seal.

I've had them sitting at pressure now for about four hours, and they are holding up perfectly.

Fantastic post. I've got 14 litres of bitter and 21 litres of Aussie pale that will be finding their way into the kegs tomorrow.

Totally...totally...rocks.

 

[SpillsMostOfIt]

Update out of the Blue.

I've modified one of my party kegs to make it Better(tm). A short length of BEVA tube over the Gas-In valve stem and a John Guest joiner allows me to quickly attach gas without a tyre thing. Another short length of BEVA tube and a John Guest ball valve allows me to store the keglet without the tap attached (and all the other benefits you can think of).


I've put John Guest end stopper things in each of the JG fittings to keep insects out and increase the overall cost...

Link to Photo

 

[mtags]

I was thinking, if you put a bag inside the spray bottle so that the opening of the bag connects to your dip tube/liquid out, but the gas-in would be outside of the bag. Then could you pump air into the sprayer (during serving only, using a bicycle pump) and not spoil your beer. The point being that you would save the cost of co2.

You obviously couldn't force-carb with this setup. And the bag would have to be suitable for beverages (the bags that hold the wort in beer kits or the juice in wine kits would likely work).

This might be a crazy idea, but I thought I would see what people think.

 

[zabond]

sealing the bag to diptube/cleaning the bag might cause some probs,you may be able to use a bag/hd party baloon as the air chamber ie: fit it over the existing sprayer pump assy inside the sprayer then use the existing pump to inflate it,then you would only have to clean the outside of the bladder

 

[Thirsty Boy]

I was thinking, if you put a bag inside the spray bottle so that the opening of the bag connects to your dip tube/liquid out, but the gas-in would be outside of the bag. Then could you pump air into the sprayer (during serving only, using a bicycle pump) and not spoil your beer. The point being that you would save the cost of co2.

You obviously couldn't force-carb with this setup. And the bag would have to be suitable for beverages (the bags that hold the wort in beer kits or the juice in wine kits would likely work).

This might be a crazy idea, but I thought I would see what people think.

No idea how you would manage it physically - but conceptually its a perfectly sound idea. The Party Pig dispensing system does it this way I think, althoug with a chemical reaction inflating a plastic pouch. And it works right up to major commercial level - check out the Duotank which uses a bag of beer in a tank pressurized by air only.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Duotank#p/a/u/1/qE4S_0RdPg0

TB

 

[raven19]

Had one of these on the cards for a while now, and after seeing a fellow brewer's version at a recent case swap, I am confident of whipping one of these puppies up.

For a compact and easily portable system, I plan on using a mini keg charger as per this Linky, (for serving only - would carbonate beforehand using my normal reg and bottle).

Question however - with the above mini keg charger, are there suitable JG fittings to allow me to simply remove the quick disconnect part and feed the charger gas via tubing direct into the 'sprayer keg' ?

{Hope this Q makes sense?

In my planned portable keg version I am not introducing a 'gas in post' as such, just a tube in (probably with a on/off valve placed inline)}

 

[Thirsty Boy]

one of the reasons we chose to use a schrader valve in the design of our version of the sprayer kegs ... the keg charger you link to is the same sort of thing as a bicycle fast inflator.. but with added expense for the QD & conversion. If you use a schrader as gas in, you get a true valve, ie dont need a separate shut off valve, and one of these inflators will clip right on. You will find unaltered bicycle inflators like the one pictured here, on evilbay for $25ish or from bike shops.

Remember - you are planning on using unregulated C02. DO NOT screw with the pressure relief valve on the sprayer, and in fact make sure it is in good working order.

Kaboom = Bad !!! mkay

TB

 

[SpillsMostOfIt]

A car tyre valve and the screw fitting on a gas QD are different sizes. So, if you're looking to use the CO2 Keg Charger such as raven19 linked to and a tyre valve, you will need an adapter. I saw one once in SuperCheapAuto. Or, you can use the tyre inflator thing such as TB linked to.

Bear in mind that the plastic kegs are not rated to the same sorts of pressure as stainless steel beer kegs and behave differently when they explode. Best strategy to use here is to not make them explode. Regulated gas supply and pressure relief valves are definitely the way to go.

 

[raven19]

Cheers guys, appreciate your thoughts on this.

I have some more research to do on this, and I shall certainly be taking the safety side of this very seriously.

Cheers!

 

[mxd]

Hi All,

I am in the midst if trying to build 2 sprayer party kegs and am struggling to get the tubeless try valve, I have found one with rubber down the bottom, I bought 2 the had a threaded shaft below (as in would be in the tyre) but the nut and stuff (that would be in the sprayer bottle) is too big.

Has anyone seen a spot to buy the valves that work with the sprayer packs ?

cheers
Matt

 

[dpadden]

Hi All,

I am in the midst if trying to build 2 sprayer party kegs and am struggling to get the tubeless try valve, I have found one with rubber down the bottom, I bought 2 the had a threaded shaft below (as in would be in the tyre) but the nut and stuff (that would be in the sprayer bottle) is too big.

Has anyone seen a spot to buy the valves that work with the sprayer packs ?

cheers
Matt

Where do you live mxd? I have a couple of spare....

 

[mxd]

I'm in Mulgrave, Melbourne, did you get them from an auto store or internet ?

I just cut the chopping board, mmm, it's luck I do project management and not on the tools, I bought a cheap cutter and well let's say you can see it's cheap

thanks
Matt

 

[dpadden]

I'm in Mulgrave, Melbourne, did you get them from an auto store or internet ?

I just cut the chopping board, mmm, it's luck I do project management and not on the tools, I bought a cheap cutter and well let's say you can see it's cheap

thanks
Matt

Yeah from the tyre store, Jax I think it was. I just walked in, best to take a pic with you if you have one.

 

[mxd]

ok I bought some truck tyre valves they seem to work.

I have a massive leak through the "beer out" home made section. Could that be as a result of my terrible hole sawing ? Are peoples bulkhead holder "circle" very tight in the cap as mine is quite loose ?

cheers
Matt

 

[Lukes]

:lol:

In the interest of historical accuracy, converting a garden sprayer to a keg was covered by Graham Sanders on the Craftbrewer site about 6 years ago.

Show'n your brew'n age there bloke.....

BTW:
They are good for low serving pressure on low carb's (gas not gravity) and food grade petro gel and PTFE gas tape ( yes the thick yellow stuff ) are your friends for sealing the old home made party keg.

T'is the season but photo is quite old....

cheers. :chug: