Stripping a Keykeg
At the recent Alltech event their Kenticky brewery was dispensening the draught beers from Keykegs. Naturally in the interests of brewing I had to investigate them and the gave me 3 (empty afraid) to take away.
So what is a Keykeg? Basically it is a disposable, non-returnable, lightweight 30 litre keg. It is a bag, inside a bottle, inside a box!
They are of Dutch origin, here the link: http://www.keykeg.com/en/?gclid=CLGOqaDhz7gCFQsb4QodCHYALg
Prices are reasonable at about €12-50
Anyways what do they look like and whats in it for us?
Beware there is a lot of CO2 under pressure inside so be careful.
Photos 1 & 2 shows the basics – that is a G-Type coupler – widely used in the US
Photo 3 shows the tools required
First step is to carefully cut the shrink wrap back to the edge of the Cardboard (P4)
Then you can unflip the folded over plastic (P5)
Next is to de-pressurise the plastic sphere. Use a screw driver to press down on the plastic bit. You may need to bang down a few times to get the initial pressure down a bit (P6)
Photo 7 shows the bag inside the sphere. Now its a bit of a struggle to get the inner bag out throught the neck!
Use a big screwdiver to lever out the plastic neck of the inner back (P8 & P9)
Use the cane and the scissore to try to persuade the inner bag out! (P10 & P11)
Finally we have the sphere – the neck diameter is about 36.5 mm.(P12 & P13)
What can they be used for?
Put back into its box it will make a fermenter or a grain store.
Thinking outside the box! if you could stick fairy lights on it it would make a great girly thing for the garden.
Also a big goldfish bowel or a terrarium ( Garden in a bottle)
I have a couple spare if anyone wants one.
On the theme of disposable beer containers:
On the other bar that was serving loads of different beers some of the breweries were using a different disposable system. This looked liked a large brown pet bottle of about 30 L capacity filled with beer and fitted with what looked like a standard S-Type ( Heino) keg coupler. My blagging attempts failed me this time as the breweries wanted them back.
Looks like they may be Eco Kegs: http://www.ecokeg.com/
Myself and dempsey disected a keg of a similar nature to this ones. From My Alltech seminar it seems that they cost alltech 20 dollars and that buying in bulk with other breweries ( group buy). The irish brew lads were complaining that the disposable kegs were costin 60 euros or thereabouts.
The one dempsey and me disected was different to the pics above they were in a tough plastic keg casing and wit a tough inner which seemed high quality. We saw they are patented in austrailia.
The ones in this post are decent value at 12.50 but would they be suitable for commercial use or is a homebrew idea? How durable? Cardboard outer versus the tough plastic outer on the ones I mentioned?
I always said you had big balls Prof D :)
When i was down in the Fransiscan Well the other day(did i mention that already?), anyway while down there i noticed a stack of kegs marked recycle same as the ones Brenmurph is on about, looked far beter job than the ones in the pic on a quick visual. Never thought to ask for one going away, all they could have said is"feck off boy" ;D
me and dempsey took one apart to see could they be disassembled ( rather than Disected) anyway we had to break it apart and when we say how it was made its seems definatly a one trip item. Shame really and Im not sure if the producers really are interested in recycling because there could be a second hand market for these in homebrewing circles.
Anyway Im using the very sturdy Plastic keg casing as a compost bin / waste bin in my polytunnel and the dip tube is now a pippette! The rest has to go for plastic recycling.
Terrible shame cos the materials and technology is as good if not better then the homebrew gear being retailed e.g. Ikegs , fermenter buckets, plastic kegs and so on.
The keg were on about is in will's posted ,link above http://www.ecokeg.com/ its the blue kegs that look like normal guiness kegs
Yep those are the same ones in the Well Brenmurph except these were black, don't know what beer was in them, i was hoping if i ever got one it could be used as a secondary/carboy, but you reckon not?
theres a large plastic disc which can be seen in the pic. The whole 'carboy' can be taken out if uou just rip out that disc. Prob is you cant get the coupler thingy open or off its put in with a click in one trip device.. We were even bemused as to how the manufacturer figured it out.
Terrible shame when you see / feel the quality of these things. Im guessing these are the ones oliver from the porterhouse and the chap from OSLO galway was referin to when they said the cost 60 euros compared the cardboard box ones for 12-50 avove.
Altech ship to china their premium barrel aged beers im sure quite expensive beer that might justify a one way keg. Pierce lyons said the kegs cost them 20 dollars butin in bulk with other brewer.ies
as a homebrew its a no go I think but try get your hands on one and strip it down yourself. Im sure therll b loads knockin about in the future
As a further experiment it is worth a lash, maybe the lads in the Cork might donate one to the cause? ::)
Wiil I'll take one if you have any left :P
If anyone wants a keykeg or ecokeg just PM me, I'll de gas in the cellar for ya an all
OK Renier, Will bring one to the next Boro meet!
Would the PET outer bottle make a fermenter?
Yep, some kind of stand for support.
Not great for long term storage though.
Also would make a lovely set of earrings, or something to hang on the christmas tree
Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but if you bought one of these new how easy would they be to fill? Are they just force carved as normal?
You can refill them no bother but cleaning them would be the issue because you cannot see inside them.
I assume you can't keg condition in these as there is no way of dispensing the beer afterwards ? ;D