Refilling Philips Perfectdraft Kegs

[CptCaveman]

Hi folks,

Not sure if anyone has or uses this system but I thought I would share a simple system I have developed to refill these kegs.

I live in France and the kegs for this system are quite easy to come by. The system is described in this thread over on brassageamateur.com. It's in French but Google translate should do the job.

Basically, these kegs have a foil bag that contains the carbonated beer. The system pumps air into the void between the keg itself and the bag to push the beer out. The system for refilling these thus involves, simply sucking the air back out with the beer outlet connected to whatever you want to suck back in. As the air is removed from between the keg and the bag, beer will be sucked in through the hose.

The first thing you need is a simple air suction pump. There is a nice description of how to put this together here (again in French). I just used this 12V pump from Amazon.co.uk. You can also find it elsewhere and goes by various names/codes including AIRPO D2028B and ROB-10398.

Then, you need to connect it to your empty keg. I improvised a solution for this using:
- a 5 x 7 mm silicon hose
- a 12 x 18mm silicon hose
- a coupler for joining two 5 x 7 mm hoses.
- two 12mm>6mm barbed straight hose coupler/reducers like here

So, the system works as follows:
- A 12mm > 6mm barbed coupler connects the 12 x 18mm silicon hose to a section of 5 x 7mm hose which in turn connects to the pump
- The other end of the 12 x 18mm silicon hose connects to the air connection of the perfect draft keg adapter
- However, we need some way to depress the air valve inside the keg adapter air connection
- To do this, we use the second 12mm > 6mm barbed coupler which goes inside the 12 x 18mm silicon hose. The idea is that the narrow end of this will push in the air valve on the air connection of the keg adapter
- However, we need air to pass through this, so we drill a few holes in it with a small bit (2 or 3mm)
- Finally, the small opening of the 12mm > 6mm barbed coupler is a little too wide to depress the airvalve, so with the help of a lighter flame, we gently heat the end for a second or two, and narrow the opening when the plastic is soft.

Hey presto. Some images of the system:

 

[8mileman]

Hi thanks for the information you have shared. I have recently purchased a perfect draft machine and am keen to refill the kegs. My diy skills are not great!! Can you clarify how I would connect the adaptor to a an external vessel containing beer? I am planning to purchase a home brew kit and then transfer beer to kegs in batches. How many times can the kegs be refilled? Any further photos would greatly appreciated thanks again for sharing your knowledge.

 

[private4587]

How would clean and sterilise the bag, i am thinking possible infection nightmares

 

[peebee]

They look great, especially for transporting smaller amounts of "bright" beer out of the house.

But one word of warning ... You appear to be using silicon tubing for beer line. The beer in the line will oxidise (or turn acetic) if left for more than a day or two. I learnt silicon tubing is very permeable to oxygen the hard way (yeuch!). Change it to something more suitable before you learn the hard way.

 

[CptCaveman]

Hi folks. Thanks for the interest.

Regarding filling your kegs - if you look at the picture I attached, there is a 5/7mm silicon hose leading to a blue bowl. You would just lead this hose to your FV and the beer would be drawn in through the tube (even from a height) whenever you turn on the pump (which you would use in bursts).

Regarding infection, over on the French forums I linked, they did 3 fill/empty cycles with water and suitable sterilizing agent and that seemed to work well.

Regarding silicon tubing - this is only needed when filling / sterilising the kegs, so nothing should be exposed for any length of time.

 

[8mileman]

Thanks sorry for what might seem like an obvious question but what is the process for sterilizing the keg, I can see from the photo as to how it can be refilled but how do you then empty the keg if you are cleaning it before refilling with beer?

 

[CptCaveman]

Thanks sorry for what might seem like an obvious question but what is the process for sterilizing the keg, I can see from the photo as to how it can be refilled but how do you then empty the keg if you are cleaning it before refilling with beer?

So over on the French forums I linked - they do 3 fill/empty cycles with sterilizing solution. To empty the keg you just need to pump air back into the void which just means connecting to the other hose connection on the pump

 

[thepatchworkdoll]

Hi Captain
Apologies if this sounds a stupid question. How do you know that the keg is full when you refill it.
Regards
Patch

 

[drunkdunc]

Hi folks,

Not sure if anyone has or uses this system but I thought I would share a simple system I have developed to refill these kegs.

I live in France and the kegs for this system are quite easy to come by. The system is described in this thread over on brassageamateur.com. It's in French but Google translate should do the job.

Basically, these kegs have a foil bag that contains the carbonated beer. The system pumps air into the void between the keg itself and the bag to push the beer out. The system for refilling these thus involves, simply sucking the air back out with the beer outlet connected to whatever you want to suck back in. As the air is removed from between the keg and the bag, beer will be sucked in through the hose.

The first thing you need is a simple air suction pump. There is a nice description of how to put this together here (again in French). I just used this 12V pump from Amazon.co.uk. You can also find it elsewhere and goes by various names/codes including AIRPO D2028B and ROB-10398.

