Sanke Keg score

[vrodbrad]

Good morning all. Well I got two sanke kegs from a guy a work with that he has had for ten dollars each that he had bought awhile back ago and he decided he did not want them anymore. One of them still has beer in it which he said is flat now.

Oh. they are the 1/4 barrel size. I am trying to decide weather to use them as kegs for kegging. Turn them into fermenters. or have them welded together to make a mash/lauter tun.

I thought I was like oh oh how am i going to disassemble for cleaning them watched a few videos on youtube, so seems easier than I thought.

My concerns though are how easy are they clean. Are they just as hard to clean as a carboy with the small opening.

Is there anything I should take special note of

I really want to get into kegging so I may have decided what I will do but if it is to difficult on these vs corney then I may not use them for kegging so what are the pro's/con's of them

For those that use them do you carb just like you would on a corney keg or do you have to do it differently. I have seen the video's for kegging corney and carbing.

If I turned them into fermentors which is fairly easy I know dry hopping would be just the same as doing in a carboy.

If I decided to to turn them into into mash/lauter tun. I would need to find someone to weld them and that would be more money most likely on them.

 

[vrodbrad]

I decided what to do with them I am going to use them as they are meant to be. cot them cleaned out yesterday and have sanitizer sitting in them now waiting for a brew to go in them.

 

[SPR-GRN]

good for you man, enjoy. I kinda wish I had started with Sanke kegs from the get-go as they are easier to come by, but it is what it is.

 

[vrodbrad]

So yesterday I went and got the coupler and co2 tank and a picinic tap and the lines oh and the gauge. Got home and got everything connected up and connected to the tanks. I had sanitizer sitting in the tanks so i figured to test it by purging out some of the sanitizer and also making sure that the inside components were cleaned.

When I went to press on the picinic tap I could not figure out why nothing was coming out. I stood for about 20 minutes trying to figure it so I went and grabbed one of my bottled beer and when I turned around I thought to myself you dumby you have the lines backwards. Had a v8 momenent.

After that everything went fine except for the picnic tap. I don' think I like it to much. After I got the beer put in and put co2 on it I noticed that beer was flowing out do to the setting of the co2 pressure. If the pressure was brought down to like 6 it was fine but if it was taken back up to set and forget mode it started flowing out. It is not flowing anymore thank god.

I have heard you can put a dime in out put side to stop any beer from coming out while you do the set and forget is this true or don't trust it.. I know also that you can get change over kit to a ball lock.

Oh I guess I should say what my pressure is set at. Beersmith said for the carbonation to set at 17 psi with a temp of 52 degree's. I set the psi at that.

Now when it comes to serving I know I need to bring the pressure down. I have read 5-10 psi. Is it better to have a lower pressure when serving.

And should I bring the co2 pressure back up after a few beers to replace the loss of co2 in the head space so I am don't loose any carbonation.

I would like to thank anyone that chimes in, and have a good beer day.

 

[vrodbrad]

So Hopefully I get some trouble shooters to help me. As stated above I used the set it and forget it method I set the carbonation at 17 psi for a 52 degree cooling as stated in the chart and according to beersmith. It has been over a week so I turned down the pressure to serve to 10 psi. When I poured a glass it came out real fast and was all foam. I let the glass settle. The next glass I turned the psi down to 5, and poured a another glass. same exact problem. came out real fast and all foam. The next day I completely turned off the co2 so their was no pressure at all. I poured a glass and had the exact same thing. my line is 5ft 3/8. I use a picnic tap.

Is there to much pressure and I do I go about relieving pressure on a sanke keg

Having all that foam is just plain a pain.

 

[Bobby_M]

3/8" ID line is horribly oversized for this. You need about 12 feet of 3/16" ID line, especially if you're going to leave the cooler st to 52
F.

 

[vrodbrad]

Woops, sorry 3/16 line not 3/8. Got pressure released and re-poured at a 6 psi was better but I here you need to have longer line and temp down. Temp will have to wait until I can get a controller for the freezer. I have it unplugged so the beer does not freeze stays 52 in there right during this time of year.

 

[RonPopeil]

i vote 20 gallon fermenter. double batches on a 10g setup.