Conditioning in a mini-keg

[Not_so_brite]

I have been using swing-top bottles up until now which have been great for my 5l batches, however as I'm now brewing 10l, I have bought a 5l mini-keg too so I can put half in here and the rest in the bottles.

The mini-keg comes with a ball lock lid, regulator (it uses 16g CO2 cartridges), and dispensing tap.

I've read that beer conditioned in a keg needs less priming sugar than beer in bottles - is this correct? If so, should I add the wort to the mini-keg directly from the fermenter and then add the sugar? I can then add sugar into whatever is left in the fermenter before bottling this?

Could I also use a mini-keg as a storage vessel - for example, once it had finished fermenting, could I put it in a keg without any sugar, put a lid on it and just continue to condition it for a few weeks? Then, either decant into another mini-keg and add sugar to carbonate or just add sugar to the keg where it had been stored?

 

[Banbeer]

Hi, been using the 5L mini keg myself for a couple of months now and yes you don't need as much priming sugar as in bottles. The amount is between 12 and 15 grams per 5L keg.
As for using them as storage not sure but I can't see any reason why not, I presume you have the grey bungs that the tap slides into and they're easy to get off.

 

[Ben034]

I have been using swing-top bottles up until now which have been great for my 5l batches, however as I'm now brewing 10l, I have bought a 5l mini-keg too so I can put half in here and the rest in the bottles.

The mini-keg comes with a ball lock lid, regulator (it uses 16g CO2 cartridges), and dispensing tap.

I've read that beer conditioned in a keg needs less priming sugar than beer in bottles - is this correct? If so, should I add the wort to the mini-keg directly from the fermenter and then add the sugar? I can then add sugar into whatever is left in the fermenter before bottling this?

Could I also use a mini-keg as a storage vessel - for example, once it had finished fermenting, could I put it in a keg without any sugar, put a lid on it and just continue to condition it for a few weeks? Then, either decant into another mini-keg and add sugar to carbonate or just add sugar to the keg where it had been stored?

I'm sure you could store it in the keg but I can't see why you would want to. If you add sugar to the same keg a few weeks down the line, you may as well add it straight away and then condition once carbonated for as many weeks / months as required. There is no need to condition prior to carbonation for most styles.

Some people do like to condition in a secondary depending on the style which you could do, but then you would need to transfer to a second keg to leave behind any sediment etc. I wouldn't bother personally.

 

[Not_so_brite]

Thanks, both - useful information.

The reason for asking about storage was that I was thinking of getting a cheap keg like this one: https://brew2bottle.co.uk/collections/mini-kegs/products/5ltr-mini-keg-rubber-plug so I could put half the batch there and leave it un-carbonated, while I primed the other half in my main keg and served it out of here: https://brewkegtap.co.uk/collection...s/5l-minikeg-party-kit?variant=22849203830865

When I had finished drinking from the main keg, I'd then just clean, sanitise, and refill from the storage keg, and add the priming sugar so that I could start the process all over again.

Over time I could then build up a backlog of un-carbonated 5l batches in various mini-kegs that I could move over to a serving mini-keg. I suppose I'd need to be very careful about oxygen affecting the stored beer, which is maybe why this is not normally done?

 

[Ben034]

I think I would store in 5l glass demijohns if I were going to store long-term as easier to clean than the mini kegs. Personally I would still be concerned about oxydisation with your plan. You could give it a shot though.