Back after some 20 odd years

[cask is best]

Hi everyone. I use to home brew some 20 odd years ago when i was in my late teens early 20s. My better half has just bought me a starter kit, bucket hydrometer, bitter kit barrel etc etc.
One thing that I'm not sure of is my Dad use to brew the odd kit now and then and used a keg i use to use bottles. My Dads keg had a funny looking handle on top where he use to put spark lets in the top and inject the gas now my barrel has just got a screw on lid, will i have to buy spark lets or will the barrel and beer be okay just as it is. Will i have to buy a new lid etc.

Thanks :

 

[Dunfie]

Welcome back - I'm sure you will enjoy it.

You dad probably got the CO2 sparklets from Boots when they used to have homebrew departments. They were quite an expensive way to add CO2 to the keg and were also a bit unreliable.

You have a couple of choices with your keg. First is to prime your beer when you transfer into the keg and allow the secondary fermentation to provide the CO2 and condition the beer. The second is to get an S30 valve, fit it to your keg lid and use a soda stream bottle to provide the CO2.

 

[cask is best]

Thanks for that Dunfie. I will most probably see how it goes by just priming into the keg for starters. My worry is will the pressure decrease as the keg gets used and i will end up with flat beer if so i will buy a S30 valve when i brew my next brew.

Yes my Dad did get the sparklets from Boots :) and i remember they were quite expensive.

Cheers :drink:

 

[BigYin]

Welcome back to the world of brewing :drink:

Good deal on S30 valves here : Clicky

You can then use a hambleton bard cylinder, or a sodastream 35l cylinder with an adaptor - note that as yet there isn't an adaptor to fit the bigger (newer) 60l sodastream cylinder :thumb:

 

[evanvine]

Welcome to the Forum and welcome back to brewing.
The priming/conditioning will probably only dispense obout 1/4 - 1/3 of your keg, so a gas replenisment system is essential.

 

[cask is best]

Thanks all for the warm welcome.

Thanks Big yin for the links.

Evanvine, Yes i seem to remember the last time i used a keg. After around half had been drawn from the keg it use to gurgle and splutter

 

[pjbiker]

Welcome back to the world of brewing :drink:

Good deal on S30 valves here : Clicky

You can then use a hambleton bard cylinder, or a sodastream 35l cylinder with an adaptor - note that as yet there isn't an adaptor to fit the bigger (newer) 60l sodastream cylinder :thumb:

WTF? I just bought a 60L one for nearly £20 only to find it unusable as the 35L ones seem to have been discontinued. Is this completely unusable now? someone make a new type adaptor please! I've never seen a Hambleton bard cylinder, are they easy to get? I used to buy the sodastream ones in Tesco and only pay for the gas as the checkout didn't understand the barcodes.