What's your view on Plastic Pressure Barrels (PBs)?

[Brewzer.]

I have an old Sparklets 5 gallon barrel that I got from Boots many years ago. Never had any problems with it and I'm still using it today.

 

[robster62]

Are you a sipper or a gulper? .

Takes me 6-7 weeks to empty a 5 gallon King Keg. I have another in progress so it's ready when the first one's finished and trying to start a third one when the second one's finished carbing and starts conditioning. Wouldn't want to run out!

I drink about a pint a day possibly 2 at weekends and days off.

 

[Clint Eastwood]

I had problems with leaking pressure so use my 4 for lagering / secondry now. They are easier to move around than standard Fermenters otherwise I'd of probably junked them by now.

 

[Sandozer]

I started brewing again back in March with the King Keg.
First brew had too much foam in the beer, traced to the beer line O-ring twisted inside the tap. Read of others with similar trouble with foam and added about 3 of tube to the beer line, line length left at that though problem was the O-ring.
Pressure was too low, around 5 psi blow off. Tap leaked on back O-ring of tap, beer would ooze out under pressure.
So I fitted metal collar to the tap O-ring, fixed that problem, Low pressure fixed by adding silicon rubber rings to the blow off valve, pressure fine now.
Now on brew number 3 , nearly finished and no more keg problems. (going through 5 gallons a month, it was hot!)
I also attached a strain gauge to the cap as a temporary measure for pressure reading, now a permanent fixture as it works so well and no additional plumbing/holes etc required.
So heading for brew number 4 and completely happy with the keg performance now.
Beer quality is excellent, my friends all love it.
Draught beer on tap when all pubs closed, bloody marvellous.

 

[Brasseur français]

I have a dozen or so and use them all. The cheap "standard" ones have rarely given any trouble and some of mine are ten years old. If I have trouble it's usually the King Kegs, I will never buy another.

 

[chuffer]

Rubbish imho. Give em a massive swerve

 

[Cheshire Cat]

For the 4 people thinking of buying one, please don't get a corni instead. Buy cheap and you'll buy twice. I've got 4 plastic kegs not in use.

 

[Buffers brewery]

For the 4 people thinking of buying one, please don't get a corni instead. Buy cheap and you'll buy twice. I've got 4 plastic kegs not in use.

Not wishing to be picky but I think you put the comma in the wrong place .
"For the 4 people thinking of buying one please don't, get a corni instead".

 

[Brasseur français]

For my first 15 years of home brewing I never used a bottle only barrels. I have recently started using bottles because I brew too much and need to give some away. I definitely would not brew beer if I wasn't using plastic pressure barrels. Where are people having problems? I

 

[Brasseur français]

Never quite finished the previous post, I am new to this forum game! I can buy bottled beer but draught is what I want to drink, it would be pointless without a barrel.

 

[chuffer]

Where are people having problems?

Personally i couldn't keep beer at my desire level of carbonation in them. Ive had 3 and all have had same problem. Ive followed forum recommendations (sanding down imperfections in the plastic, vaseline on the seals /o-rings / ptfe tape on threads etc etc) but beer just ends up flat in them. The amount of co2 bulbs needed to get all your beer out...just, forget it....bottling or kegging was better for me

 

[terrym]

Where are people having problems? I

PB1 - very old one gifted to me, split along a seam after two brews, but I shouldn't really complain about it due to its age
PB2 - split along a seam which I managed to seal internally with silicone since it was near the top opening, but then split lower down.
PB3 - pinhole leak in the body
PB4 - split along the seam
PB5 - developed internal cracks around the seam at both sides of the base so I decided to retire it since it couldnt be trusted
PBs 2-5 were new but failed within 2 years of careful use. One of these was actually a replacement for one of the other failed PBs.
And one of these along the way had a cracked cap which caused it to lose pressure.
That's on top of the usual leaking gaskets which are easy to find if you use soapy water, although it usually happens at the most inconvenient time.
Someone also very recently gave me an old Hambleton Bard PB (PB6) which I put on test on receipt and found that leaked from the cap gasket. Having looked at the design I have concluded the thread is too coarse and doesnt pull the cap down square onto the gasket, and the gasket seating arrangement is in any case a leak path waiting to happen . I currently have a homemade neoprene second (additional) gasket on test but not sure it is holding pressure.
Nuff said.

