Mini Keg

A forum to discuss the various ways of getting beer into your glass.
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Mike123
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Mini Keg

Post by Mike123 » Tue Nov 01, 2022 9:26 pm

I've bought a couple of £6 mini kegs (5l) off ebay to try. I was just wondering how much of an air gap to leave when filling? I plan prime lightly with 15g of sugar for conditioning.

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Cobnut
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Re: Mini Keg

Post by Cobnut » Wed Nov 02, 2022 9:30 am

When I've used these in the past, I've left somewhere between 1/2" and 1" at the top - although it is kind of hard to judge it - and have used 10-12g table sugar which gave a pretty decent fizz.
Fermenting: nowt
Conditioning: English IPA/Bretted English IPA
Drinking: Sunshine Marmalade, Festbier, Helles Bock, Smokey lagery beer, Irish Export StoutCascade APA (homegrown hops), Orval clone, Impy stout, Duvel clone, Conestoga (American Barley wine)
Planning: Dark Mild, Kozel dark (ish), Simmonds Bitter, Bitter, Citra PA and more!

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IPA
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Re: Mini Keg

Post by IPA » Wed Nov 02, 2022 3:20 pm

10 grammes should be more than enough.
"You're not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on." Dean Martin

1. Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, thoroughly used, totally worn out and loudly proclaiming... "f*ck, what a trip

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Mike123
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Re: Mini Keg

Post by Mike123 » Wed Nov 02, 2022 9:26 pm

Thanks for your replies. As I am not a fan of lots of fizz I will give this a go. This would work out at 2g sugar per litre of beer, is this enough to condition beer in bottles too without too much fizz?

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Cobnut
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Re: Mini Keg

Post by Cobnut » Wed Nov 02, 2022 10:36 pm

Mike123 wrote:
Wed Nov 02, 2022 9:26 pm
This would work out at 2g sugar per litre of beer, is this enough to condition beer in bottles too without too much fizz?
Yes.
Fermenting: nowt
Conditioning: English IPA/Bretted English IPA
Drinking: Sunshine Marmalade, Festbier, Helles Bock, Smokey lagery beer, Irish Export StoutCascade APA (homegrown hops), Orval clone, Impy stout, Duvel clone, Conestoga (American Barley wine)
Planning: Dark Mild, Kozel dark (ish), Simmonds Bitter, Bitter, Citra PA and more!

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MashBag
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Re: Mini Keg

Post by MashBag » Thu Nov 03, 2022 7:26 am

Mike123 wrote:
Wed Nov 02, 2022 9:26 pm
Thanks for your replies. As I am not a fan of lots of fizz I will give this a go. This would work out at 2g sugar per litre of beer, is this enough to condition beer in bottles too without too much fizz?
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IPA
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Re: Mini Keg

Post by IPA » Thu Nov 03, 2022 8:49 am

Yes
"You're not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on." Dean Martin

1. Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, thoroughly used, totally worn out and loudly proclaiming... "f*ck, what a trip

It's better to lose time with friends than to lose friends with time (Portuguese proverb)

Alone we travel faster
Together we travel further
( In an admonishing email from our golf club)

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MashBag
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Re: Mini Keg

Post by MashBag » Fri Nov 04, 2022 8:28 am

Mike123 wrote:
Tue Nov 01, 2022 9:26 pm
I've bought a couple of £6 mini kegs (5l) off ebay to try. I was just wondering how much of an air gap to leave when filling? I plan prime lightly with 15g of sugar for conditioning.
If you want an accurate fill, you could fill by weight. Stand in on the scales. Zero it.
Brim it with water, this weight will be its full capacity. 1g water = 1 ml. From there you can work out everything else.

I do this with "bag in box" jobbies.

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Cobnut
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Re: Mini Keg

Post by Cobnut » Fri Nov 04, 2022 9:48 am

MashBag wrote:
Fri Nov 04, 2022 8:28 am
If you want an accurate fill, you could fill by weight. Stand in on the scales. Zero it.
Brim it with water, this weight will be its full capacity. 1g water = 1 ml. From there you can work out everything else.
That’s a good suggestion, but no need to pre-filled with water - simply put the empty keg on the scales and zero them. Then fill with beer. I do this for cornies, but I approximate 1Kg as 1 litre of beer. You won’t be far off with that, but if you want to be more precise, you need to base it on the FG which will typically mean 1L beer weighs a little more than 1Kg, e.g. at 1.010, 1L = 1.01Kg
Fermenting: nowt
Conditioning: English IPA/Bretted English IPA
Drinking: Sunshine Marmalade, Festbier, Helles Bock, Smokey lagery beer, Irish Export StoutCascade APA (homegrown hops), Orval clone, Impy stout, Duvel clone, Conestoga (American Barley wine)
Planning: Dark Mild, Kozel dark (ish), Simmonds Bitter, Bitter, Citra PA and more!

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MashBag
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Re: Mini Keg

Post by MashBag » Fri Nov 04, 2022 6:10 pm

The reason for the prefill was to ascertain the airspace accurately and then work backwards to fill. No matter though really.

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