Yet another comes back to the fold

Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum

Help Support Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

busman

Active Member
Joined
7/1/22
Messages
32
Reaction score
4
Location
Stanthorpe
Hello all,
Seems a common topic here, used to brew, but life, wife, whatever got in the way. Anyway back to have another crack, with time and resources to do it.
Used to brew extracts but a very successful hydro farm put an end to that. Have retired to the Granite Belt 750 vines in 3 years ago, get first big vintage this year. Having done ok in the business and on the sale of it so I have been able to set up a very sweet micro winery, some of the stuff we have the commercial guys don't. But a lot of equipment can crossover. Being a micro winery (non commercial, we give most away to rellies and friends) a lot of stuff does not do anything all year. So, I have decided that when the house extension is finished we will have beer a on tap (and probably a sparkling Chardonnay as well)
I already have a large commercial underbench fridge which has been fitted with a couple of taps and gas lines, a good starting point fot the storage and dispense side. The brew side (grain) I will decide on after the whites are processed around the end of the month, but I am already leaning towards a one pot BIAB. Plenty of tanks, fernmenters, temp controllers etc from the wine side.
Run into a problem though. The Pepsi Cornys I have don't fit in the fridge, by a couple of mill. This is with no disconnects. Does anyone on here know the height of the Coca Cola ones that I believe were shorter and fatter ? I tried to contact the cheap ebay seller that has them but seems on holidays. I would cange the connects to ball lock and use the right angle stainless disconnects to get down as low as possible so if anyone has done this and can give me a measurement it would be much appreciated.
Thanks
William
 
You are making a pretty fundamental mistake. Coke and Pepsi never made kegs, they brought them from the various manufacturers (Cornelius, Spartanburg, Rehem...) and branded them. Yes there are various forms.

You will need to measure up your space and hunt for kegs that fit. Other option might be to look at commercial kegs, they are available new in 10-50L and some are pretty low (we have 30L squat German kegs at work) and should fit.
I think Grain and Grape had some Euro 30L second-hand kegs, worth asking.
Mark
 
Thanks Mark,
Aware that the sugar drink makers did not actually make kegs, but it seemed to me from all I have read that there were 2 mains sizes, one shorter and fatter than the others. I don't really want to go down to 10 ltr kegs, would much prefer taller thinner ones like the type of Cornys I am after. Lots to relearn as brewing has certainly changed from the days when tins of extract were about all that was on the shelves.
William
 
Hello all,
Seems a common topic here, used to brew, but life, wife, whatever got in the way. Anyway back to have another crack, with time and resources to do it.
Used to brew extracts but a very successful hydro farm put an end to that. Have retired to the Granite Belt 750 vines in 3 years ago, get first big vintage this year. Having done ok in the business and on the sale of it so I have been able to set up a very sweet micro winery, some of the stuff we have the commercial guys don't. But a lot of equipment can crossover. Being a micro winery (non commercial, we give most away to rellies and friends) a lot of stuff does not do anything all year. So, I have decided that when the house extension is finished we will have beer a on tap (and probably a sparkling Chardonnay as well)
I already have a large commercial underbench fridge which has been fitted with a couple of taps and gas lines, a good starting point fot the storage and dispense side. The brew side (grain) I will decide on after the whites are processed around the end of the month, but I am already leaning towards a one pot BIAB. Plenty of tanks, fernmenters, temp controllers etc from the wine side.
Run into a problem though. The Pepsi Cornys I have don't fit in the fridge, by a couple of mill. This is with no disconnects. Does anyone on here know the height of the Coca Cola ones that I believe were shorter and fatter ? I tried to contact the cheap ebay seller that has them but seems on holidays. I would cange the connects to ball lock and use the right angle stainless disconnects to get down as low as possible so if anyone has done this and can give me a measurement it would be much appreciated.
Thanks
William

Hello William
I bought some of the refurbished kegs on eBay a few years ago.
Mine measure 560mm high by 230mm diameter. Hold 18lt. Never had a problem with them. They are good kegs.
I believe there are some out there with the same diameter but are 585mm high and holding 19lt.
Cheers
 
Thanks Westheimer,
From all I read Coke invented the pin system and pepsi simply wanted something different (obvious reasons). It seem pin locks were originally about 23" (bloody yanks, metric too simple for them) and ball locks about 25", which is too high for my fridge. If I can get hold of some of the 23" and swap to ball locks and use the Keg Land very short disconnects it will work. I could draw from 4 and store perhaps another couple in the one bay of my fridge. Tried to contact the ebay seller but only 9 to 5 it seems, will have to wait till next week. He also says pick up only, though it seems he will post 4 refurbished kegs ? As I will buy 10 and all the reco bits perhaps he can be persuaded to change his mind.
Thanks for your input.
William
 
Thanks Ballaratguy, I have tried all sorts of google searches without success, can you give any more information please ?
Thanks
William
 
Edit to original post, ebay guy has got back to me, has original kegs from Coke 560 to 585 available, has advertised for less than 30 bucks each but seems reticent to ship, even though is quite happy to ship reco kegs. More dialouge happening, will see where it ends up.
William
 
