Acquired 3 second hand King Keg barrels

[Sir-Rooty]

Never used pressure barrels before (only ever bottled) but got a fairly large party to cater for in May so I am planning to use three second hand King Kegs with the top taps to dispense free beers for everyone. I plan to refurbish them if I can - new floats and taps as a minimum I think. Can I get some advice and ask some simple questions?

1. Where can I get hold of replacement floats?
2. What is the best type of tap to go for? I was told the standard ones are a bit of a nightmare and can produce a lot of froth!

In terms of process and conditioning:

3. Could I get away with racking to the KK then dry hop, cold crash and prime in there before serving?
4. Regardless of the dry hop / crash question, once the beer is in there how much priming sugar should I go for and how long would it take to condition? I need to plan my brewing schedule carefully.....
5. Finally I assume I shouldn't need to fit a CO2 bulb until the vending starts as the conditioning prior to that will carbonate and defeat any oxygenisation?

I can't screw this one up so any advice very much appreciated, thanks!

Cheers
Roots

[smuggles]

Let's see then.

1. Googling king keg spares brings up a bunch of shops. hopandgrape.co.uk seem to have spare floats. They don't look like the ones I remember, but I just use bottom taps now for simplicity so its been a while since I've seen a float.

2. I use these: https://www.hopandgrape.co.uk/beer/beer ... g-tap.html But if you stick with the standard barrel taps then putting a bit of vaseline on the threads helps a lot.

3. Probably, but it's much easier to dry hop and cold crash in the FV.

4. I used to use priming calculators and carefully weigh out sugar based on beer style, volume and temperature, but in reality I found it made little difference. Now I just tip what looks like 80-100g straight into the barrel, pour a bit of boiling water onto it and give it a swirl before racking. It works for me.

For conditioning, I go for 5-7 days at around 21C, then a week or two at around 12C. If you're dry hopping I would allow for 2 weeks in the FV in total (as in brewday to barreling - not 2 weeks dry hop), but it can be done quicker.

My typical schedule is 7-10 days fermenting, add dry hops, leave 24-48 hours before starting cold crash, add gelatin at around 7-10C, leave at 0C for 24-48 hours (depends on what day I can fit barreling in), then rack straight into the barrel. Again, it works for me.

5. I think you're probably right, but I always add a squirt of co2 before racking anyway.

Only other thing is to remember to give the seals a light coat of vaseline to help them seal. Good luck!

[Sir-Rooty]

Smuggles, you sir, are a star! Thanks a lot for the advice - will be taking a look at sourcing the parts tonight

[Addled Jim]

You might want to consider replacing the washers/seals on the S30 valve too, maybe even the gasket in the lid?
If these have perished you will loose all carbonation, I learnt the hard way when I used one of my PB's that hadn't been out the shed for a number of years!

[scotsloon]

Its also worth mentioning that KK PB's will not hold a high pressure and they will run out of oooomph at about the half full mark. You will need to take along gas canister so you can pressure up to get the remaining beer out of it.

[Sir-Rooty]

Its also worth mentioning that KK PB's will not hold a high pressure and they will run out of oooomph at about the half full mark. You will need to take along gas canister so you can pressure up to get the remaining beer out of it.

Ah right thanks scotsloon, I was weighing up last night whether to just go for some bulbs & holders or an S30....so you'd advocate the S30 and a cylinder then! Given I was planning on running potentially three barrels this could be getting costly. Where's the best place to get hold of gas cylinders and how much are they?

[Sir-Rooty]

You might want to consider replacing the washers/seals on the S30 valve too, maybe even the gasket in the lid?
If these have perished you will loose all carbonation, I learnt the hard way when I used one of my PB's that hadn't been out the shed for a number of years!

Thanks Jim - yes I think to be on the safe side I'm thinking on replacing the whole gasket BUT at this rate it might be cheaper to buy flipping new barrels!

[scotsloon]

Yes, I'd certainly go for an S30 cylinder, The old style Soda Stream cylinders work well if you can get one of the converters to connect them to the KK.

[Addled Jim]

CO2 Supermarket sell an adapter to enable the use of the new sodastream bottles to inject into a S30 valve

http://www.co2supermarket.co.uk/sodastr ... -p498.html

[orlando]

Its also worth mentioning that KK PB's will not hold a high pressure and they will run out of oooomph at about the half full mark. You will need to take along gas canister so you can pressure up to get the remaining beer out of it.

Ah right thanks scotsloon, I was weighing up last night whether to just go for some bulbs & holders or an S30....so you'd advocate the S30 and a cylinder then! Given I was planning on running potentially three barrels this could be getting costly. Where's the best place to get hold of gas cylinders and how much are they?

An S30 gas canister will squirt just a little into each barrel so you only need one of these. Be careful, you can easily overgas, just a second or two at most and only after beer flow has slowed down. If you believe all the beer will be drunk on the day you don't have to worry about oxidation, just crack open the lid and pour till all gone.

[Mattpc]

I'm sorry but I haven't read the thread. I would highly recommend bottom tap king kegs. Much less faff with floats, much less wasted gas, if you run out of gas on the day you can just vent the keg by opening the top and carry on dispensing without gas. I did have a couple of top tap kegs but got rid of them both as they were a pain..


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