Kegs arrived, 30l

[Kev888]

Kev,

Heres a few pictures, the spacer block used was 10mm, bearing in mind that a hose would add a little to the corny height as well the kegs are as the crusader website 408 dia x 532 high, the fitting adds approx 105mm to the height of the keg. But check the height out with the corny

Superb - many thanks indeed!!

I've got less hight with these than with cornies (because they're too wide to fit in front of the fridge's compressor hump). But that does look much better than I'd feared; maybe an elbow rather than straight-adaptor+elbow on the top may help out by a few mm too if they exist (bet they don't!).

TBH half the battle with corny disconnects is their stubbornness in limited spaces, if these couplers fit and are more slick there'd be fewer skinned knuckles..

Cheers
Kev

[barneey]

Kev,

Heres a few pictures, the spacer block used was 10mm, bearing in mind that a hose would add a little to the corny height as well the kegs are as the crusader website 408 dia x 532 high, the fitting adds approx 105mm to the height of the keg. But check the height out with the corny

Superb - many thanks indeed!!

I've got less hight with these than with cornies (because they're too wide to fit in front of the fridge's compressor hump). But that does look much better than I'd feared; maybe an elbow rather than straight-adaptor+elbow on the top may help out by a few mm too if they exist (bet they don't!).

TBH half the battle with corny disconnects is their stubbornness in limited spaces, if these couplers fit and are more slick there'd be fewer skinned knuckles..

Cheers
Kev

Good idea about the screw elbow rather than the setup I have at the moment, with my fridge I can / should beable to fit 2 x 50 ltr usable kegs v a 4 usable corney keg solution so have gained 20ltrs, although I fully intend to use the 20 ltr crusader kegs in the fridge and find somewhere else for the 50 or might do a mixture of the 2 types? 1 x50 & 2 or 3 20`s?

[Kev888]

Many combinations to consider! Think I'd do something similar though; surprisingly I could 'probably' get almost as much in the larder fridges with 50L kegs as with cornies, but of course I can get far fewer varieties in per fridge. So unless all my storage (somehow) became also keggerators, racking to smaller kegs seems the only way to have several styles on tap at once.

Cheers
Kev

[alexlark]

First time poster, long time lurker

At the moment I'm currently bottling and kegging using el cheapo plastic kegs. I only keg bitters though so the carbonation level is fine. I also use an under counter fridge to fit 1 keg.

What i would ultimately like to do is invest in some kegs / cornies for lager and maybe a bit more carb for the bitter. For the last few months I have been checking prices of cornies and compared to the prices people quote from 12 - 24 months ago they have gone up a lot in price. So much so that I thought i'd just stick with the plastic kegs. Then I though, what about pub style kegs? Then I stumbled across this thread...

Anyway, Crusader have a batch of the 20L kegs due for delivery mid June, exactly the date barneey was given. Now price wise these are very tempting to me. Works out about £20 cheaper than a brand new cornie but the crusader kegs look much more substantial.

As I have only really read up on cornie setups from what I understand I should be able to adapt a sanke keg tap by removing the co2 one way valve and by using a number of JG fittings I should be able to purge the keg in the same way one would do a cornie?

My brother is a tool maker and i'm pretty handy so I think i'll cope with the spear removal

gnutz2 , barneey, I know you haven't had the kegs long but do consider them them as good if not better than cornies?

And lastly, as I have never used a 'proper' keg, co2 bottle, etc. do you think Im running before I can walk?

Thanks

[barneey]

My opinion, they are on the same par if not slightly better than corney kegs. The main reason being there is a lot less to go wrong with sealing a keg v corney the other good reason is a 50ltr one is a better capacity for me and the batch size I have. Although I do want / have ordered 4 x 20ltr kegs.

As for cleaning theres not much in it but IMHO the beer keg is easier in a great number of ways due to the lesser amount of fittings, albeit you can get your arm, should you wish, in a a corny keg (then wonder around with it on your arm for the rest of the day working out how to get it off again )

I think the main reason for the use of corny kegs was first the size at 19lt as it tied in nicely with a brew length and secondly they were once a cheap item v tradition kegs. Now that balance has changed + other sized beer kegs are available I would have thought the keg market might get a slice of the action with a brand new 50 lt costing £75.00 v a new corney at £90.00+ how does that compare?

One thing a have noticed recently tho is the cost of second hand keg couplers is rising

The only strange thing is that apart from Crusader Kegs, all of the other firms I`ve emailed dont want to deal with homebrew market, my response to that would be think how many corney kegs must have been sold over the last couple of years?

They only want to deal with the trade market, fair enough I say but wouldnt you be concerned with the amount of pubs that have closed over the last decade? a lost business opportunity me thinks.

[gnutz2]

Exactly what clive just said, great for serving beer just like they're designed to do and they dont leak.

[alexlark]

Cracking reply barneey, thanks for that.

Absolutely true though, price and quality, and its what they use in pubs.

The tall 20L kegs seem an ideal alternative to cornys. As you say you cant get your arm in but I havent wanted to get my arm in my 2" cap plastic kegs

When I emailed crusader I had a fast reply, pic of the 20L keg and they just seem very happy to supply them. Cant fault the pre sales.

We'll be the ones saying "I remember when sanke couplers only cost about 25 quid!"

Now I just need to convince the mrs this will save money in the long run...

[h_doody]

How much are the 20L kegs from Crusader?

[barneey]

The price I got them for was £54.00 + VAT = £64.80 delivered

[h_doody]

That's not too bad. Cheaper than a brand new cornie and you can probably be sure of the quality.

What sort of equipment do you need for dispensing from them? I'm looking into getting a kegging set-up and I'm considering these over cornies. No need for a kegerator as my garage is pretty much the perfect temp for beer anyway.

[barneey]

You will just need a keg connector similar to this one http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SANKEY-S-Type ... 931728433? and some form of tap and gas supply.

A spanner of some sort will either need to be made to unscrew the keg spear or as an alternative I`m buying a spanner from gnuts2, oh and a 5pence piece if your going down the homemade spanner route. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES EVER UNSCREW a keg spear that is under pressure doing so might well earn you a Darwin Award or at the very least cause serious injury.

[alexlark]

So as these are euro kegs the spear is threaded with a sefety clip, unlike the c clip style?

[barneey]

Yep threaded with safety

[alexlark]

Looks like its gonna be 2 x 20L for me then
Cheers barneey

[barneey]

Just one thing I have requested from Crusader with my next 4 x 20ltr kegs on order, is that the spears are supplied separate to the kegs, thus giving me the option of removing the safety clip should I wish to