Well the poll has closed and 85 of you responded. and for that thanks. Over 75% had experience of using PBs, and within this group, for just over half, their experience was favourable whilst for remainder in this user group the experience was unfavourable and they had decided to stop using them. The near 50:50 split was not a surprise to me, as from previous comments on this Forum I deduced that PBs are the Marmite of the homebrewing community.
PBs are in principle a good idea for homebrewers, they cut out a lot of the effort needed at bottling time, beer can be stored within them for months if need be, in some cases beer can be dispensed to give a pub style head, and importantly they are not majorly expensive to set up although small cartridges can be pricey if lots are used. But the downsides are that they can leak gas from just about every joint sometimes at the most inconvenient time, the PB bodies can split or develop holes which cannot be repaired, and many buying them don’t realise or aren’t told that they are only really suitable for low carb beers like ales due to pressure limits.
Anyway, from my perspective, a product that about 50% give up on due to problems, that requires fettling at the outset to ensure it’s pressure tight when it should be good to go, and requires significant mods to the cap to make sure it works as it should as one member has done, suggests to me that they are not really fit for purpose. The basic design hasn’t really changed much for 40 years since they became available, although a few variations have come and gone, yet the fundamental flaw of being pressure tight at all times, from the outset, with minimal ongoing maintenance has not been addressed.
So my advice to anyone thinking of buying a PB is don’t. There is, at best, only an evens chance you will have a trouble free relationship with your PB, unless you like testing for leaks with soapy water, have plastic welding skills, or in extreme can engineer alternative leak proof cap arrangements. In other words they may be more trouble than they are worth.
PBs are in principle a good idea for homebrewers, they cut out a lot of the effort needed at bottling time, beer can be stored within them for months if need be, in some cases beer can be dispensed to give a pub style head, and importantly they are not majorly expensive to set up although small cartridges can be pricey if lots are used. But the downsides are that they can leak gas from just about every joint sometimes at the most inconvenient time, the PB bodies can split or develop holes which cannot be repaired, and many buying them don’t realise or aren’t told that they are only really suitable for low carb beers like ales due to pressure limits.
Anyway, from my perspective, a product that about 50% give up on due to problems, that requires fettling at the outset to ensure it’s pressure tight when it should be good to go, and requires significant mods to the cap to make sure it works as it should as one member has done, suggests to me that they are not really fit for purpose. The basic design hasn’t really changed much for 40 years since they became available, although a few variations have come and gone, yet the fundamental flaw of being pressure tight at all times, from the outset, with minimal ongoing maintenance has not been addressed.
So my advice to anyone thinking of buying a PB is don’t. There is, at best, only an evens chance you will have a trouble free relationship with your PB, unless you like testing for leaks with soapy water, have plastic welding skills, or in extreme can engineer alternative leak proof cap arrangements. In other words they may be more trouble than they are worth.
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