Hello!
I hate bottling beer. Mostly I hate storing, cleaning and sanitising bottles but lets just lump it all in together and say I hate bottling beer. I have explored the typical UK plastic 'pressure barrel' alternative, but found them to be lacking in the extreme, finicky to seal, new gaskets constantly, losing pressure, inadequate pressure, sucking air etc. I've got a bunch collected over the years and consigned to the back of the shed. I now bottle into 2/3L plastic PET bottles because the size makes for less work.
But I want to keg beer, but I don't want to spend a fortune. The 'corny' keg here typically runs £50+ per keg sniped on ebay, more like £80-110 for a reliable stock. This does not include the CO2 bottle, regulator etc.
I've noticed a link from this forum to the aussie homebrew forum where a dude was knocking up a modified garden pressure sprayer. This intrigues me as a project - mostly because I like looking like a maniac and would love to turn up at social events with a home made beer dispensing tap strapped to my back but also because I can get 5L, 8L and 10L ones which look suitable for modification for around £7 each. Parts to modify them would run to £8-10 each. I'd still have to fashion a CO2 system to prime them though.
This is what I'm asking advice on. What do people do? What 'off the shelf' products suit the home brewer here in the UK and are there any common pitfalls to avoid? I could fit the bottle with a selection of gaskets and nuts for a car tyre valve which I could screw a CO2 tyre inflater onto to use 12g and 25g bulbs on, but I'm trying to work out the most economical way to pressurise my brew. I've been running on the assumption that 1g CO2 dissolves into 1L of beer to give 0.5 volumes. Therefore my 8L bottle would require 43.2g of CO2 to prime to 2.7 volumes. This is about £3.50's worth of single use CO2 bulbs which doesn't seem that economical and the tyre inflater runs to £8 to buy. Though this does seem a neat portable option.
A simple regulator designed to use 400-600g disposable CO2 tanks designed for welding or aquarium use seems to run about £20 plus the tank at £12 or so. £2.46 per use with the initial outlay, dropping to 92p for subsequent tanks. This seems less portable. but obviously is more economical.
Any ideas? What do other people do?
I hate bottling beer. Mostly I hate storing, cleaning and sanitising bottles but lets just lump it all in together and say I hate bottling beer. I have explored the typical UK plastic 'pressure barrel' alternative, but found them to be lacking in the extreme, finicky to seal, new gaskets constantly, losing pressure, inadequate pressure, sucking air etc. I've got a bunch collected over the years and consigned to the back of the shed. I now bottle into 2/3L plastic PET bottles because the size makes for less work.
But I want to keg beer, but I don't want to spend a fortune. The 'corny' keg here typically runs £50+ per keg sniped on ebay, more like £80-110 for a reliable stock. This does not include the CO2 bottle, regulator etc.
I've noticed a link from this forum to the aussie homebrew forum where a dude was knocking up a modified garden pressure sprayer. This intrigues me as a project - mostly because I like looking like a maniac and would love to turn up at social events with a home made beer dispensing tap strapped to my back but also because I can get 5L, 8L and 10L ones which look suitable for modification for around £7 each. Parts to modify them would run to £8-10 each. I'd still have to fashion a CO2 system to prime them though.
This is what I'm asking advice on. What do people do? What 'off the shelf' products suit the home brewer here in the UK and are there any common pitfalls to avoid? I could fit the bottle with a selection of gaskets and nuts for a car tyre valve which I could screw a CO2 tyre inflater onto to use 12g and 25g bulbs on, but I'm trying to work out the most economical way to pressurise my brew. I've been running on the assumption that 1g CO2 dissolves into 1L of beer to give 0.5 volumes. Therefore my 8L bottle would require 43.2g of CO2 to prime to 2.7 volumes. This is about £3.50's worth of single use CO2 bulbs which doesn't seem that economical and the tyre inflater runs to £8 to buy. Though this does seem a neat portable option.
A simple regulator designed to use 400-600g disposable CO2 tanks designed for welding or aquarium use seems to run about £20 plus the tank at £12 or so. £2.46 per use with the initial outlay, dropping to 92p for subsequent tanks. This seems less portable. but obviously is more economical.
Any ideas? What do other people do?
