Hey Yall,
Been on this forum and brewing kits for a little over a year now. Always used bottles so far but after a lovely smooth pint, (with virtually no carbonation) in my local the other day, I was wondering the best way to try and replicate this.
I've heard good things about Kingkegs and also seem to pick up from the forum that Cornies are the Rolls Royce. Please could anyone calrify the ups and downs of these. How do they work and are there any other solutions I should be looking at?
Cheers!
Dave.
I fancy Kegging
- Ditch
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Re: I fancy Kegging
Davy; I've never used a KK, because I find the bog basic kegs suit me. I Despise Top Tappers, because I hate gassy beer. I've nothing against the Shiny, but, again, they appear more for the Belchers.
So; What I do is brew Coopers Stout ~ no one wants a gassy stout, surely? ~ in basic kegs. By quirk of my own rank premature senility, I'm also yet to remember to actually Prime one of those kegs!
Result is, of course, I have to use CO2 to push my beer out. But, that's about all I Do use the gas for. I drink it as fast as I can get it out of the keg, see?
But, this means that, whilst my beer may somewhat erupt into the glass? It's all a big show. Once the half pint 'head' settles and liquefies? I'm drinking a pint of Coopers Stout as smooth as an angels tongue. It slides down the throat just as it does over the tongue. No fizz. No throat bite. No belching.
That's my way, anyway
So; What I do is brew Coopers Stout ~ no one wants a gassy stout, surely? ~ in basic kegs. By quirk of my own rank premature senility, I'm also yet to remember to actually Prime one of those kegs!
Result is, of course, I have to use CO2 to push my beer out. But, that's about all I Do use the gas for. I drink it as fast as I can get it out of the keg, see?

That's my way, anyway

Re: I fancy Kegging
For kits I would probably stick with plastic barrels and an S30 valve and Hambleton Bard cylinder. Having said that, I went from bottling kit brews to all grain and cornies, see here :- viewtopic.php?f=6&t=18351
The problem with cornies is that the initial outlay is pretty expensive, you need some way to gas them, a regulator and then a way of dispensing the beer to the glass. On the plus side cornie kegs are much less likely to leak and due to the high pressure rating you can force carbonate the beer to the kind of level you like so you therefore don't need to add priming sugar which introduces sediment and therefore cloudy beer (at least for a few pints or so).
Another plus of cornies is that because they are stainless steel the beer inside never sees light and therefore cannot be tainted by that. I have never used plastic barrels and can't therefore say how good they are but from what I've read many, many people use them without problems and they are obviously much easier to clean, fill and serve 40 pints of beer than the equivalent amount of bottles.
Going the cornie route is very expensive and in my opinion unjustified for kit brews. I would only suggest going to cornies now if at some point in the future you may be considering moving upto extract and ultimately all grain brewing. Other peoples views may vary from my own but if I were exclusively kit brewing I would get a KK top tap with float and use that. For just one cornie keg + gas + regulator + tap + piping + JG fittings you are looking at £100+. Once you have all the gear then you can buy cornies at ~£30 a time but actually getting all the kit together in the first place is what costs.
The problem with cornies is that the initial outlay is pretty expensive, you need some way to gas them, a regulator and then a way of dispensing the beer to the glass. On the plus side cornie kegs are much less likely to leak and due to the high pressure rating you can force carbonate the beer to the kind of level you like so you therefore don't need to add priming sugar which introduces sediment and therefore cloudy beer (at least for a few pints or so).
Another plus of cornies is that because they are stainless steel the beer inside never sees light and therefore cannot be tainted by that. I have never used plastic barrels and can't therefore say how good they are but from what I've read many, many people use them without problems and they are obviously much easier to clean, fill and serve 40 pints of beer than the equivalent amount of bottles.
Going the cornie route is very expensive and in my opinion unjustified for kit brews. I would only suggest going to cornies now if at some point in the future you may be considering moving upto extract and ultimately all grain brewing. Other peoples views may vary from my own but if I were exclusively kit brewing I would get a KK top tap with float and use that. For just one cornie keg + gas + regulator + tap + piping + JG fittings you are looking at £100+. Once you have all the gear then you can buy cornies at ~£30 a time but actually getting all the kit together in the first place is what costs.
Re: I fancy Kegging
Blimey Ditch, thats beautiful, I'm welling up here mateDitch wrote: Once the half pint 'head' settles and liquefies? I'm drinking a pint of Coopers Stout as smooth as an angels tongue. It slides down the throat just as it does over the tongue. No fizz. No throat bite. No belching.
That's my way, anyway


Re: I fancy Kegging
Because cornies pull from the very bottom, the nadir, of the cylinder they're more suitable to a 'bright' beer.
As a caravanner..... I need a transportable system for my beer. I go away for a lot of weekends, so don't have time to let beer resettle after moving, so I take a cornie, filled from a KKTT in which the beer has conditioned, settled and cleared, with me.... this is a 'bright' beer, there's no sediment in it so it's ready to drink as soon as I've got a glass from the 'van.
I use both a KKTT and a Cornie. Both have their uses.
I also use bottles.
As a caravanner..... I need a transportable system for my beer. I go away for a lot of weekends, so don't have time to let beer resettle after moving, so I take a cornie, filled from a KKTT in which the beer has conditioned, settled and cleared, with me.... this is a 'bright' beer, there's no sediment in it so it's ready to drink as soon as I've got a glass from the 'van.
I use both a KKTT and a Cornie. Both have their uses.
I also use bottles.