Why have Cornie Kegs gone to expensive?

[BarnsleyBrewer]

If you're thinking of paying top whack for kegs why not buy new ones...have a look at Candirect....cheaper than second hand on e-bay in some cases.

Wonder what the postage would be???

Wish I'd bought a load of kegs 4 years ago..

BB

 

[FuzzySteve]

Postage at CD was about €20 for two kegs, and there's no import duty to pay :)

 

[Vossy1]

A shiny bargain...well maybe not bargain...but shiny so who cares :lol:

 

[beermaker]

blimey!! I bought eight of the four gallon ones from a chap a good few years ago at a fiver each - wish to hell I'd bought more now!!

 

[IPA]

With all this eagernes to use cornies and forced carbonation etc has anyone got a recipe for Watney's Starlight or Red Barrel.

 

[fbsf]

With all this eagernes to use cornies and forced carbonation etc has anyone got a recipe for Watney's Starlight or Red Barrel.

Although saying that, I believe there is a starlight recipe in Dave Line's book...

 

[beermaker]

watneys red barrel!! :grin:

in my defense, I'm too lazy to bottle my ale, I use cornies with a beer engine. Occasionally use a cask breather if I'm not going to sup it all straight away :

 

[Aleman]

Wish I'd bought a load of kegs 4 years ago..

I did

I have parted with a couple, and chopped a couple up, but at one time I had 23 19 Litre Ones, and I bought then for an average of around a tenner each . . . Some of them are still in the loft unused ( and uncleaned :sick: ). I managed to pick up 4 9L for under 100 quid a couple of yers ago, and 2 11L ones for 25 quid along with a bunch of other gear on eBay.


Rubbing it in??? Who Me :twisted:




Yep :rofl:

 

[carl_saint]

Wish I'd bought a load of kegs 4 years ago..

Some of them are still in the loft unused

I'll take some off your hand if you want! :thumb:

 

[Steve]

If you're thinking of paying top whack for kegs why not buy new ones...have a look at Candirect....cheaper than second hand on e-bay in some cases.

Would the plus-kegs be an alternative to a cornie or are the fittings/delivery systems completely different? Also if they are different are they readily available? Just curious as the 30L and 50L kegs are both 51.57 euros.

 

[bobsbeer]

If you do go with 'plus kegs' sure you order the connectors as they are like pub type connectors. Not used them but but should be a just as good but bigger and heavier so don't plan to lug them far. I agree with Vossy1, compared to Ebay, Candirect are good prices and they are a good company to deal with. I just wish they would make their website easier to find stuff. :grin:

 

[Darcey]

Last Sept I had 5xCornies stolen. My fault I left them in the back yard (behind a 7 foot concrete wall) while I went to the pub. The average cost was something around the £40 mark from Norm the LHBS and private sale. I have just got the funds to rebuild the brewery (that also got stolen) and I am now looking at kegging again. My LHBS sells them for £80 and contact from Norm suggests that he is nearly out of 'a' grade kegs with no 'budget' kegs left.

I think we are awaiting a few people with the £'s to import a container full form China or the like but if they are business sensible they will more than likely keep the output low to maintain the price point. I suspect that is a volume in the UK to meet the demand and some, however there maybe beer wholesalers holding on to stocks as the craft 'keg' scene does its bit in the spot light.

With the price of metals for scrap at a high point, many dusty kegs have most likely been squashed by people that dont understand their value (just look at some of the scrappage scheme cars!). I worked out that the Stockport chavs prob only got £40 for the £300+ the stole from me. There is no regard for the engineering or usefulness of metal at the moment.

There are alternatives for the homebrewers out there (I will be doing a piece shortly about that), but at the end of the day I think the cost of the cornie kegs is a worthwhile one. I doubt whether any of us are capable of constructing such an elegant design which can take 100PSI and 20+ years of use and still be attractive 2nd purchase.

50l Kegs new are great but need the tools to open and clean them, the couplings are not that expensive considering the cost of cornie disconnects, its the size that limits their appeal. We all want to fit 4xCornies in our kegerator (or 2 in my case) and thats the benefit of them. For a 23l brew bottling is ok (non-rinse sanitiser), but the joy of kegging is getting your beers carbonated to their 'style'.

I do hope that some more come to market but knowing retail why would prices drop? Italian and Chinese imports of the 'NEW' kegs are coming thru and really the should see the drop in UK prices for the 'old' stuff. All it will take is a few manufacturers in china to ignore any patents and ship over afew thousand and that will stop the increase. But lets face it, they wont be £10.

I think I would rather spend £80 at my LHBS face to face and use it 20 times over the next few years and be happy that I don't have to wash the equivalent bottles.

I shall post more at the end of the week about other kegs.

D

 

[beermaker]

I seem to recall, many moons ago, looking into using plastic casks with my hand pumps. I can't for the life of me remember much about them other than they were just like their steel or aluminium eqivalents, only lighter and cheaper if a bit less durable! I'll try to recall where the heck I saw them and post up the details :thumb:

 

[evanvine]

but shiny so who cares

:shock: :shock:

 

[bobsbeer]

I have seen ones from Brewery Plastics, but don't know what they cost or minimum orders etc. HERE Might be worth checking out?

 

[Jimmy321]

All it will take is a few manufacturers in china to ignore any patents

Max life of a patent is 20 years AFAIK.

 

[bobsbeer]

I wonder how many Cornies you could fit in a container? Maybe instead of a Corny run to Germany we could organise a Cornie shipment from China?

 

[bobsbeer]

A quick calculation would be about 1200 cornie type kegs to a container. Each pallet can fit 20 cornies and I reckon we could get 60 pallets on a 40' container. So if people order 5 cornies that would only need 240 people to commit. That should be doable between this forum and Jim's. Anyone know a cheap shipping company? Oh and a cheap manufacturer in China? :grin:

Edit: Posted a request on Alibaba.com. So will see what prices get quoted.

 

[Jimmy321]

http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/660380224/Used_syrup_tank_for_coca_cola.html

 

[tbert33]

I wonder how many Cornies you could fit in a container? Maybe instead of a Corny run to Germany we could organise a Cornie shipment from China?

Count me in!