Did you ever move on this one? I'm in a situation where, for the next two years, I have room in the garage for a fridge that I can work as a kegerator or a fermentation vessel, but absolutely do NOT have room for both. SO, a kegging system that I could fit into the (smallish) kitchen fridge would be life-changing, homebrew-wise.
Also, I'm a bit of a noob. SO, anyone who understands kegging and can get the idea down the road from inception to reality, well... let's just say I'd be willing to take you to my local LHBS/microbrew distribution joint for a couple cold ones if you ever find yourself in Boise, ID!
Later!
Ike
I'm extremely happy with the system. The taps work very well, The 1.5 gallon plastic jugs handle pressure well, they are small and light enough to be easy to handle. They don't match up with the 2.5 gallon typical yield I have to badly. I either use two of them, or leave a gallon in cold crash and top off later, or bottle the remaining gallon....... I usually bottle the remaing gallon. A few bottles to give away isn't a bad thing to have, and they end up well aged. I have 3 systems........ 3 taps and 9 jugs. Jugs are $10 each. They work for bottle conditioning or force carbonating. A friend who does catering uses one of the systems to serve at home when he has part of a 5 gallon keg left after a job. I also use them for mixing up shandy from light bodied beer and lemonaid, Sometimes using my own beer for the purpose, sometimes using some of his left over. It's popular at summer barbeques. 2 of them went to a wedding with my hibiscus wedding brew. They are far more versatile than normal kegs in many ways. The lay down configuration and small dimensions are a real asset...... anybody can put them in a fridge. The low cost is also an asset. I often visit friends, bringing a couple of well (force) carbonated tap-a-draft jugs and simply pour out of them to avoid having to use the CO2 cartridges to serve or bringing one of my paint ball bottles. I have a brew cold crashing in one at the moment, and two taps, all in my kitchen fridge. I've also blended beers in them.
I may in fact be in your area sometime in August or early September, I live in South Central Montana, but Idaho is a state I spend a lot of time in. Usually I duck south at Mountain Home or Glenn's Ferry, and run down through Bruno, Grand View, Murphy, Marsing, Homedale just to avoid the Boise, Nampa, Caldwell area. It's also not uncommon for me to be on Hwy 95 anywhere from Bonner's Ferry to Jordan Valley. I wander a lot when I travel. Last summer I went through Dillon and Wisdom, Mt, crossed over on a dirt trail to the Salmon River, went down the Salmon and over thought Ketchum, Banks, Garden Valley and Lowman, up to McCall (for a beer at McCall Brewing..... McCall is a mecca for microbrewing), down through Meadows, Council and Cambridge, over across Brownlee dam, and the back way down to Imnaha, Or, up to Hat Point, then to Joseph and Enterprise, out to Union and Baker, and across Eastern, Oregon along the John Day river through Mt Vernon, John Day, Mitchell, and Prineville, from Madras down to Crescent, across Willamette Pass, and up on the back roads and small towns to Portland, and spent some time with my mother who lives there. The trail back was not nearly so convoluted... I went over Mt Hood, dropped down to Hood River, crossed over and went on the Washington side, up the Kilckitat River over the top to Goldendale, on down to Maryhill, crossed back over at Maryhill, on down to Wasco, Condon, down to Spray via Hardman, and on up the John Day and down through Vale, and on the back trails down to Owyhee, crossed over at Homedale, followed 78 along the south side of the Snake, took Wilson Grade rd on the south side of the snake and Sailor creek road, crossed the bridge west of Glenns Ferry..... Took US 30 (frontage) to Bliss, and when up through Richfield, camping out in the Minnedoka along the Little Wood River.... and on up through Dubois where I picked up the interstate as far as Dillon....... the entire trip, I only drove a few miles on the interstate. I also took a "side trip" up the Columbia to Astoria and down the coast to Newport. I camped, hiked, explored and rock hounded all the way....... and I stopped at as many micro breweries as I could. My favorite was a "nano brewery" / homebrew supply in Astoria where the owner was brewing for his taps using ordinary brew buckets!! He had a lot of brews on tap, and they all were good, and a back room full of brew buckets! No fancy stainless steel stuff...........
This year I hope to make a long ramble again......... Probably going St Regis, Mt, and crossing the mountains and the border into Idaho in the head of the St Joe River, down through St Maries, taking highway 3 down through the small towns to Potlach and Palouse, following the Palouse river where I can, wandering through the Channeled Scablands to Palouse falls one way or another, and various other areas many of which I haven't seen, and aren't on the tourist maps. The return will probably be straight across Eastern Oregon using Santiam Pass... Bend, Burns, Ontario... pretty direct, and 84 through the Boise / Nampa / Caldwell area to Bliss. From there I'll probably take some of the less traveled roads north through Sun Valley, and over to Hwy 93, and see if I can find my way across the mountains on Forest Circus roads over to Leadore and on across the pass to Dillon and on home.......... I never drive a straight line very far!
H.W.