I just found them on eBay. SZZ home brew
Has them for local pickup only as you need to check them out for yourself
 
Thaks Ballaratguy,
He is the guy I have been talking to. It is starting to look like I will have to buy reco ones from him as I am in Queensland ! Seems if he picks them, does rough clean and then makes sure they hold gas with new ball lock posts then he will send them. Bit more expensive but means I can get ones that I know hold gas and will fit in my fridge.
William
 
Well I have 10 kegs and some other bits and pieces on the way. 10 was a couple more than I wanted but it was difficult to find the shorter ones that will fit my fridge so bought extra.
Reading about pressure fermentation, is this worth following up or just another possible complication ?
Thanks
William
 
Well I have 10 kegs and some other bits and pieces on the way. 10 was a couple more than I wanted but it was difficult to find the shorter ones that will fit my fridge so bought extra.
Reading about pressure fermentation, is this worth following up or just another possible complication ?
Thanks
William
Hello William
I use it a lot and quite like it.
Nothing complicated about it really.
I use converted kegs and also a Apollo Snubnose. Sounds like you have spare kegs😉👍
Great for making a Lager in record time because I ferment under pressure and high (23°C) temperature.
 
Well I have 10 kegs and some other bits and pieces on the way. 10 was a couple more than I wanted but it was difficult to find the shorter ones that will fit my fridge so bought extra.
Reading about pressure fermentation, is this worth following up or just another possible complication ?
Thanks
William

Good morning William

And you may find this article of interest:

https://brulosophy.com/2020/05/07/using-a-corny-keg-as-a-fermentation-vessel-do-it-yourself/
I use two fermenter kegs daisy chained for one batch of wort(27lt).
 
Excellent, thank you, exactly the sort of info I am looking for.
For single pot brew systems, mid range, what do brewers think of Guten ? Can't bring myself to go all the way to a BM at this stage as I haven't done all grain before.
 
Excellent, thank you, exactly the sort of info I am looking for.
For single pot brew systems, mid range, what do brewers think of Guten ? Can't bring myself to go all the way to a BM at this stage as I haven't done all grain before.

I'm using the Brewzilla 35 myself.
Doing batch#46 as I'm texting.
No drama so far. Works well.
Most importantly: Makes great 🍻🍺
There is supposed to be a new version coming out though.
 
Thanks Westheimer, you are way ahead of me, still learning about equipment !
As I intend to eventually ditch the 2 tap system already fitted to the fridge and go to 4 I am looking at being able to run up to 4 kegs at different pressures, will be water and wine in a couple, beers in the others. Looked at Harris regs, seem gold standard, but pretty exy. And can only daisy chain 3 together. So, looking at these 4 secondary regs, behind lets say a Harris primary, to do the job.
https://www.amazon.com.au/Kegco-YH-...1MZ4YDBM/ref=pd_lpo_1?pd_rd_i=B01MZ4YDBM&th=1Any thoughs, bad experiences ?
Thanks
William
 
Thanks Westheimer, you are way ahead of me, still learning about equipment !
As I intend to eventually ditch the 2 tap system already fitted to the fridge and go to 4 I am looking at being able to run up to 4 kegs at different pressures, will be water and wine in a couple, beers in the others. Looked at Harris regs, seem gold standard, but pretty exy. And can only daisy chain 3 together. So, looking at these 4 secondary regs, behind lets say a Harris primary, to do the job.
https://www.amazon.com.au/Kegco-YH-...1MZ4YDBM/ref=pd_lpo_1?pd_rd_i=B01MZ4YDBM&th=1Any thoughs, bad experiences ?
Thanks
William
Good morning William
Good news, you only need one regulator.
Saves a bit of 💰
I deal a lot with Hoppy Days Brewing.
They are excellent!!
https://hoppydaysbrewingsupplies.com.au/product/harris-601-co2-gas-regulator/Then you use these:
https://hoppydaysbrewingsupplies.com.au/product/duotight-inline-regulator-0-60psi/And set them up like this:
https://hoppydaysbrewingsupplies.com.au/product/mounting-board-for-inline-regulator/At least, that's the way I do it.
You can get different range dials, even digital ones. Choice is endless.
Have a great day 😊
IMG20220115103015.jpg
 
Thanks Westheimer,
One brew shop (ibrew) was trying to steer me away from duotight to john guest, are you happy about duotight not leaking ? Certainly save a few bucks but I really don't want to be loosing gas/beer down the track and have to start replacing stuff
William
 
Duotight is all I use these days, William.
No leaking there. Duotight as the name suggests have two o-rings in them and that seems to be the secret. Don't know the John Guest set up really.
Cheers
 
Threre seems to be 2 schools of thought on these fittings. Even a guy that did a rave review of his system that he changed completely to Duotight had one fail. Hopefully they were early ones and quality has improved. Having said that there seems quite a few that have sworn off them and gone back to barbs. Would be pretty economical to set something up like the above as I already have both a Micromatic and a Harris CO2 reg. Anyone else swear by them ?
William
 
Back
Top