Maintain pressure in King Keg with air, using inner tube ?

[Richard Lander]

Hunting all over the internet for wisdom, this seems to be a good place to dig deeper.

Looking for an alternative to adding in CO2 to my King Keg to maintain pressure. I appreciate that the seals need to be sound. Using a HB gas bottle, with no local refill service, is costing more in postage than gas.

I could fit a tyre valve to the cap, and pump it up with a bicycle pump, and contaminate my beer with air and bacteria, which would be a bad idea.

So how about I extend the idea and put in a chunky inner tube, and pump that up with air, and the tube keeps the air away from the beer.

Then I get to the point where I have doubts that the tube rubber would be good for my beer, and leave me with rubber contamination, and make it another bad idea. When I check I find that inner tubes, and chewing gum, are both made of Butyl Rubber, but all Buytl is not created equally, and so some is graded "food safe". I am not planning to swallow the tube, which is a lot harder than swallowing the gum, so perhaps keeping beer in contact with an inner tube is not so harmful.

I expect that smarter people than me have already been all over this topic, I just could not find much further information online.

Seems this is parallel to the pub "Key Keg" with an internal bladder Het meest innovatieve, veilige en duurzame PET fust - KeyKeg but of course their bladder will be specially made and certified. I am looking to recreate this for personal use.

Sure I could give it a go, but want to avoid getting a "Darwin Award" for fatal self-experimentation. Feed the beer to the dog ? Poor dog. Surely the dog would be sick from the beer long before it got sick from the rubber, messy solution, not kind. Make it all up with water in the keg, and check for off tastes ?

Anyone been down this track before ? Maybe there is a smarter alternative solution ?

 

[simon12]

Very interesting idea, my 1st thoughts are could you use the bag from a 20l bag in box wine/cider? either putting the inner tube inside it or finding a way to connect it to the valve directly. I have no idea about rubber types but will post again if I have any other thoughts.

 

[Tanglefoot]

Sounds like you're overcomplicating things,
I sugar prime beers I put in my barrels and usually don't need any extra Co2

 

[Richard Lander]

Thanks for the good lateral thinking. Perhaps I am looking in the wrong place. I usually put 100g of sugar into the keg, and get some way down before extra gas is needed. Perhaps I should put in more priming sugar ? Perhaps I should make more head space in the keg, to accommodate more gas. Perhaps my pressure releif valve is getting slack.

Sounds like you're overcomplicating things,
I sugar prime beers I put in my barrels and usually don't need any extra Co2

 

[Buffers brewery]

I had things to do today but this post managed to distract me and conduct a Xbeeriment.

There was a post a year or so ago when a member tried to use a condom as an inflatable bladder! Don’t know how it went....but.......

The idea of a tyre inner tube does not appeal. So my alternative suggestion is a mylar balloon as used for CO2 collection. I have one in my shed which has been filled with CO2 for weeks and is showing no signs of deflating..

So, as my King Keg lids are more versatile than the regular cap I fitted a deflated balloon to the gas in connector.

Said balloon was then stuffed inside my KK that had 2 gallons of water...

The lid was fitted and the balloon inflated with a car tyre pump.......up to 10 p.s.i.

Connected the beer out line.....and 2 gallons of water were dispensed.

The downside was that when the pressure in the barrel was atmospheric the mylar balloon was still inflated and it took a bit of time to deflate it to get it out.

Could be an option.....

 

[Richard Lander]

This is amazing. I am very impressed with your Xbeerimental efforts. Great work ! Now learning about your work on the "Buffers Cap".
Watching the video
I will enjoy going down this beer flavoured rabbit hole.
Next stop, Mylar balloon !

I had things to do today but this post managed to distract me and conduct a Xbeeriment.

There was a post a year or so ago when a member tried to use a condom as an inflatable bladder! Don’t know how it went....but.......

The idea of a tyre inner tube does not appeal. So my alternative suggestion is a mylar balloon as used for CO2 collection.

 

[Buffers brewery]

If you need any help with the pimping of the Mylar balloon there are a few threads relating to CO2 collection. This is mine. @DocAnna and @Coffin Dodger have also posted.

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/another-bruloonlock-method.90942/