 

[Barley Rubble]

I prefer bottles so that's what I use. I know bottling day can be tiresome and time consuming but I accept that. My reasoning is that my beer, lager, cider or whatever will remain carbonated and can't get infected (unless it already was prior to bottling) in a bottle as opposed to worrying about lack of carbonation, possible leaks etc. from a plastic pressure barrel.
At the end of the day its horses for courses. Each to their own, I say. Life would be pretty boring if everyone had and liked exactly the same things......

 

[Buffers brewery]

PB1 - very old one gifted to me, split along a seam after two brews, but I shouldn't really complain about it due to its age
PB2 - split along a seam which I managed to seal internally with silicone since it was near the top opening, but then split lower down.
PB3 - pinhole leak in the body
PB4 - split along the seam
PB5 - developed internal cracks around the seam at both sides of the base so I decided to retire it since it couldnt be trusted
PBs 2-5 were new but failed within 2 years of careful use. One of these was actually a replacement for one of the other failed PBs.
And one of these along the way had a cracked cap which caused it to lose pressure.
That's on top of the usual leaking gaskets which are easy to find if you use soapy water, although it usually happens at the most inconvenient time.
Someone also very recently gave me an old Hambleton Bard PB (PB6) which I put on test on receipt and found that leaked from the cap gasket. Having looked at the design I have concluded the thread is too coarse and doesnt pull the cap down square onto the gasket, and the gasket seating arrangement is in any case a leak path waiting to happen . I currently have a homemade neoprene second (additional) gasket on test but not sure it is holding pressure.
Nuff said.

Could always fit a pressure gauge and you’ll know pretty quick if you have a leak. Not essential I know, but helpful .

 

[Drunkula]

Could always fit a pressure gauge and you’ll know pretty quick if you have a leak. Not essential I know, but helpful .

Good tip! I've found another good mod with a pressure barrels, if it's got any leaks, is to attach a corny keg to it. You can do it at any distance. Even if you've kicked the pressure barrel all the way to the tip which shouting at it Basil Fawlty style then it's still a remedy that's hard to beat.

 

[terrym]

Could always fit a pressure gauge and you’ll know pretty quick if you have a leak. Not essential I know, but helpful .

Yup.
Yet another mod to make a PB something more reliable. But in my case, a PI wouldn't have make any difference to whether the PBs were f****d or not.
However as I have said on here before you should really be fiddling about drilling holes in a pressure vessel unless you know what you are a doing.
That said you shouldn't need a PI to tell you your PB is leaking. You only need to open the dispensing tap to find that out, as I and many others have discovered.
The fundamental difference between us is that you and others are quite happy to spend time and effort making something that isn't really fit for purpose workable and get satisfaction from that, whereas I just want it to work and give me reliable service from the outset for a reasonable length of time without having to resort to all sorts of 'fixes'.

 

[SteveB.]

I started brewing using the plastic pressure barrels but because of being let down with gas leaks and seam splits all the time I dumped them and set up some corny kegs. I have never had an issues with leaky corny kegs and so think that, although initially more expensive, in the long term are better value for money. I still have a couple of plastic kegs and have fitted airlocks to them. Makes them ideal for long term fermentation i.e. when making a Lambic or any beer that requires lots of time.

 

[TonyT]

I’ve got 4 Youngs pressure barrels, 2 of which I’ve had for about 15/16 years and never had a problem.

 

[Clint]

There seems to be a trend ...they're either fine or rubbish..."I'm still using my old Boots kegs..." and a common theme is this... sounds like a lot of things...in the past things were made better for want of going on..

 

[kelper]

Keggers and anti-keggers seem to be evenly split on this thread/poll