Hey Homebrewers.
I’ve been looking into buying a keg for quite a long time now. I love homebrewing and am looking into purchasing a new keg as a long term investment and I was wondering if all of you on the AHA forums had a preference in manufacturers.
Thanks for any help.
Love the Zappa quote. I only have experience with used pepsi (ball lock) kegs. These are the kegs that are most popular with home brewers. They are easy to use, easy to clean, etc. They are not as cheap as the pin-lock kegs but way less expensive than the new designed-for-home brewer kegs. That’s all I’ve got - hope that helps.
I chose ball lock in the beginning because they seemed more readily available. Of those, I prefer Cornelius brand kegs. Some of the other brands have annoying peculiarities (plastic gas dip tubes, straight beverage dip tubes, poppets that stick in place, unwieldy bales, etc.).
I don’t know anything about pin lock kegs.
Seems that pin locks are becoming more scarce nowadays, as well. We’re not too far off from having to buy all new, I’m thinking.
I have five. I need to gather up a couple more cuz the wife is going to upgrade her food freezer. That means I inherit the old one, which will be my lagering/carbing chamber.
I only have experience with AEB’s and I love 'em. Went with new kegs cause I wanted to jump into kegging without soda aromas, reconditioning, leaks, odd/mismatched components, etc.
Got mine (5 and 3 gallon) from Kegconnection along with a lot of other good stuff.
I’d stay away from Chinese @#$% - but that’s just me.
I was talking to another customer at the LHBS who said he bought some Chinese kegs that leaked after a few uses.
Anyone familiar with Kegco? They are selling brand new 5 gallon kegs for around $100 a piece
I’m not, but I’m curious about them as well. I have 3 of the new AEB kegs. I like them. But it sucks the poppets aren’t removeable. But, they can be removed with a needle nose pliers and replaced with universal poppets. I’m just about to retire an old finicky keg I think and get another new one.
I used ball-lock and pin-lock Cornelius and Spartanburg kegs in the past. However, I decided to buy all new AEB kegs when I reentered the hobby after a long hiatus. It doesn’t make sense to pay sixty to seventy dollars for beat up old kegs with deteriorated rubber. I used to get kegs that looked almost brand new after a good cleaning for $15.00 each.
I do not find the poppets on the AEB kegs to be a problem. I do not remove the posts when cleaning my kegs. Instead, I fill a keg with cleaning solution after giving it good rinse, push-down on the liquid poppet to allow the tube to fill, and let the lid dangle in the keg with the O-ring loose. I let everything soak for a about fifteen minutes before sealing the keg, hooking up a CO2 cylinder and picnic tap, pressurizing the tank, and bleeding cleaning solution through the picnic tap. I use picnic taps for my kegs; therefore, it is an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. To rinse, I drain the cleaning solution from the keg, push down on the liquid poppet to allow the tube drain, rinse the keg and lid well, fill the keg with approximately one-half a gallon of clean hot water, affix the lid, hook up a CO2 cylinder and picnic tap, and run the water through the picnic tap. To sanitize, I spray the lid and gasket with Star San solution, pour about a pint of the solution into the keg, rotate the keg to coat all surfaces, hook up the CO2 cylinder and picnic tap, and run the Star San that is in the keg through the picnic tap. My process sounds like a pain in the backside. However, it is easy in practice, and I get a cleaned and sanitized keg and picnic tap out the process.
By the way, a pin punch (or a punch in an arbor press) is the correct tool for removing the poppets on AEB kegs. One wants to push the poppet out.
I just ordered two of them. I’ll let you know how they turn out.
Beverage elements are currently selling 5-gallon AEB kegs for $99.95.
https://bvrgelements.com/product/NEW-5-Gallon-Keg-Ball-Lock/
I think it’s great they warn you of issues with removing the posts. I had issues with 2 kegs and had to send them back to Northern Brewer. Fortunately they took them back and sent replacements that the posts could be removed from. I don’t understand why they manufacture these kegs with posts that are difficult and/or made to not be removed. What about pieces of hop debris? That’s not just gonna come out of there when running sanitizer through the posts. I’m not all that worried about that as I try pretty hard to keep hops out of the keg when racking to the serving keg. But still…it’s just an annoyance.
I have several of the 3-gallon AEB kegs (3-gallons is my standard finished batch size). All of the posts are easy to remove on these kegs. In fact, one keg was shipped with the posts loose.
I use whole cones with a false bottom because I loath using pellets. Every time I use pellets, I realize why I stick with whole cones.
I wish the 3 gallon kegs cost less. But they cost just as much, and more in some cases, than the 5 gallon kegs. It’s crazy. I usually put in the comments of the order to make sure the posts can be removed before shipping.
The difference in the amount of steel is minimal. I’m sure most of it is labor. If there was a price difference, it would be very small due to materials and freight.
Good call. I still get 5 gallon kegs since I never know if I’ll want to jump to 5 gallon batches again someday. Right now I do 4 gallon batches. Just have the extra head space, not too big a deal.
I always assumed the higher cost of 3 gallon kegs was due to the lower economies of scale. They don’t make as many, so the fixed costs of manufacturing them are shared by a smaller number of units. Just a guess, though.
New 3 gal kegs cost less than 5 gallon kegs. Small difference in price. There is the same amount of parts, just a little less steel, the number of welds is the same. The labor would be almost identical.
In the used market the high cost for the 3 is due to the low number that were made. I have seen some large used cornies, 15 gallons, and the price on those was very high due to the rarity.