14 replies to this topic

[brewman]

Those of you who use them for kegging, how do you fill yours and carb them?Dan

[BlKtRe]

I use a sankey tap with the 1/4" adapter. You need two of them. This replaces the barbs that normally comes with the sankey tap. Since Im a bottoms up guy when carbing (Im weird like that) I take out the white check ball valve in the sankey tap so gas can be pushed to the bottom of the bev tube. This ball valve is replaced for serving. I also have a gauge. The gauge goes on the the other port so I know how much psi is actually in the keg vs using the gauge on the co2 reg. But this really isn't needed. When serving the 1/4" adapter also allows conversion to serve with your homebrew setup. Works great.

[BlKtRe]

Here is a pic of the setup. The top adapter is whats accepts co2 for carbing which is bottoms up. You want to do top down then you would put gas where the gauge is. The nice thing about using the gauge is it also acts as a valve to keep beer from squirting out since there is nothing there otherwise to stop it except a flapper valve that's inside that gas in port. I wont trust that.

[Kremer]

I fill all kegs through the posts, tube to ball lock fitting.force carb like normal...My sanke coupler with ball lock fittings:httpss://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-_1ysxl0jSAM/RZqJK14mpZI/AAAAAAAAAXU/KYKb4Dpy6G4/s640/100_5487.jpg

[brewman]

why cant you just take the spear out and fill it?Dan

[BlKtRe]

why cant you just take the spear out and fill it?Dan

You can, and I do that too. Most the time I use my modified TC caps for closed transfers. You can see one in my pic on the background keg.

[brewman]

Seems to me all this modifying of your couples is just a waste of time. If your going to take the spear out for cleaning then why not just fill it up before putting it back in. Here are some other points I see in doing this.Save money on adaptersNo worry of beer squirting out as you can see the level in the keg.Never forget to put valves back into your coupler.I for one think Ill do a major keg clean when I empty it, seal it up and then do a light clean and sanitation then fill.Seems the easiest way to me.Dan

[BlKtRe]

Its not a waste of time.I use my sankeys as fermenters>condition tanks>serving. The modified caps has many functions for this process. The cap includes a 3/8" thermowell, gas in adapter, and a 1/2" port for a airlock, blowoff tube, or racking cane. I use the gas in for doing closed transfers using co2 racking by hooking two sankeys together using the modified caps and racking canes. This way I can transfer 15g of product on the same plane without having to lift a vessel. The 1/2" racking canes make quick work of it. If all I was doing was using the sankeys to serve then I wouldn't need the modified caps. These caps are one of the sweetest pieces of post boil equipment I own.

[SchwanzBrewer]

I have a couple small sankes and I just use those threaded adapters as well. No big deal. Also, the nipple on the liquid side is perfect size for the auto siphon tubing, so I rack straight from the carboy to the keg if I want. If you want to know how much to fill it, get a scale. Take your keg and fill it with water and weigh it. When you go to fill it with beer, just put it on the scale and note the weight. You will know exactly how much head space you have from that. Water and beer are close enough in weight that it shouldn't make a noticeable difference and the weight measurement error will fall into the error of the scale. Easy peasy.Cheers,Rich

[brewman]

Where do you get those modified TC caps?Dan

[BlKtRe]

Where do you get those modified TC caps?Dan

I designed them Swagman welded them up for me with some improvements.

[brewman]

How much did it cost all together?Dan

[BlKtRe]

How much did it cost all together?Dan

I already had some SS fittings that he used for the project so my price will be different. Swag has built some more for other brewers using 100% of his parts and pieces. I dont know what he charged for those. Give him a PM and tell the old fart "Hi" for me. He might give you a deal, well then again he might charge more if you mention my name.....

[BlKtRe]

I fill all kegs through the posts, tube to ball lock fitting.force carb like normal...My sanke coupler with ball lock fittings:httpss://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-_1ysxl0jSAM/RZqJK14mpZI/AAAAAAAAAXU/KYKb4Dpy6G4/s640/100_5487.jpg

Cant remember, the threads are different between the two aren't they?

[Kremer]

Cant remember, the threads are different between the two aren't they?

Do you mean the gas and liquid ports on the sanke valve itself? Those are identical 'beer nut' threads.The keg posts? I honestly don't remember.