Carbonating and Dispensing from Corny

[Iain Wishart]

Hi,

I'm just using cornys for first time. Am naturally carbonating and have a pressure guage fitted. I have a bulb co2 injector for dispensing when ready but considering getting one of the mini regulators which also take 16g co2 bulbs. Once fully conditioned is it a case of releasing pressure with PRV to around 10-12 psi and then just top up as required to dispense? Also if I get a regulator would it again be a case of lowering the pressure to serving pressure once keg conditioned and then fitting regulator to maintain?
Any assistance would be much appreciated.
Cheers

 

[AnimatedGIF]

If I understand your plan, you'll get through a few 16g bulbs to dispense a corny I'd have thought. You'd be better off as a minimum using the mini regulator with a sodastream co2 bottle.
What volume is the keg you have?

 

[tigertim]

Possibly also worth mentioning at this stage is that my experience of Cornies (or, at least, the four slightly dented but fully functional ones I've ben using for over a decade) is that it's possibly worth applying a bit of positive CO2 pressure prior to the natural carbonation process.

The reason being that sometimes the o-rings don't fully seal whilst the keg is at atmospheric pressure, and I wouldn't want you to come back after a week or two and find all your naturally-generated CO2 had just drifted through the seal and away.

Again, might just be my particular vintage of Corny with a life of mistreatment behind them; one, in particular, I actually have to pull up on the lid until the keg has about 5psi in it before it'll stay sealed. Once it *is* sealed though, it's golden.

ETA : As above, I'm not sure the 16g bulbs would be particularly cost-effective for dispensing a 19 litre keg, if that's the size of Corny you have. I have one of those regulators (from The Malt Miller) and I use it to dispense pre-carbonated beer from a 5 litre keg I've transferred to, in order to go camping or to a friends' house. In that case, normally one bulb seems to dispense the whole 5 litres but I wouldn't bet on too much more than that. So I'd say you'd be looking at four 16g bulbs at the very least for a 19 litre Corny.

 

[Iain Wishart]

Thankyou, that's great, yeah it's 19l cornys and did use some co2 to seal the lid to just over 10psi and seems to be holding pressure. Yeah longterm would like to go with the tank for co2. Can the malt Miller mini regulator be adapted to use soda stream etc do you know? Also once beer carbonated am I right in saying just need to drop pressure to around 10-12 before fitting regulator to dispense. Many thanks.

 

[fluketamer]

If I understand your plan, you'll get through a few 16g bulbs to dispense a corny I'd have thought. You'd be better off as a minimum using the mini regulator with a sodastream co2 bottle.
What volume is the keg you have?

this .

sodastream is a great entry to kegging.



thats how i started.

but i have discovered there are other non traditional ways to dispense beer from pressure rated vessels. there are also non traditional ways of obtaining and using co2.

a shank tank makes and stores co2 for line cleaning purging, transfering , jumping , and yes dispensing/serving beer.

Shank tank:


once you have your co2 generator set up and spunded to 35. with duotight , qd's, check valve, carb cap tee piece, jumper lines etc you can transfer co2 to pop bottles for portable dispensing or cleaning or transfers or anything.





so you can ferment your beer and spund the last few points to carb it up to a few vols. or you can transfer to a keg and prime with dextrose. then transfer co2 from your shank tank to a pop bottle. then use that co2 to dispense your corny.

this works very well for mini kegs with smaller volumes. i have never tried this with full 5 gallon cornies but it works with smaller volumes and can prolly be done with larger volumes.
if the nearest co2 exchange is an hour away and way over priced these are options that i have used very successfully.

stay away from the dog dicks. they are overpriced and inefficient at carbonating or dispensing. ymmv.

 

[Iain Wishart]

Thanks for all of that, really interesting and lots of options and potential which wasn't aware of. Much appreciated.

 

[AnimatedGIF]

Thankyou, that's great, yeah it's 19l cornys and did use some co2 to seal the lid to just over 10psi and seems to be holding pressure. Yeah longterm would like to go with the tank for co2. Can the malt Miller mini regulator be adapted to use soda stream etc do you know? Also once beer carbonated am I right in saying just need to drop pressure to around 10-12 before fitting regulator to dispense. Many thanks.

Sorry for the delay. Yes, the Malt Miller sell soda stream adaptors for the mini regulator.

 

[Iain Wishart]

Sorry for the delay. Yes, the Malt Miller sell soda stream adaptors for the mini regulator.

Ideal thankyou