Hi all,
A bit of gear I've found very useful & have been fettling for a while is the home made carbonation cap.
After a discussion with Quintrex at the Vic Xmas case swap, thought it might be a good general interest topic.
Carbonation caps are great for carbonating straight from fermenter / secondary, adjusting carb levels in beers run off to pet bottles, or just to extend the life of beers run off to pet.
Core ingredient is the mag wheel valve
Our local tyre bloke has been happy to pass these on at about $1 apiece, 20 at a time on the understanding a couple of samples come back his way.
To convert this into a carb cap, simply take a pet lid (i've found the coopers ones most successful), drill a 12mm hole in centre (spade bit works well) & screw valve in place. I've found it useful to use the neck off a pet bottle to hold cap & stop liner from coming loose when drilling
The final part of the puzzle is a gas line adapter.
After a bit of experimentation with soda stream plungers, a couple of exploded bottles (not pretty, but no major injuries), I cobbled together an adaptor as pictured. Air chuck & tail from Repco approx $11, corny post & tail from G & G approx $40. A bit more than the initial budget allowed for, but much safer than an unregulated gas source & ongoing cost of individual caps is very low.
Current setup works well & has been a useful addition to the kegging armoury.
Hope some of you find this useful.
Cheers,
Mark
A bit of gear I've found very useful & have been fettling for a while is the home made carbonation cap.
After a discussion with Quintrex at the Vic Xmas case swap, thought it might be a good general interest topic.
Carbonation caps are great for carbonating straight from fermenter / secondary, adjusting carb levels in beers run off to pet bottles, or just to extend the life of beers run off to pet.
Core ingredient is the mag wheel valve
Our local tyre bloke has been happy to pass these on at about $1 apiece, 20 at a time on the understanding a couple of samples come back his way.
To convert this into a carb cap, simply take a pet lid (i've found the coopers ones most successful), drill a 12mm hole in centre (spade bit works well) & screw valve in place. I've found it useful to use the neck off a pet bottle to hold cap & stop liner from coming loose when drilling
The final part of the puzzle is a gas line adapter.
After a bit of experimentation with soda stream plungers, a couple of exploded bottles (not pretty, but no major injuries), I cobbled together an adaptor as pictured. Air chuck & tail from Repco approx $11, corny post & tail from G & G approx $40. A bit more than the initial budget allowed for, but much safer than an unregulated gas source & ongoing cost of individual caps is very low.
Current setup works well & has been a useful addition to the kegging armoury.
Hope some of you find this useful.
Cheers,
Mark
