I used to bottle my homebrew, but got tired of all the bottles and cleaning. So invested in a couple of the posh Balliihoo pressure barrels. All okay for 6 months or so, then one sprung a leak and made a massive mess. They said they’d had a bad batch, and sent a replacement. Since then I’ve been keeping a close eye on the pressure and not letting it get over about 6psi, but just had another leak.

So are pressure barrels intrinsically dodgy? They don’t have safety pressure valves, I’ve been thinknig how to install some, but is there a better solution, or just accept they’re going to go bang occasionally and put them in a shed or something?

Bottles

Sorry.

If one breaks or goes bad, you’ve lost one bottle. If the barrel goes, you’ve lost the lot 🙁

I know it’s a PITA but surely it’s better than losing the whole batch

Agreed.

Plus, bottle conditioning makes it;
Easier to share a bottle or two with people who can’t pop round for a pint
Seems to age better, and improve with it
Etc.

Barrels are easier, it’s true, but I think bottles may be better.

Yes, the sod is I got rid of all my bottles 😉

Those barrels don’t look like the right shape to handle the pressure. I used to have a Beersphere with the top take-off which worked very well, but they don’t seem to make them any more.

Bottled always tasted better, but the pressure keg was so much easier.

Can’t you just drill a hole then use an airlock?

I am in the process of getting my fermenting glass jar ready for Korean style veg fermentation.

I am now searching for rubber o-ring … arrghhh …

Bottles or Cornie kegs for me .

had a brew that was split between plastic barrel and a cornie. both carbed up with the same amount of sugar post ferment. and the corny tasted way better than the plastic

They are on offer at one of the home brew shops on line for £35 each .
ok you do need a co2 cylinder but well worth the investment and if you give up brewing. they will still have a good value
for resale. un like a plastic barrel .
http://www.thehomebrewcompany.co.uk

I use cornie kegs mostly and bottle some too.

Interesting, I’ll look into those, cheers!

As above with cornie’s you will need a CO2 cylinder and a regulator. But they’re pretty bombproof kegs (rated to 100psi) and being stainless steel will last ages. Easy to clean too.

I don’t home brew anymore but cornies were the thing back then.

A mate of mine swears by re-using those 9 pint mini-kegs.

I have a load of empty bottles sat doing nothing in the garage if you want to collect (Midlands).

Thanks very much for the offer, I’m in Glasgow so a bit far to come 😉

I’ll try the cornies I think.

I use wilkinsons own brand – these have a low rent pressure regulator on top (basically a hole in the cap with Ann lasting band); if the pressure gets to high it bleeds itself. The brew is generally spot on, perhaps a little too fuzzy for te cheap tap, but still good.

These Ballihoo ones are supposed to have built-in pressure regulators too – not sure what pressure they’re meant to blow off at. It seems to be more a problem with the blow moulding process, the first one went along the seam and the second has gone at a flaw on the base.

Oh well, two cornies ordered, I’ll gove those a go.

Don’t forget you’ll need CO2, a regulator, cornie in/out disconnects (if not included in your cornie purchase), beer line and a dispensing tap.

Beer engine and polypins FTW.

Beer can be drunk with a shorter conditioning time.

They are great for low ABV English style ales.

I also have 2 of the old Boots aluminium pressure kegs, blocked the old valves up and fitted a CO2 injector valve. They are rock solid and have proper O ring seals. Got they off ebay for a few quid.

They are on offer at one of the home brew shops on line for £35 each .

Thanks for the heads up. Ordered a couple in advance for when I want to start kegging (won’t be for a while yet). You don’t see a lot of 2nd hand ones these days, certainly not at that price! Plus if you order a bag of their discounted hops that tips you over the threshold for free delivery!!

I also ordered two. Cheers for the headsup.
Will go nicely with my Grainfather which should arrive next week.

Don’t forget you’ll need CO2, a regulator, cornie in/out disconnects (if not included in your cornie purchase), beer line and a dispensing tap.

Aye, more gubbins to buy – for the CO2, I’ve seen the wee inflators using the disposable cylinders, or bigger ones using Sodastream canisters. Any big advantage going that way if it’s not huge quantities?

been thinking about this

could you not harness the CO2 that is being produced at low levels by the yeast , capture it , and then use it to push the beer out and keep you ale nicely carbonated at a low level of Co2

If you were to Jury rig a car inner tube to a UST bike valve installed in the lid area, then as the beer secondary feremnts it blows up te inner tube like a balloon but at afew more psi. Then , as you remove beer from the bottom some of the CO2 goes back into the barrel to fill the headspace and equalise the pressure

Beer would keep for maybe 6 -8 weeks like this.

