Parties & kegs

[Doc]

I have a party coming up that I'm brewing for.
I will be kegging the beer, but want to know how you guys handle kegs at parties.

My current thought is that I have should make a long beer line wind it in a coil, and put it in an esky filled with ice. I have a spare tap that I could mount on something. This should cool the beer without having to keep the keg cold yes?

What about providing some pressure to dispense the beer? Don't want to take my VT size gas bottle if I can avoid it. I'd imagine the keg would be gone in an afternoon, so maybe a bike pump arrangement?

Look forward to your ideas.

Cheers,
Doc

PS: A local brew shop used to have small 10 litre kegs and they also had a regulator that would take a soda stream bottle. That would be ideal, but from memory the regulator with that fitting was quite expensive. For the amount I'm mobile with kegs the outlay is not worth it.

 

[GMK]

Party Kegs

I friend of mine was in the same dilema....this is what we did.

Buy an old soda stream bottle setup...Garage sales etc...really cheap now.
Pull out the mechanism. Attach a gas disconnect to the end of the tube and fit a soda stram cartridge to the mechanism at the other end as per normal. Keep the trigger mechanism as this allows you to inject CO2 into the keg as/and when the dispensing pressure starts to drop.

Buy a cheap plastic tap with 3m of line and attach a liquid disconect to it..
Note: a beer gun is better.

Buy a plastic garbage bin. The kegs fits in there nicely and you can pack 4 bags of ice around the
keg to keep the beer cold.
Gas the beer as normal, use the soda stream cartridge assembly to dispense the beer only, injecting CO2 as needed when the presure drops...there is not enough CO2 in the cartridge to gas the beer.

All up, without the beer gun, should get everything around $55.00...

Hope this helps.

 

[Doc]

Thanks Ken. That sounds like a cunning little plan.
Now on the lookout for a soda stream machine.
I have a spare tap. Should only have to buy a length of beer line and a couple of disconnects.
As long as I can source the soda stream machine I'll put it all together, take some photos and post them.

Beers,
Darren

 

[Doc]

HELP !!!!!!!!!!

Ok, I've been on the hunt for an old soda stream machine.
Have come close to getting one on ebay, but got outbid at the last moment.
Have done the second hand shops and trading post and online auction sites.
Have asked work mates, family and friends.

Seems everyone has already sold theirs at garage sales.

So does anyone out there have an old one with gas bottle that you are prepared to part with?

Need to have it all up and running for next weekend (25th Jan).

TIA,
Doc

 

[RegBadgery]

A ten litre keg would be great - don't want a separate kegging fridge - I reckon a 10 litre would fit in my regular fridge ok. I've seen lots of 19 litre kegs about. Do smaller kegs exist?

As for the esky - I've read that this works very well - think in the US it's called a "jockey box"

In fact I think I recently read a posting from someone who permanently dispenses from a keg via a jockey box.

By gee you can get just about anything ready made in the US

http://www.beveragefactory.com/draftbeer/j...s/process.shtml

http://www.stpats.com/towers.htm#picnic



cheers
reg

 

[Doc]

yeah I've seen those jockey box things.
I've also seen 10 litre kegs in Aus.

The thing is you still have to get the beer out of the keg.
Ideally with CO2.

Saw brand new curvy soda stream machines at KMart yesterday but they are $96.
Jeez, I just need the gas bottle, fittings and button.

Beers,
Doc

 

[Doc]

Just found this information.
However don't really want to use air.

Do BigW just sell the soda stream bottles without doing a swap?
I'm sure you could get a little gas tap and hook that up.

Cheers,
Doc

 

[Doc]

This is my final solution to the problem.
I bought one of those corny beer keg chargers in the US last week.
As I expected I had trouble getting the cartridge out of the country.
So does anyone know where I can purchase these refil cartridges in Sydney.
Note: they are 12 gram NON threaded.

TIA,
Doc

 

[kook]

This is my final solution to the problem.
I bought one of those corny beer keg chargers in the US last week.
As I expected I had trouble getting the cartridge out of the country.
So does anyone know where I can purchase these refil cartridges in Sydney.
Note: they are 12 gram NON threaded.

TIA,
Doc

I'd check around your supermarkets. They look like standard cream chargers. Most supermarkets now sell CO2 cream chargers rather than NO2.

 

[Doc]

I have found a source for them.
If anyone is interested check out Swim Bike Run .
Their site has a picture of threaded cartridges, but after emailing them they say they have both.

Cheers,
Doc

 

[RegBadgery]

Thanks for the info, Doc. It's good to know in advance any info relating to potential import problems.

cheers
reg

 

[Doc]

Have also just received the info for the Australia distributor.

GKA Sports Distribution
Unit 2/ 39 Foden Avenue
Campbellfield, Victoria 3061
Tel: 61 3930-88000

Interesting enough the people that make the product say you can also use the bigger cartridges

--- snip ----
the keg charger can use 12g nonthread, or 16g and 25g
threaded (you would just use the head of the pump, not the cup and screw
the cartridge on).
--- snip ----

Cheers,
Doc

 

[Doc]

Found the ideal portable keg cooling system for parties.
Check it out at Morebeer here.
Unfortunately it is for 3gal kegs.

However I have seen wheelie bin conversions for the same thing.

Beers,
Doc

 

[Thunderlips]

An old thread but I've just come across it after looking into a party keg setup myself. Instead of some kind of portable CO2 setup, what do people think of a keg air pump like the one at this US store?
Scroll down about halfway and you'll see it there for $25US.
https://hoptech.com/index2.html?https://hop...om/kegging.html

 

[Thunderlips]

Ah, I just read the link that Doc left regarding the hand pump.
Forget my post

 

[Doc]

Check out these guys as well if for nothing more than ideas.

Beers,
Doc

 

[Hoops]

That's a great idea. How much are those style of eskys though?

 

[big d]

top idea.
are those cut down kegs to suit coolers available anywhere in oz or do we need to import from the usa.?

cheers
big d

 

[Guest Lurker]

Here is my solution to kegs and parties. It had its first outing at Sandgroptoberfest and worked OK.

After thinking about it, I decided I didnt want the hassle of decanting to a smaller keg. I wanted to be able to pull a keg out of the serving fridge, have a portable way of serving it at a party, even if I only pull 2 pints out of it, then take it home and whack it back in the serving fridge.

So no air driven systems and no mini kegs. The simplest answer seemed to be a wheely keg from a rubbish bin.

Replaced the top with some floorboards to make a bar surface, and added a stubbie cooler to the outside for insulation.

 

[Guest Lurker]

Used an adaptor from good old Hoops to get a soda stream bottle and small single gauge reg into the keg. And guess what? Finally used my flow restrictors from the Roach Bulk buy!