Are they practical for the homebrewer? A friend of mine is moving and is giving me a straight pony and a slim sixth commercial type kegs. Just wondering how to service them or if I should just use them if i want them filled at a brewery.
I use this sanke valve removal tool
. It allows you to compress the valve so that the spiral lock ring can be removed.
I have 5 pony kegs, but I primarily use them for bulk aging, because I prefer to use corny kegs for everyday use.
Ouch, $80 for that valve tool. I guess the kegs are free though. OK, so now I know how to get the thing open, any tips on effective cleaning?
Is the danger of the “spear” lessened with this tool?
You could spend $80 for that tool and have to deal with swapping fittings, or you could buy a couple of cornies that work with what you already have.
Are you 100% sure that your friend owned those kegs and didn’t just fail to return them?
What danger?
If you didn’t want to open the sanke keg you could fill a corny keg with a hot solution of pbw or oxyclean, and use CO2 to push the solution via a transfer hose into the sanke keg, soaking it for sometime. But then you would have to rinse it that way and sanitize it that way. Which requires a lot of disconecting and reconecting of hoses (a lot of work). I don’t do it this way beasue I want a complete srub down of the inside.
If you can open the sanke keg up with the sanke keg tool and soak it like you would a corny keg, you can scub the inside of the sanke keg using a carboy brush.
These sanke kegs are useful when you have the tool to take them apart, but if you don’t have the tool it can be a pain. I would much rather have a corny keg becasue they are easier to work with. Although, these sanke kegs are great for storing and bulk aging beer.
Well, I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt. He’s a stand up guy moving his family, live-in Grandma and four dogs to San Antonio from Portland. He’s also giving me a 5 lb. CO2 tank (full).
No benefit of the doubt - anyone who leaves Beervana for TX is immediately suspect. 
There are places you can return kegs for the deposit, even if you didn’t pay the deposit. The breweries want their kegs back. Take that cash and buy yourself a corny or two, fewer headaches.
Ha! Yeah, he’s pretty bummed. His wife’s family is there and they have a baby too so it’s a family thing.
Good suggestion on the trade in. I’d rather have a couple more Cornies. I’m pretty pumped about the CO2 tank.
Good advice Tom. I went to a LHBS this morning and traded the ponies for a Corny a 5000ml flask a stainless racking cane and some lactic acid.
That wasn’t really my advice, but ok.
Just to clarify, the LHBS is also a bottle shop that does keg fills on a large selection of commercial and craft beers. They gave me their standard $30 deposit credit for returning the kegs and I assume they will in turn return the kegs to the appropriate distributor.
Hmmm, I bought my last keg off of Craigslist for 15. At 30 bucks I could double my money. Not bad!
Ah yes, that makes a big difference 