I bought 8 of them back in April 2008 and have enjoyed them many times over the last few years.
These are "converted" sanke coupling 5 gallon corny kegs that I bought off the forum almost 10 years ago!
The top is a welded soda lid and coupler with a custom cut spear for the keg. You can see...
I'd rate it pretty highly and a crowd pleaser.
I had a small party the weekend following that post. The day after I went to bottle the rest up and only got 6 .5L bottles filled, hence no followup photo. Everyone enjoyed it, especially the SWMBO.
As far as notes go, the color never was...
Will do as soon as I get it carbed and start bottling, which should be some time this weekend.
I will agree with you based on what I saw. The color did not seem to be all that "ruby red" but the taste seemed to be there as far as I can tell.
I'll also try to grab some other irish red's...
went into the keg today. On paper, this beer went as close to the recipe's numbers as I can get. I'll crash cool and carb this week, posting thoughts at some point.
Brewed about 3 weeks ago, hitting every number and mashing at ~156F. Except for a minor hop stoppage(which is leading me to avoid the 2x 90" bends I use), the brew day went perfect.
Fermented @ 63F for two weeks and counting, planning to keg and crash cool some point next week.
Sampled and...
Add me as another copper-PIPE distribution for propane.
I use Copper pipe to Copper NPT to gas valve to Brass flare. to steel gas hose to the burner flare.
I also used yellow gas thread tape for the non-flare fittings. It's important to NOT use tape on the flare connections.
Well, the new steel rivets worked fine.
After the brew day, I think that the aluminum ones will work fine as long as you don't put the keg under a large amount of intense heat, such as a banjo burner at it's highest pressures. Since I wasn't trying to bring water to a boil as fast as possible...
Just a quick note:
I actually managed to MELT an aluminum rivet the other day when trying to bring about 10 gallons of ground water to a boil. The inside of the keg apparently got way too hot and lead to the rivet melting.
A plus if I need to make some aluminum ingots, but my heat shield...
I used to keep a tiny flat head around to do the removal part, but have since used a jeweler multi-bit screwdriver that has the perfect thickness and width to work.
I believe it's a Husky-brand that's avaliable at Home Depot. It's great since it has bits that will handles all sorts of tiny...
You can operate it just fine without the ball check in there. The only issue is that when decouple from the keg, any fluid in the line can flow out thru the coupler and make a mess.
OT:I'm just glad that the wet/frigid winter is coming to an end and brewing can finally restart.
The snap rings are much more durable and friendlier for folks that are all thumbs. The spiral rings can become bent after repeated attempts and become a REAL pain to get compressed. They are also slightly easier to get out since it's quick pull with the pliers.
This of course, only applies if...
You are going to "hurt" yourself more by consuming the product you are making over that of whatever the stainless or brass fittings will contribute.
Now, maybe if you powdered the fittings in lead and used galvanized steel....