Then, you need to connect it to your empty keg. I improvised a solution for this using:
- a 5 x 7 mm silicon hose
- a 12 x 18mm silicon hose
- a coupler for joining two 5 x 7 mm hoses.
- two 12mm>6mm barbed straight hose coupler/reducers like here

So, the system works as follows:
- A 12mm > 6mm barbed coupler connects the 12 x 18mm silicon hose to a section of 5 x 7mm hose which in turn connects to the pump
- The other end of the 12 x 18mm silicon hose connects to the air connection of the perfect draft keg adapter
- However, we need some way to depress the air valve inside the keg adapter air connection
- To do this, we use the second 12mm > 6mm barbed coupler which goes inside the 12 x 18mm silicon hose. The idea is that the narrow end of this will push in the air valve on the air connection of the keg adapter
- However, we need air to pass through this, so we drill a few holes in it with a small bit (2 or 3mm)
- Finally, the small opening of the 12mm > 6mm barbed coupler is a little too wide to depress the airvalve, so with the help of a lighter flame, we gently heat the end for a second or two, and narrow the opening when the plastic is soft.

Hey presto. Some images of the system:
View attachment 12984 View attachment 12985 View attachment 12986

Hi for you have any videos of this working? . Thank you

 

[Bartyfoxy]

Hi Captain Caveman,
Thank you for your informative post, I wonder if you would mind helping me with a follow up question please. I am a fan of German Beer, and so its great that I can get Spaten and Lowenbrau beer from Perfect draft. The thing is for me that I have my own bar pump all set, up with an inline cooler, and CO2 etc, same as a pub, I use the iKegger kegs : 10L Mini Keg | "Mandingo" by iKegger
Its a great keg, and all I need to do is get the beer out of a Perfect draft keg and into my keg. Can you please tell me what I need to do to pump the air into the keg, I have sussed that I can use the supplied spout to get the beer into my keg with a bit of extra pipe, but I cant quite fathom how the air goes in? Would I be better to splash out on an actual spare Perfect draft tap, its about £60, rather not, but I will if I have to as a one only purchase.
I would be most grateful for any advice please.
Many thanks
Chris

 

[Ashman]

For the second lockdown I thought I might buy the tap unit and a perfect draft keg. Bicycle pump to dispense as it appears the tap unit has a one way valve.

Then try a vacuum cleaner on the dispense valve (hopefully I can depress the valve mentioned in the opening post with the vacuum attachment) so as to re-inflate the foil bag and draw in homebrew.

Though I cant fathom how the beer gets its carbonation in the perfect draft system. Do they set co2 levels at manufacture eg. Lager gets this much, ale this much etc

 

[Shaun2302]

Hi folks,

Not sure if anyone has or uses this system but I thought I would share a simple system I have developed to refill these kegs.

I live in France and the kegs for this system are quite easy to come by. The system is described in this thread over on brassageamateur.com. It's in French but Google translate should do the job.

Basically, these kegs have a foil bag that contains the carbonated beer. The system pumps air into the void between the keg itself and the bag to push the beer out. The system for refilling these thus involves, simply sucking the air back out with the beer outlet connected to whatever you want to suck back in. As the air is removed from between the keg and the bag, beer will be sucked in through the hose.

The first thing you need is a simple air suction pump. There is a nice description of how to put this together here (again in French). I just used this 12V pump from Amazon.co.uk. You can also find it elsewhere and goes by various names/codes including AIRPO D2028B and ROB-10398.

Then, you need to connect it to your empty keg. I improvised a solution for this using:
- a 5 x 7 mm silicon hose
- a 12 x 18mm silicon hose
- a coupler for joining two 5 x 7 mm hoses.
- two 12mm>6mm barbed straight hose coupler/reducers like here

So, the system works as follows:
- A 12mm > 6mm barbed coupler connects the 12 x 18mm silicon hose to a section of 5 x 7mm hose which in turn connects to the pump
- The other end of the 12 x 18mm silicon hose connects to the air connection of the perfect draft keg adapter
- However, we need some way to depress the air valve inside the keg adapter air connection
- To do this, we use the second 12mm > 6mm barbed coupler which goes inside the 12 x 18mm silicon hose. The idea is that the narrow end of this will push in the air valve on the air connection of the keg adapter
- However, we need air to pass through this, so we drill a few holes in it with a small bit (2 or 3mm)
- Finally, the small opening of the 12mm > 6mm barbed coupler is a little too wide to depress the airvalve, so with the help of a lighter flame, we gently heat the end for a second or two, and narrow the opening when the plastic is soft.

Hey presto. Some images of the system:
View attachment 12984 View attachment 12985 View attachment 12986

If I pay would you be willing to make 1 and post it to uk for me please

 

[digoons]

Hi Guys,

After reading the posts here, checking a video online (in French as well) and reading a lot about pumps, I found a solution as well (bit expensive but works for me).

12v Pump (there are some cheaper ones but the reviewers were not great) - https://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B01MTNBHPT/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

A 220v power adapter with a 12v adapter (if you have a power adapter that is suitable, you can just buy the tiny 12v adapter (where you will plug the two cables coming from the pump). https://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B07X53GHZV/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

A 10mm 3m pvc tube (it will fit the perfect draft tube and the in/out of the pump). I bought 3m and cut in half - https://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B07J4SXG37/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The video (in french) is below but you will get the idea. -

After that, just pump water inside once, then one more time water with chemipro and finally the beer you want to drink.

I will post the pictures once I fill them.

Hope it helps!

 

[Drummer55]

How do you carbonate the beer??

 

[seany5]

can anyone tell me how the beer gets cardonated after filling ??

 

[thepatchworkdoll]

Hi cant say for sure but I would think that the beer is already carbonated prior to filling. Failing that you could add a little priming sugar to your refill.
Regards
Patch

 

[winslade]

Hi CptCaveman, has there been any development on this since?