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Disposable kegs? Anyone?

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  • #16
    Right after I finished my above post I went over to the ecofass website and it seems they are doing exactly what I was talking about. The website is horrible though and their contact form is uninteligible so they definitely don't offer a sense of confidence to the customer. Having said that, their product if economically feasible could revolutionize kegging IMO.

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    • #17
      Not having to wash kegs is huge. Imagine the cost savings in water, cleaning solution and sanitizing.
      I love the ecofass idea. The only two question marks are how to dispose of the inner bag (or find a depot to recycle it) and whether it will have Sankey fittings.

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      • #18
        I just got an email back from them stating that ecofass does not offer american sankey fittings. I would bet, with enough pressure, they might come up with a solution. I would like to see a 1/6th barrel versions.

        As of now, I'm looking more into PubKegs. With starting nano the thought of investing $1500 vs $5000 in kegs is very appealing. With a rebuild cost of $10 for a ready-to-fill package, I don't see how I could NOT go for it. Given the choice between time spent cleaning kegs and brewing/promoting/fundraising... That seems like a no-brainer.

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        • #19
          Originally posted by WitsEnd
          As of now, I'm looking more into PubKegs. With starting nano the thought of investing $1500 vs $5000 in kegs is very appealing. With a rebuild cost of $10 for a ready-to-fill package, I don't see how I could NOT go for it. Given the choice between time spent cleaning kegs and brewing/promoting/fundraising... That seems like a no-brainer.
          Are you able to self-distribute? My #1 concern with the PubKeg product is how it may withstand a distributor environment rather than me lovingly carrying it to a restaurant or bar myself...
          Kevin Shertz
          Chester River Brewing Company
          Chestertown, MD

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          • #20
            Originally posted by ChesterBrew
            Are you able to self-distribute?
            Why, yes. Yes, I am...

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            • #21
              Originally posted by WitsEnd
              Why, yes. Yes, I am...
              Lucky you! Me? Not so much...
              Kevin Shertz
              Chester River Brewing Company
              Chestertown, MD

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              • #22
                Can you sell growlers and pints from the brewery taproom? If not, you ought to move to MN. Last summer we got the pint law pushed through, which was a good bonus.
                Breweries are still limited to only growlers and 750ml off-sale (no kegs, bottles, cans), but at least it's something.

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                • #23
                  Originally posted by WitsEnd
                  Can you sell growlers and pints from the brewery taproom?
                  Yes, microbreweries in Maryland can sell pints and growlers in their tap room.

                  Right now I'm working to have our county added to the list of municipalities that can have a microbrewery... hopefully it'll be signed into law in the next two weeks and take effect October 1st. Hope to be in business sometime in 2013.
                  Kevin Shertz
                  Chester River Brewing Company
                  Chestertown, MD

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                  • #24
                    Kegs in Asia

                    Hi All - this thread was very interesting and thanks everyone for their inputs so far. We are a startup brewery in Asia and debating this point ourselves as well. Our equipement will be 10HL and initially we will only be doing 2 brews / week and increasing to 4 / week thereafter. We'll hopefully grow beyond that too, but its too early to plan for that. With this in mind, any thoughts on whether a disposable solution like ecokeg, keykeg or ecofass could work?

                    We have some of the same issues with local bars that dfalken mentioned. We want to do unfiltered & unpasteurized beer delivered locally (within 10 miles), so would do a cold supply chain. Bars would need to have kegerators to keep it cold and we will likely do emergency deliveries. We are not shipping our beer long distances for some time, so the fact that disposable options are light weight may not be too relevant for us. We essentially need to decide if we should go for a keg washing machine or not. Appreciate any input the group may have for our size range.

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                    • #25
                      hello all
                      there is a company out of san francisco that is doing trials on 1/6 and 1/2 keges that just need the liner bag replaced and are sankey. I am out of town right now but will post the company name when i get back tomorrow they had a booth at the san diego conference.

                      Porter

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                      • #26
                        Originally posted by iscorice
                        hello all
                        there is a company out of san francisco that is doing trials on 1/6 and 1/2 keges that just need the liner bag replaced and are sankey. I am out of town right now but will post the company name when i get back tomorrow they had a booth at the san diego conference.

                        Porter
                        I think you're probably talking about EV Container:
                        Kevin Shertz
                        Chester River Brewing Company
                        Chestertown, MD

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                        • #27
                          Petainer kegs on our M&F

                          We modified our M&F to run the one-way Petainer kegs, rather than use Keykeg because Keykeg requires a special tavern head. The Petainer kegs required a program change to stop the cleaning cycles on stations 1-4. We also adjusted the clamping pressure- no big whoop. Where we ran into trouble was filling. The pump speed, and subsequent line pressure, was higher than the clamping pressure, so the kegs would rise off the filling head creating a low fill. I bypassed the pump and was able to fill a keg in 75 seconds. Moving forward, we will need a variable speed on our pump. I think we will be able to fill kegs in under a minute with the correct pump speed & line pressure

                          After the kegs were filled we had a few other issues. If the tavern head has burs, or is slightly out of round, the entire plastic fitting on the keg will spin. They can be difficult to tap, and they are difficult to hold. I ended up wrapping my legs around the keg, while holding the plastic stem with channel locks, and then forcing the tavern head into the keg well. Once tapped they did pour well. In the process of wrestling the kegs I did loose some C02.

                          Handling & palletizing the kegs is difficult, but being a trial run, I didn't have my technique down. Draining a partial keg was difficult. I ended up slicing them with a razor knife into a tote, because I was too afraid to put pressure into the keg. I hadn't had a beer bath in quite some time, so that was refreshing.

                          I warm stored one keg and it held pressure. I did not detect any unusual flavors either.

                          All in all, they "worked" but not easily on our system. My 2 cents...

                          John Baise

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                          • #28
                            EvKeg

                            Anyone using these, stories to tell?

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                            • #29
                              I've been thinking about PubKegs for a few weeks now. There are some obvious strong points of the product (price, weight, savings in keg washer/footprint/cleaning/labour, etc.) but I am still somewhat concerned with safety and public perception of plastic. We've heard grumblings in the industry that they appear "cheap"...not exactly the image we want associated with our brewery. Additionally, every single person we've talked to has expressed concerns with safety. Can anyone speak to these two issues?

                              Cheers.

                              Mike
                              KBCo

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                              • #30
                                Does anyone use EVKegs?

                                Sorry to revive a very old thread. Though I haven't seen any further discussion on the forums of EVkegs. If you use them, what do you think of them? I'm going to be a one man taproom focused nano in a bustling downtown area. It's very attractive from a labor standpoint. I'll mostly serve from brites but I'll keg off the last bits of tanks. Also, I'll keg experimental and seasonal beers. I really don't want to waste my oh so precious time washing kegs. It's also better from an environmental perspective, which I like a lot.

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