Party Kegs

[Duff]

winkle, not only a good party keg but a very good minature Dalek!

C&B
TDA

Gold!!

 

[KHB]

so i question to people out there using pressure sprayers connected to a tap shank, how do you fill you pressure sprayer??

 

[Thirsty Boy]

thirsty

how about if i use the method on there but put the hose into the end of the tap on the esky to fill it that way??

worth a try??

As long as you can get a pressure tight seal - I don't see why it wouldn't work

 

[geoffi]

winkle, not only a good party keg but a very good minature Dalek!

C&B
TDA

"Inebriate! Inebriate!"

 

[kabooby]

so i question to people out there using pressure sprayers connected to a tap shank, how do you fill you pressure sprayer??

I spent the extra money on mine and put on corny posts for gas and beer. That way I can do a complete closed transfer from a keg.

Kabooby

 

[KHB]

I just aquired a soda stream bottle and was wondering how safe it was to use one of the adapters to transfer from my co2 bottle to the soda stream bottle and how is it done??

 

[Guest Lurker]

I just aquired a soda stream bottle and was wondering how safe it was to use one of the adapters to transfer from my co2 bottle to the soda stream bottle and how is it done??

I have posted this before but I will happily do it again. It can be done safely at home and I have done it under the supervision of a qualified refrigeration engineer. But if you need to ask how, in my personal opinion you shouldnt be doing it, safer to exchange it. When a liquid turns into a gas, it needs an awful lot more room than it did before, and it isnt fussy about how it creates the room it needs.

 

[gerald]

i have a party keg setup.

19L corny keg, celli chrome tap, and im gonna be using the c02 bulbs that have a co2 dispenser that plugs straight into the gas in post on the keg.

my question is, if i have primed the beer in the keg, how much c02 do i need to get the beer out of the keg, and how long does it take to cool a keg in a bin (which also has my tap mounted on it and looks totally sexy) full of ice?

thanks

 

[mynameisrodney]

Has anyone bought one of these recently? I went to Bunnings today looking for one and the largest "aqua pressure" one they had was a little 2L watering can type one for $6. So I'm thinking that the price of the whole range has most likely gone up (if i can even find one somewhere else).

Looking around the other sprayers though i noticed a hozelock sprayer. It was listed as 8L fluid capacity 10L total volume. I figure the extra 2L must be to do with the space needed by the hand pump. is this correct? so maybe get 9L into one of these?

It was a fair whack more expensive at $46 but it is rated to 45psi as opposed to 25psi for the "aqua pressure" ones. So I guess the important question to all you party keg owners is do you think the extra 20psi is worth the extra $25ish? There was discussion earlier about the party kegs being unsuitable for lagers and such. I take it 45psi would fix this yeah?

Cheers,
Chris

 

[bouncingcastle]

Check dodgy asian shops mate... you will pick up the sprayer you are looking for for about $10 (thats where I got mine)

Cheers.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

The plastic kegs do go in and out of stock a bit at Bunnings - wait a few weeks and they (or something very very similar) usually comes back into stock.

20ish PSI is absolutely plenty of pressure for any beer that you care to put in a party keg - all the way up to a Hefe at 4 volumes of C02. The 20ish PSI is only a problem if you want to naturally carbonate in the keg. If you are naturally carbonating in the keg, then you will struggle to get more than 2 volumes of C02 into the beer if the kegs pressure valve is operating correctly. Even less if you allow the temperature of the keg to get over about 15 or 16C

Chill and force carbonate the party keg and you can put any beer you want into one.

TB

 

[afromaiko]

Aldi have them too from time to time, usually at a good price.

 

[Carbonator]

Are these spray bottles made in places like China made of food grade plastic?

Is the manufacturing process, machine making them, storage, handling and transport having regard to preventing contaminants, poisons or carcinogens coming in contact with the product before it lands on the shelf of you favorite spray bottle retailer?

Do they have a perfectly smooth interior without seams to prevent organisms from getting a hidee-hole foot hold inside?

After that, you may find a nice smooth one, but we all know most machines have some form of metal, requiring additional lubrication to prevent corrosion, so how do you know if the lubrication for the machine creating the bottle has not been absorbed by the plastic and remains held in suspension within the porosity of such until your favorite brew comes into contact with the plastic and the lubrication stuff happens to like your brew too and mixes with it, but not your soap and water or sterilising/sanitising products.

There is a reason why there is a difference between Food Grade plastic and Garden Chemical spray bottle plastic!

 

[hockadays]

these are the qs I started asking so I bought a SS half size keg. My two garden sprayers are used for poisen now.

 

[mynameisrodney]

20ish PSI is absolutely plenty of pressure for any beer that you care to put in a party keg - all the way up to a Hefe at 4 volumes of C02. The 20ish PSI is only a problem if you want to naturally carbonate in the keg.

Ahh yes should have added that I will be naturally carbonating the keg. is the 45psi high enough for that?

Cheers
Chris

 

[Thirsty Boy]

45psi will be plenty for natural carbonation -

its a matter of the ability of the beer to absorb C02 at a given temperature. For natuaral carbonation you will need to have the keg at say 18C and at 18C beer will absorb 3.8 volumes of C02 @ 45psi - so enough for anything up to a weizen.

But remeber... if you let the keg get any warmer, it releases gas out of solution and the beer will go flat.

Your 45psi keg will hold in a "normal" beer at about 2.5 volumes up till 36C so you are OK.

Here is a little chart of the volumes your 45psi keg will hold in at various temperatures

18C - 3.8
20C - 3.6
22C - 3.4
24C - 3.3
26C - 3.1

so no real need to worry as long as you dont leave the thing in the shed on a hot day.

You are condemning yourself to cloudy beer by naturally carbonating though - its a party keg, the sediment is going to get shaken up if you take it to a party.

Hope that helps a little

TB

 

[flattop]

Carbonator is right
On the China plastic thing there has been heaps in the news about the Chinese putting truckloads of formaldehyde in their plastics... causes cancer
Now i know that we are all on a personal crusade to self embalm via beer consumption but formaldehyde is not the go.
For those who are not sure what i am on about
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,,24571998-2,00.html
Anyhow the article mentions furniture, paneling, clothing.... It's no great stretch of the imagination to see that it could also be in plastics and rubber products from overseas.

Do you really want to down a brew laced with formaldehyde?

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Perhaps I do? Or perhaps I am an adult that also has access to the internet, newspapers and television - and if I am still asking questions about using the plastic sprayers as kegs, I have already decided that I find the risk acceptable.

 

[mynameisrodney]

flattop, if you were that worried about formaldehyde you wouldn't be drinking homebrew in the first place. Your body breaks down methanol to form formaldehyde with every glass you drink. Thats where the whole "homebrew makes you go blind" thing comes from. Too much methanol => too much formaldehyde => pickling of all your organs, the thing is that people will notice a 10% drop in eye sight a lot quicker than they will notice a 10% drop in liver/kidney function etc.

As TB says, it is an acceptable risk.

 

[~MikE]

hmm i'll look into the formaldehyde quantitative test, if it's easy enough and the lab has all the shit needed i'll try it on my party keg i've yet to use/wash...