Mini Keg Discussion / Mods / Show Off - Dedicated Thread

[mstrelan]

This is from my BeerKat keg after tipping out 3L of beer. Rice only, no chemicals. The finger test feels mostly smooth and looks fine. If I hold the phone torch on the right angle I can see what looks like a bullseye on the inside on each of the spots where the top is joined on the outside. The centre of these is black and can't tell if it's hollow, looks like a drill hole but could be an optical illusion. Around this is an almost perfect circle which is not as dark and kind of looks burnt.

 

[mstrelan]

I did the rice a second time with just water. It's shown in the smaller glass.

 

[Jack of all biers]

Are we sure that it isn't Starsan that is the culprit here, I noticed on the Beerkat thread that someone had left their taps on for a 24 hours rinse in starsan and the internals discolored where the Starsan had pooled, Starsan is a 2 minute rinse I believe.

That was me and that was to do with my stupidity and thin chrome plating. Nothing to do with this issue, although mstrelan also has discovered a black residue on his beerkat mini keg. This has me worried as my 2 beerkat ones are almost two weeks in to a natural carb. Away for the next couple of days but come the weekend I'll be sampling. I'm still convinced this is a weld & QC issue, which is not great, and not an issue with the stainless material quality. All the talk of re passivating is not necessarily a great idea as my earlier pics show poor quality welds lead to further corrosion later on. Also has no one tried to get a small mirror into theirs yet to see rather than feel the dodgy welds?

 

[Zorco]

One of those dental mirrors, I don't think I have one

 

[Jack of all biers]

Just pipped me mstrelan. Yep, what you described sounds like the spot welds holding the grips on. Exactly the same as I described earlier being visible heat markings on the outside of mine.

Now I'm really nervous. Only 10L I guess. If my first pour even smells funny, I'm not risking it.

 

[mstrelan]

The markings are on the inside of mine.

 

[Batz]

9lt keg used many, many times over the years.
Lets not forget what happens to rice put into water and mixed for 5 minutes my guess that's the milky looking stuff here.

Just saying.

 

[Zorco]

Yeah, but no grey/black tones

 

[Jack of all biers]

Yep, understand, but I can't get to the inside of mine and heat markings on the outside can be an indicator of sugaring of the weld on the inside. It may not be, but given pickling should remove the heat markings, it's concerning to see.

 

[Batz]

Yeah, but no grey/black tones

Just posting the findings.

See my other tests with the mini kegs.

 

[Coldspace]

Just got home and wow, after seeing this thread unfold,
I've got 3 minis filled with beer for camping next week.
1 with a really light rice style lager and the other 2 with lc pale ale . I filled these to the max under pressure from my big kegs, so alittle seeped out the relief valves. Anyway they are full to the neck . I'll leave them till Friday as I filled them last night. I'll try a pot off them each on Friday and see what happens . These kegs were from the second bulk buy, they haven't been used since jan, I rinsed them yest arvo with just hot water, light spray with starsan, then shaken out and pressure filled 2 mins later.

My 4th is empty, I'll do rice test with it tomm after work.

hope these hold up, but going on others here not looking good, but keen to find out what's happening

 

[Zorco]

Rice in and full to the brim.

Just noticed the ordinary weld on my third (met) keg.

All met and perc rinsed with three fill ups with cold water each.

 

[Coldspace]

I also have 2 with slight imperfection welds on the neck and 2 that look ok.
All were from same buy,
Will report back when I pour a beer

 

[peteru]

Happy?? No, sort of wish I did not own 5 of these f&cking things right now.

When compared to my results, your kegs are squeaky clean!

If my rice rinse test came up that clean I probably wouldn't have even raised the issue.

 

[Zorco]

Happy?? No, sort of wish I did not own 5 of these f&cking things right now.

Premature I would like to point out; we don't event know why it is doing what it's doing.

If it can't be solved, then I'd jump on board with this.

Heading down to see test results

 

[Zorco]

Fine - fine - fine

Now I want to see if sanitiser reacts with the starch in the rice to make a black product, and perc etc

 

[Zorco]

Very dilute sanitiser - perc - met

Perc and met have turned the rice juice a lot more yellow

I'm out of concentrate sanitiser so can't do the test I want. Will try later

 

[Coldspace]

Good experiment Zorco, keen to see more results, something's going on,

 

[Dae Tripper]

Going in with a endoscope as soon as it turns up in the post. Will post the results soon.

Zorco, the right one looks discolored.

 

[peteru]

Now I want to see if sanitiser reacts with the starch in the rice to make a black product, and perc etc

From my tests, a 5 minute shake of rice and properly mixed Starsan will not blacken the rice.