Might be a tiny amount of smell pick up , but probably not noticable .

Bike tubes too bulky , and low volume , maybe a wheel barrow tube might be better .

The Co2 is there , I imagine a car tube will hold 3 – 5 psi without failing , anad if it does look like its about to pop just deflate it .

Would need valve cores removing to allow gas flow both ways . Balloon blow up at too low pressure and im pretty sure the CO2 would vent through them as they appear permeable to gas .

could you not harness the CO2 that is being produced at low levels by the yeast , capture it , and then use it to push the beer out and keep you ale nicely carbonated at a low level of Co2

That’s how the barrels I have at the moment work – use secondary fermentation to produce enough CO2 to keep the beer fresh, and provide enough pressure to push it out the tap.

However from what I’m reading you can’t do this with the carnies, they need a higher pressure to seal, so you don’t do the secondary fermentation, you use a CO2 cylinder. Happy to be corrected on this though!

AFAIK you need to use a CO2 cylinder to seal a cornie – you can also force-carbonate the beer this way but only if the keg is cold enough (i.e. you need to keep it in a fridge/freezer). Otherwise you still have to prime the beer with sugar to carbonate (I guess that’s what you mean by secondary fermentation?)

Cornies need a CO2 source to work.

They also need quite a lot so the small 8g or 16g cylinders are no good.

You need a Hambleton Bard S30 cylinder or larger.

Some people use a CO2 fire extinguisher or source a proper pub type CO2 cylinder.

Some info here

http://kegtopia.co.uk/Set%20Up%20Guide.html

http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/cornelius.htm

I’ve read that it’s essential to cool the beer before serving from a Cornie otherwise the pressure will cause a lot of foaming – is that true? In which case I guess you’re looking at a fridge to keep the kegs in or a relatively expensive flash chiller just before the serving tap? One of those articles linked above covers cooling methods but doesn’t mention what happens if you omit it!

I’ve read that it’s essential to cool the beer before serving from a Cornie otherwise the pressure will cause a lot of foaming – is that true?

Yes. The Co2 will try to escape the beer once it is warmed up.

Even if you’ve naturally carbed the beer at room temperature (i.e. it’s not been cooled at any stage)?

If a liquid absorbs the same amount of gas for a given pressure, then when a warmer liquid is de-pressurized the gas molecules have more energy and escape more quickly, causing more foam, than they would if the liquid and the gas was cooler.

I think/guess.

zilog6128 – Member
I’ve read that it’s essential to cool the beer before serving from a Cornie otherwise the pressure will cause a lot of foaming – is that true? In which case I guess you’re looking at a fridge to keep the kegs in or a relatively expensive flash chiller just before the serving tap? One of those articles linked above covers cooling methods but doesn’t mention what happens if you omit it!

The brewing guys I met in Arizona used those cooling sleeves you mentioned, but I wouldn’t say the beer was overly cold, just a lot cooler than the ambient temp. There wasn’t any foaming problems as far as I remember and they were serving up a good variety of beers.

Corny kegs have just turned up! Little bit battered (as expected); I assume they’re perfectly functional though so very pleased considering the price. Will take me a little while to assemble the rest of the gear I need to actually use them though unfortunately (got another couple of batches of probably 40 bottles each to bottle up over the next couple of days – definitely my least favourite part of brewing)

Yup, mine too – Just need a bit of jetwashing. I went for a Sodastream regulator, will see how that works.

Interesting. Let us know how it works out please! Are you going to be cooling the kegs or the taps at all?

Not to start with at least – I don’t think I’ll need to go much above 5psi, so hopefully shouldn’t have any problems with foaming.

(My logic is that the plastic barrels were around 5psi, and I’m not doing forced carbonation -the pressures is only to force the beer up and out the tap)

I must admit I know next to nowt about cornies (despite having bought some 🙂 ). Have you done any research to suggest that will be enough to seal the cornies & dispense beer or are you just experimenting at this stage? Will be great if it works as space is extremely limited for me!

I’ve read of other people running them at 5psi – looking at how they seal, I can’t see why they’d need a lot of pressure to seal them, that top cap is pretty solid.

But, like you, I have no experience of the things 😉

If anyone’s interested, just did the first batch. Siphoned from the bucket into the keg as usual, sealed it up, and pressurised to 10psi with the Sodastream cylinder – seems to have sealed happily with no leaks, and that’s enough to dispense the beer without too much foaming – just get a good head on it.

One tip I learned: Fit the tap before pressurising the keg – it won’t go on afterwards!

And as a postscript to the story: Fantastic service from Balliihoo Homebrew – they gave me a full credit for both the faulty pressure barrel and the non-faulty one that I’d just lost confidence in.