I would like to start kegging but I want to share my beer so I have to bottle some. Has anyone used the 2.5 gal kegs? Looking for feedback. I know some will say do 10gal batches but five gal batches work best for me.
I have. The thing I don’t like about them is, they are just as expensive as the five gallon kegs, and in a practical sense take up just as much space as a five gallon keg. I think I would recommend just using a five gallon keg for a 2.5-3 gallon partial batch and purge it well with CO2. If you plan on being serious about kegging, you might as well just start out with the five gallon ones IMO.
I have (2) 2.5 gallon kegs and 65SS427 is right. I think they were $5 or $10 less than 5 gal kegs. I knew that going in and just bought 2 of each. The reason I wanted 2.5 gallon kegs is so I can bring kegged beer camping. (Eventually I plan to mount faucets right on the side of my travel trailer!) They’re going to be a lot easier to transport. I say buy 5 gallon kegs, make 5 gallon batches, force carb in the kegs, and bottle a six pack or 2 right from the keg to share. Research some threads or youtube about bottling from a keg. It’s pretty easy and you really don’t need any equipment you don’t already have (probably). Good Luck! You can’t really go wrong to start kegging. As a side note, good luck ever finding a used 2.5 gallon keg!
:cheers:
Thanks, I didn’t know you could fill the 5gal kegs half way, does it waste a lot of c02? I didn’t know you could bottle from a keg either.
[quote=“Brew Cat”]Thanks, I didn’t know you could fill the 5gal kegs half way, does it waste a lot of c02? I didn’t know you could bottle from a keg either.[/quote]You’re not going to waste much CO2 if you fill kegs half way. CO2 volume expands several hundred or even thousands of times its size when going from liquid form to gas form. However I still think your best bet is to fill 'em up completely with 5 gallons of beer and let it carb up. Once it’s carbed you can fill a few bottles when you need to with a picnic tap, a #2 stopper, and a racking cane. Heck I’ve even bottled right from a perlick faucet from my keezer the same way!
It “wastes” co2 in that there is more headspace to fill and less beer for that co2 to dissolve into. But I don’t think it takes up anymore co2 than carbonating a full 5 gallon batch. I could be wrong though.
Personally. I brew 4 gallon batches and use 5 gallon kegs. It works just fine. It’s a little harder to seal the lids with all the head space.
When I fill bottles or growlers straight from the tap I add a short length of sanitized plastic tubing to the faucet so that the end of the tubing is at the bottom of the bottle. Not as much foaming and loss of CO2 that way. Also, if you turn down the dispensing pressure so that you get a slower fill you will not lose as much carbing in the filled bottle. Oh, and if you want to turn down the temp of the serving fridge overnight before filling you will lose even less… and one last thing the less head space you leave in the filled bottle the better.
Bottom line is it works great to fill right from the tap!
[quote=“Beersk”]It “wastes” co2 in that there is more headspace to fill and less beer for that co2 to dissolve into. But I don’t think it takes up anymore co2 than carbonating a full 5 gallon batch. I could be wrong though.
Personally. I brew 4 gallon batches and use 5 gallon kegs. It works just fine. It’s a little harder to seal the lids with all the head space.[/quote]
Beer is carbed to about 2 or 2.5 volumes of CO2, which means if you extracted all the CO2 from 1 gallon of carbed beer, it would fill a 2 or 2.5 gallons balloon. So filling a 5 gallon tank with 2.5 gallons of beer would take about 5 gallons of CO2 for the beer, plus 2.5 gallons for the head space, as opposed to 10 gallons for a full keg of beer. That assumes you don’t purge the keg before carbing, which you should. That actually uses up a lot more CO2 (in a half filled keg), then you would use for the beer, because you need to fill and vent that 2.5 gallon space 3-4 times.
[quote=“rebuiltcellars”][quote=“Beersk”]It “wastes” co2 in that there is more headspace to fill and less beer for that co2 to dissolve into. But I don’t think it takes up anymore co2 than carbonating a full 5 gallon batch. I could be wrong though.
Personally. I brew 4 gallon batches and use 5 gallon kegs. It works just fine. It’s a little harder to seal the lids with all the head space.[/quote]
Beer is carbed to about 2 or 2.5 volumes of CO2, which means if you extracted all the CO2 from 1 gallon of carbed beer, it would fill a 2 or 2.5 gallons balloon. So filling a 5 gallon tank with 2.5 gallons of beer would take about 5 gallons of CO2 for the beer, plus 2.5 gallons for the head space, as opposed to 10 gallons for a full keg of beer. That assumes you don’t purge the keg before carbing, which you should. That actually uses up a lot more CO2 (in a half filled keg), then you would use for the beer, because you need to fill and vent that 2.5 gallon space 3-4 times.[/quote]
Well that’s confusing
[quote=“Brew Cat”][quote=“rebuiltcellars”][quote=“Beersk”]It “wastes” co2 in that there is more headspace to fill and less beer for that co2 to dissolve into. But I don’t think it takes up anymore co2 than carbonating a full 5 gallon batch. I could be wrong though.
Personally. I brew 4 gallon batches and use 5 gallon kegs. It works just fine. It’s a little harder to seal the lids with all the head space.[/quote]
Beer is carbed to about 2 or 2.5 volumes of CO2, which means if you extracted all the CO2 from 1 gallon of carbed beer, it would fill a 2 or 2.5 gallons balloon. So filling a 5 gallon tank with 2.5 gallons of beer would take about 5 gallons of CO2 for the beer, plus 2.5 gallons for the head space, as opposed to 10 gallons for a full keg of beer. That assumes you don’t purge the keg before carbing, which you should. That actually uses up a lot more CO2 (in a half filled keg), then you would use for the beer, because you need to fill and vent that 2.5 gallon space 3-4 times.[/quote]
Well that’s confusing[/quote]
Short version: The more head space you have, the more C02 you need to fill it 
