Want Sanke Kegs??
A Great Opportunity for HB members

In a recent email, I told everyone about the Sanke kegs available to the club for $15 each. I have gotten a couple of responses. Several people have put in their orders for one or more of them. However, I got a couple of questions that let me know that not everyone knows what Sanke kegs are, or how to use them. So, hopefully the following will help clear up some questions as to what they are and how to use them in homebrewing.

First of all, these are not the 5 gal Corny (Cornelius) kegs that homebrewers commonly use to keg their beer. Corny kegs were originally used in the softdrink industry. However, they have been replaced by plastic and so will eventually be disappearing. So if you need some, get them in the next year or so or they may start to become hard to find. But that's a whole different issue.

Sanke kegs are the larger kegs used for commercial beer. You can keg in them but you'll need the right kind of tap, and cleaning can be problematic (though not at all impossible). The typical Budweiser kegs are 15.5 gal (1/2 beer barrel), but the ones available through Craig are 13.2 gal imports. They are from brands that Cone is no longer carrying. So this is a win-win situation for everyone. Cheap kegs for us, and they get rid of them for a little cash. And they are cheap - $45 would be a more typical price for legitimately obtained kegs.

Now, what do you do with them? Firstly, they can be used as fermenters, just take off the tap fitting and add one of those little orange carboy caps to put in your airlock. Ferment an entire 10 gal batch with plenty of headspace, no more hop splooge on the ceiling if the airlock or blow-off tube plugs Ð cause no matter how vigorous your fermentation, it ain't likely to try to climb out of the fermenter.

But the main use is to convert them for use as boil kettles, mash tuns, and hot liquor tuns. You would use these with propane burners and brew outside. There are many advantages to this approach, not the least of which is eliminating potential boilovers on the stove. You also improve the quality of your beer by doing a full boil; rather that boiling a few gallons on the stove and then adding water.

Check out the following URL's for some more information and ideas. These pages have some good documents that detail keg conversion and also show how the kegs can be used in homebrewing systems. I have given you just a few links, they will lead you to other pages easily, or check out the searchable archives of the HomeBrew Digest for even more info. As you'll soon figure out, there is no one right way Ð either for basic keg conversions or (especially for) the many varied system designs out there. Homebrewers are certainly a creative lot, but then you already knew that.

This last page shows their system and also has links to many other brewer's systems.

After looking at all this info, I'm sure more of you will want to get some of the kegs while they are available at such a good price. Wayne is talking with a friend who has a lot of metal working/welding equipment, and hopefully will have news to report shortly about a possible deal for low-cost keg conversion, if you're not wanting to tackle it yourself. Boone Welding is another good possibility. If you're at all interested in kegs, let me know shortly. After our club has had a chance to get what we want I am going to offer them to some of the other clubs, like Orlando, Tampa, and Tallahassee.