Pressurised growlers and 5l mini kegs

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Manngold
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Pressurised growlers and 5l mini kegs

Post by Manngold » Mon May 07, 2018 10:22 pm

Hi all.

Looking to upgrade some of my set up and just change some bits up.

Does anyone have any experience with using pressurised growlers, like the one you can attach a tap and mini co2 cartridge at either a 2l or 5l size. I have seen plenty of different types like the man can and growlerwurks ikegger devices.

Are they any good?
Do they pour with minimal foaming?
Any extra info?

Thanks all.

MG

Rhodesy
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Re: Pressurised growlers and 5l mini kegs

Post by Rhodesy » Mon May 07, 2018 10:36 pm

I have a 2L one and a 4L one I got from the Brewbuilder. The 2L one I just use as a growler where I fill it up , flush with co2 and drink it that night or within a few days max.

The 4L one is taller and slimmer. I close transfer to this using the pressure fittings and serve using a flow control tap which is directly on the disconnect. This works well for me however I have also had success with a picnic tap and a long coil of 3/16 line which keeps foaming down also.

From the pics the 5L looks wider and not so tall so would be better for me storing in my garage (domestic) fridge as the 5L usually has to go in the Keezer between sessions which can be an issue when stocks are high :D .

Manngold
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Re: Pressurised growlers and 5l mini kegs

Post by Manngold » Mon May 07, 2018 10:47 pm

Rhodsey!!! You are full of the excellent info this evening. Didn't think to check brewbuilder, have had some excellent stuff from them in the past. Glad to hear you can serve from a tap directly in the disconnect!

Do you have to be careful about the pressure you apply to them? They seem to be screw top, from what I have seen.

Thanks

Rhodesy
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Re: Pressurised growlers and 5l mini kegs

Post by Rhodesy » Mon May 07, 2018 11:33 pm

haha, I love my full kegs and 9L but sometimes when just wanting a few pints and not running back and forth from the garage I like to have multiple portable options :D .

I only pressurise to serving temps. What I tend to do is transfer across and then when serving attach the mini reg (sodastream co2 bottle attached) but not put any gas on as yet. I then run off at the lowest possible on the flow control and go from there. You may have to dial about with later pints if the beer warms up a bit depending on your start temperature but its not often by much.

I am being lazy not checking the site but think they can handle 40PSI at least which is way more than I would ever go.

f00b4r
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Re: Pressurised growlers and 5l mini kegs

Post by f00b4r » Tue May 08, 2018 9:09 pm

The pressure rating seems to vary enormously between different suppliers so if you intend to force carbonate in them I would enquire beforehand about their rating.

Manngold
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Re: Pressurised growlers and 5l mini kegs

Post by Manngold » Wed May 09, 2018 2:54 pm

f00b4r wrote:
Tue May 08, 2018 9:09 pm
The pressure rating seems to vary enormously between different suppliers so if you intend to force carbonate in them I would enquire beforehand about their rating.
Thanks Foob4r. The ones that I have seen seem to be able to be pressurised to 25PSI, does that sounds ok for force/natural carbonation and pouring?

Thanks

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Re: Pressurised growlers and 5l mini kegs

Post by f00b4r » Wed May 09, 2018 4:24 pm

Manngold wrote:
f00b4r wrote:
Tue May 08, 2018 9:09 pm
The pressure rating seems to vary enormously between different suppliers so if you intend to force carbonate in them I would enquire beforehand about their rating.
Thanks Foob4r. The ones that I have seen seem to be able to be pressurised to 25PSI, does that sounds ok for force/natural carbonation and pouring?

Thanks
Well that depends upon what you intend to put in them but I would say that is on the low side (fairly sure I have seen them rated up to 40 PSI).
E.g. a Belgium beer at 3.3 volumes of CO2 at 8C is potentially over that. Also you couldn’t burst carb at 30 PSI overnight with that rating either.
Take a look at the keg carbonation calculator on The Malt Miller website or similar and you can see what PSI is needed for beer style and kegerator temperature.

Fil
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Re: Pressurised growlers and 5l mini kegs

Post by Fil » Thu May 10, 2018 12:39 am

fwiw i rarely condition with pressure above 20psi, but i dont mind it taking a week or longer..

imho your probably better off filling the growlers from a keg, one downside of kegging directly into smaller pressurised containers is the accumulation of losses due to initial dirty pours flushing out the sediment directly under the pick up tube.. filling with bright beer from a keg which has already flushed its initial dirty plug will eliminate this..
ist update for months n months..
Fermnting: not a lot..
Conditioning: nowt
Maturing: Challenger smash, and a kit lager
Drinking: dry one minikeg left in the store
Coming Soon Lots planned for the near future nowt for the immediate :(

Rhodesy
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Re: Pressurised growlers and 5l mini kegs

Post by Rhodesy » Thu May 10, 2018 10:39 am

Fil wrote:
Thu May 10, 2018 12:39 am
fwiw i rarely condition with pressure above 20psi, but i dont mind it taking a week or longer..

imho your probably better off filling the growlers from a keg, one downside of kegging directly into smaller pressurised containers is the accumulation of losses due to initial dirty pours flushing out the sediment directly under the pick up tube.. filling with bright beer from a keg which has already flushed its initial dirty plug will eliminate this..
Thats exactly what I do with mine. Let it carb and condition in the keg then do a closed pressure transfer into the mini keg. It works well

Manngold
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Re: Pressurised growlers and 5l mini kegs

Post by Manngold » Thu May 10, 2018 11:44 am

Rhodesy wrote:
Thu May 10, 2018 10:39 am
Fil wrote:
Thu May 10, 2018 12:39 am
fwiw i rarely condition with pressure above 20psi, but i dont mind it taking a week or longer..

imho your probably better off filling the growlers from a keg, one downside of kegging directly into smaller pressurised containers is the accumulation of losses due to initial dirty pours flushing out the sediment directly under the pick up tube.. filling with bright beer from a keg which has already flushed its initial dirty plug will eliminate this..
Thats exactly what I do with mine. Let it carb and condition in the keg then do a closed pressure transfer into the mini keg. It works well
Cool. I was planning to fill directly from the FV, naturally condition (with sugar) and use co2 purely to help dispense.

What type of things do you need for a keg transfer under pressure?

Are the growler filling tubes worth it aswell? They seem to be 3/8 beer line with a metal weight(?) on the end.

Thanks all for the advice.

I also found a 4l mini keg that will be able to hold 60psi but I only ever produce ales and pales really. The occasional IPA.

Rhodesy
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Re: Pressurised growlers and 5l mini kegs

Post by Rhodesy » Thu May 10, 2018 3:00 pm

For a keg transfer I mean transferring from a normal keg was the beer has carbonated and is bright if thats your thing. So really you need an existing keg set up as this would be purely as a serving keg. You then just add your disconnects with some beer tubing to each keg and transfer from one keg to the other applying to the 'from' keg.

There is nothing to stop you self carbonating but it would add in a fair bit of trub meaning you would have some losses.

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