freezkat
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While I was in the process of building my fridge I though having a commercial setup would be nice. I was going to use a firestone pinlock keg I just bought but the seal was shot. Coincidentally, I just emptied that 1/6th barrel of Budweiser. I really didn't want to bottle another entire batch again. So I thought I would refill the Bud-keg.
The keeper ring is flat and there was no way I could could pull the spear without doing damage. I have a few commercial keg couplers. I knew I could adapt one to back-fill a commercial ball-tap keg.
I don't recommend doing this, because you can't clean it effectively. Technically, the keg hasn't ever had air in it. It never sat warm. It would continue to be cold. The beer was chilled just above freezing. I was willing to risk it.
Here's how I did it.
1. I disassembled and scrubbed the coupler with comet with bleach. Then rinsed with very hot water. Then soaked all the parts in Star-san.
2. I removed the Beer line barb and Nut. And fitted the commercial coupler with a little plastic adapter tube. If I would have been thinking straight, I could have just moved the Gas line barb. to the beer outlet. It's 5/16" ID is very close to my racking tube size. I also removed the check-valve ball.
3. I used a small wrench (spanner?) that just fit around the pin on the gas vent. Then took a slightly larger wrench and wedged that in also to hold the vent wide open.
4. I hooked up the coupler to the keg. Connected my racking tube and started filling.
While I was watching my secondary pour into this I realized I had no way to tell how much head-space would be left or if it would over fill. On faith, I assumed my bottling bucket gradients were accurate. a 1/6th barrel is 5.16 USGallons. I poured in all 5 gallons I measured.
5. I removed all the refilling equipment and moved the keg to my keggerator.
6. I connected the commercial coupler and set the gas to 12PSI.
7. I purged the co2 for a few seconds
8. Then I held the keg in my lap, kinda upside down and rocked it back and forth somewhat aggressively for 2 minutes. Till the bubbles slowed down.
9. Put the keg back in the fridge. 3 days later the carbonation was ok. As the next few days past it became perfect.
Just then a couple sets of corney seals showed up in the mail.
The keeper ring is flat and there was no way I could could pull the spear without doing damage. I have a few commercial keg couplers. I knew I could adapt one to back-fill a commercial ball-tap keg.
I don't recommend doing this, because you can't clean it effectively. Technically, the keg hasn't ever had air in it. It never sat warm. It would continue to be cold. The beer was chilled just above freezing. I was willing to risk it.
Here's how I did it.
1. I disassembled and scrubbed the coupler with comet with bleach. Then rinsed with very hot water. Then soaked all the parts in Star-san.
2. I removed the Beer line barb and Nut. And fitted the commercial coupler with a little plastic adapter tube. If I would have been thinking straight, I could have just moved the Gas line barb. to the beer outlet. It's 5/16" ID is very close to my racking tube size. I also removed the check-valve ball.
3. I used a small wrench (spanner?) that just fit around the pin on the gas vent. Then took a slightly larger wrench and wedged that in also to hold the vent wide open.
4. I hooked up the coupler to the keg. Connected my racking tube and started filling.
While I was watching my secondary pour into this I realized I had no way to tell how much head-space would be left or if it would over fill. On faith, I assumed my bottling bucket gradients were accurate. a 1/6th barrel is 5.16 USGallons. I poured in all 5 gallons I measured.
5. I removed all the refilling equipment and moved the keg to my keggerator.
6. I connected the commercial coupler and set the gas to 12PSI.
7. I purged the co2 for a few seconds
8. Then I held the keg in my lap, kinda upside down and rocked it back and forth somewhat aggressively for 2 minutes. Till the bubbles slowed down.
9. Put the keg back in the fridge. 3 days later the carbonation was ok. As the next few days past it became perfect.
Just then a couple sets of corney seals showed up in the mail.
