Corny Gas Bottles?

[Trough Lolly]

I was thinking about the pros and cons of buying a bigass CO2 bottle for my forthcoming keg system and I had this idea...

What about buying a BIG CO2 bottle (and hence get better value for my money when I refill the beast) and use a spare corny keg to hold CO2 for those occasions when I want to take a keg of beer to a party? :blink:

All I need to do is occasionally hook up the corny gas keg to the corny beer keg to maintain pressure for the duration of the party. It probably isn't a very elegant solution, but surely it would be better than drinking flat beer B)
Any comments from the kegging fraternity of my plan? h34r:

Cheers,
TL

 

[Tim]

Hi TL,
I have thought about this as well, but with the idea of harvesting CO2 from primary in a corny keg.
I thought/am still thinking about fermenting in a corny keg and having a gas disconnect with a line out going to a one way valve and pressure guage then collecting the gas in another corny (if this makes sense?). I dont know what kind of pressure i would collect, so some experimentation needs to be done.
I have even thought about just dumping three or four kg's of sugar in a corny with some water and yeast and letting a primary fermentation pressurise a keg. Then use this gas through an air line reg (cheap from supercheap auto or anywhere that sells compressed air tools) to dispense the beer. If the gas has a bit of a tainted taste you could put an inline carbon filter in to eliminate the odor.
I have a few other ideas such as placing a small air compressor (like a camping one to blow up air beds etc) in a sealed fermenter to compress the gas into a corny so i can get more in.

With gas being as expensive as it is, i realised that the cheapest source of gas is to make my own, but i think i'll wait till my current Air Liquide bottle is finished first!

anyone else thought of similar ideas?

 

[GMK]

i set a mate up with a 4 tier font on his bar back in canberra. He had a party and we could not get a gas bottle in time.

I also supplied him with a keg outside the fridge set up (SS T piece, Ball valve, 2m of gas line and a liquid disconect) - so for the party i filled a corny keg to 50 psi with CO2.
We then used teh corny keg to get throught the night with the ball valve setup to give teh 4 kegs in the fridge a very quick shot of gas when the dispensing presure got low.

Worked really well and there was heaps of gas/pressure left over.

Hope this helps....

 

[Doc]

Tim and others.

Checkout this topic at BrewBoard on making your own C02.

Beers,
Doc

 

[Tim]

Cheers Doc! Top link

 

[ozbrewer]

Why not invest in one of these\\http://www.morebeer.com/product.html?product_id=18301

 

[Trough Lolly]

G'day "ozbrewer", welcome aboard...

Yeah, they do the trick, and so do the Sodastream gas bottles with the thread adapter, but I'm not thinking of spending extra money, just using the gear that I have (or in the case of kegs, the gear that I hope to have soon)!!

Thanks for the URL, Doc - it was an interesting read, but I don't think I'll be converting my hot water system any time soon!!

Cheers,
TL

 

[dreamboat]

thanks doc...
that is the longest bloody link ever!!! 27 pages!!!


dreamboat
ps - them yanks are mad

 

[Wortgames]

I have often thought about using a keg for portable CO2, and making up an adaptor so that I can actually use a reg on the output. Most corny kegs are rated at 90 PSI or more (I think the screw-top Rheem kegs are about 110PSI), which is quite a lot of gas. Alternatively you could just pressure it up and use a gas-to-gas hose to give your beer keg a burst when it needs it.

As for a 'BIG' CO2 bottle though - you'll find that a normal VT cylinder lasts for absolutely ages (probably a year or so) unless you have a leak - and a leak is more expensive on a big bottle!

The sodastream option is a lot cuter though

 

[jgriffin]

I know a guy who used to work at Coke, and was around for the destruction of the thousands of corny kegs in Australia. I asked why they destroyed them , and he told me that intially they sold them. But then some fools decided to use them as pressure cylinders, and a few of them exploded. So to avoid litigation, CCA decided to destroy them instead. So be carefull and don't over fill them!

As an aside, he told me he took about 30 home. I asked whether he had any he wanted to sell, and he told me "nah, i cut them all up, they make great dog bowls". I was rather devestated.

 

[Hoops]

but I'm not thinking of spending extra money, just using the gear that I have (or in the case of kegs, the gear that I hope to have soon)!!

[post="54109"][/post]​

Soda Stream bottles work great but you would need to buy an adaptor and bottle (then pay for the refill or fill it yourself)

Small CO2 dispensers are again good but you will need to buy one, then buy the small CO2 cartridges.

For what you are looking for I don't think you could loose out trying to use a keg as a CO2 bottle. I would do a trial run at home with a spare keg, incase it didn't work (wouldn't want to be at a party/BBQ with a keg full of beer and can't get it out of the keg )
and I really like the idea of using a air regulator on the gas keg but unless you've already got one it's again more cost.

Give it a go, you've got nothing to loose
the only downside would be the size of having a second keg

Hoops

 

[Hoops]

to avoid litigation

:angry: God damn lawyers :angry:

they make great dog bowls

Absolute travesty :excl: