Which Barrel?

[Will333]

Any answers to these questions would be greatly received -

What are the advantages of a corny keg over a plastic style barrel?

Are there any other types of kegs/barrels worth considering?

Can you naturally carbonate the beer in a corny keg rather than pressurising it with C02?

Thanks!

[Fat boy quiff]

Not really used plastic barrels so I will leave that to people with more experience,but on the cornie keg question, the first thing that springs to mind is should you naturally carbonate in a cornie you will generate the trub as usual at the bottom. Since the out post has a tube that runs to the base you will inevitably draw off this debris as you extract the beer, which would continue until no trub forms.

[Jocky]

Plastic barrels are cheap, and don't require a big CO2 cylinder, which saves a lot of space. Those are the advantages.

The plain plastic barrels without a valve are fed by the pressure of priming only. When you run out of priming pressure if you want to get more beer out you have to let some air in, which is not good for your beer condition. There are other barrels which can either take the small 8g CO2 injectors or the larger S30 cylinders which solve this problem.

A corny and kit takes up more space and a lot more money, but will keep your beer in better condition, and if you buy a counter pressure filler you can even fill some bottles to take away.

[djbadger]

I used pressure barrels for years and found them easy and uncomplicated to use. I used S30 cartridges which I thought were reasonably good value. The reasons that I eventually shifted to corneys were:
Someone lent me some.
I wanted to carbonate higher for wheat beers/ other continental styles. PBs can go fairly high but then they gush like mad when they serve. With corneys you can regulate the pour by using longer lengths of beer line.
Difficulty in cooling PBs in summer - OK you can get one in a fridge but if you have more than one on it gets difficult. I ended up bottling everything in the summer.
I wanted to set up a kegorator with taps etc. It does cost some money and time but its everso nice when its up and running.

PBs are dead easy though, and can be resold if you decide to upgrade later so you could always start with them. They'll do you fine for the winter.

[DeadFall]

I've spent more money on plastic barrels than it would have cost to go the keg route over the years. I find I get 2-3 years out of them before they start to do things like split. I'll never buy another. I'm just hoping the current ones last long enough for me not to have to buy a keg and gas set up before I've cleared my credit card.

[bigdave]

Look into polykegs.