Table top beer dispenser/taps. You have one?

I haven't ever used one but I think you would be disapointed in how quickly you went through the beer. Five liters is just a little more than a gallon. If I did the math correctly you are looking at about 10 pints per keg. If you have 6 people over everyone can't even have a second beer. Do you have room in a fridge for a 5 gallon keg? They hold a little over 2 cases of beer and aren't that big. You can get a lot of beers in the 5 gallon kegs and if you have any micro brews close they probably have some. Take a look at my kegerator (link below), I have 4; 5 gallon kegs, my are old soda kegs because I make my own beer but the one that commercial beers come in are very similar.

http://www.blackcows.com/bcb/

Mike

Sdall - I've been thinking about getting the one at JCPenny (there's a thread here on it) just as novelty and for fun. It's priced around $60 if I remember correctly. The good thing about it is that you can store 2-3 of the mini-kegs in your fridge and just pop them into the dispenser and the pelltier cooling system will keep the keg from warming up too fast. Once you're through the keg (I think I estimated it at around 14 12oz beers), you just swap in another one. Sounds nifty for the price.

intriguing, but I need user opinions to see how people like these

I see kegerators in craigslist all the time for ~250. Seems like a lot for a 5l tabletop version. I also don't know where to get the 5L beers. Otherwise I'd be willing to give this a go myself.

I don't know how much room you have, but I have kegerator in my house. It's on wheels and can be moved elsewhere when not in use. The CO2 keeps the beer fresh for a long time and you can hook up various size kegs to it.

sdall - I went ahead and pulled the trigger on the one at JCPenny. It's the same as these:

http://www.nextag.com/Nostalgia-Elec...74/prices-html

http://www.amazon.com/Nostalgia-Elec.../dp/B000L9R422

It was marked at $75 (down from $100+), but rang up for only $59. It has the thermal cooling (very quiet but not great at cooling - which is why you put the 5L keg in the fridge first) and seems to be of decent quality. It's mostly plastic but has an aluminum drip tray that's removable and washable.

My local beer & wine store only had four varieties of 5L kegs available though (Warsteiner, Spaten, & Heiniken - can't remember the 4th). I've inquired about what might be available as special order.

Haven't tried it out, will check back in once I do.

Will be testing it out this weekend at a party we're having. We're having a regular keg, but this will be sort of a side novelty.

The only problem I have with it so far is the height. It's pretty tall, as the 5L keg sits above the tap area. So if you put it on the counter or the bar itself, it really towers over you. I think it would work well on a back counter, with the wall behind it. That's not the way my bar is set up though, so I'm trying to figure out where the best place is to keep it.

I thought another decent use for it is tailgating. As long as the keg was well chilled beforehand (in a cooler on ice), I'd imagine the little Pelltier cooling system would maintain the temp fairly well in the short time until the keg was spent. It's so light and portable, it'd be easy to throw in the car with you.

How many people does it take to go through 5 liters of beer?

It is a little more than a gallon or about 10 pint glasses of beer.


Mike

That's my Saturday quota!

Bud

5L is equal to 1.33 gallons. I think if I remember my math correctly, that's about 14 12oz beers.

Hey guys - I tried it out this weekend with some Warsteiner and it worked great! We had too many people for this to be the main keg obviously, but it was a very nice supplement to the Mich Light Keg and Misc Wine that we were also serving. Kept the beer nice and cold until the end.

I'm going to try it with one of those Heineken kegs next. The tap is different on those, but I think it will work.

I bought the avanti one a few weeks ago. Heiniken lite is great. I hate Heiniken overall, but the lite beer is excellent. Remember Heiniken has a built in CO2 so you don't need your own.

I tried Becks as well and that was great also. Coors light only comes out every now and again during football season.

I have not tried the Warsteiner yet, but I have it in my fridge.

Cleaning mine isn't hard at all. Directions just say to run hot water through the lines after each keg is done. Takes 3 minutes or less.

nydennis - Which Avanti one? I don't think I remember seeing that one.

Share some pics!

This is the one that I got. If you look at most of the different brands. I do notice the tap looks the same on all. Just the design of the unit. I wanted the keg to be on the side instead of a deeper unit. So far no problems with it.

I find myself enjoying beer more with this. I can take what I want. Small glass, pint glass, etc and not worry about having to throw away a bottle if I wasn't in the mood for a full one.

i understand what is going on here, but for that amount of beer why don't you guys just get a 12 pack? I suppose you don't have to return bottles and whatnot, but you slug em down and that's it

edit: I guess I'm kind of missing the point. Home theatres and bars deserve these types of gizmos and plus I've never used one so I can't really speak on it

I don't have a huge fridge. Putting a 12 pack or a case of beer in the fridge sucks up space. (Side by Side.) The beer always ended up behind a lot of stuff making it a hassle to get one out.

Sometimes beer like Heiniken get skunky in bottles. I found the taste of the Heiniken to be so much better out of keg then I have ever had in the bottle.

Also I may get myself back into home brewing in the future and I can keg my beer into a few 5l kegs then having several cases of bottles lying around.

Well, I must have jinx myself. Lastnight mine broke. The beer would not stop pouring out of the tap. Turned off the co2 and it still came out.

So took it back to the store today and was only looking for an exchange on it, but the manager of the store told me that this model was recalled. So I got my money back.

At this point I may try a different brand, or the most likely is I'm going to get a larger unit, like a marvel, summit or something.

I'm building a HT/Game Room/Bar and found a bunch of good information at these sites with respect to setting up a draft beer system:

http://www.bar-gear.com/index.htm

http://www.bar-gear.com/draftbeer.htm

Bar-gear.com has plans for bar construction and a DIY kegerator, as well as suppliers for the things you might need to complete a tap in your bar.

This is one of the suppliers:

http://www.kegworks.com/draft-beer-e...63?source=blog

Hope it's helpful.

I was going to go the do it yourself route, but decided I couldn't be bothered. I ended up ordering a Marvel HK61 today. The store had the price wrong in there computer, so I ended up saving over 600 dollars on it.

I'm excited to get this. Mic light from a keg tastes great, I cannot wait to have it again. MMmmm beer.

Well not to change the subject, but, I recently acquired 3 pop/soda fountains. 2 post mix and 1 premix. Well im sitting staring at these in my den while i work on the theater and it hits me, the fountain heads on the premix machine look alot like beer tappers with pepsi stickers on them. So after buying a keg of MGD ( $45 for a 1/4 barrel) a shankey tapper ($35) and misc hoses and fittings and cleaners at the local home brew shop($50) and a replacement co2 thank ($140) I am sitting here enjoying a 38 degree MGD from a tapper that sits on a counter and has room for 4 more beer types as long as i can hide the kegs.

On a side note, a few companies do make the 5 gal upright cans, Goose Island is one and i eagerly await the release of there oktober fest.


Jester 2

EWWW... MGD... I almost feel sorry for you if you are drinking that

Well it is my current everyday no nonsense drink, I did say I was looking forward to the Goose Island Oktoberfest. LOL , and I still have 3 open taps after that is in... the choices are limitless.

Jester2

Jester,

I was suprised to read your post about using a post mix soda machine for beer. We have been having some discusion here:

http://http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtopic.php?t=47709

I make my own beer and have always thought this would be a good idea but couldn't find anyone that had tried it. Corny kegs (the 5 gallons kegs used with your system) are very common in the homebrew world because they are inexpensive, about $25.00 on eBay, and much easier than putting beer in bottles. I have a kegerator and have 3 beers on tap and also root beer but would also like the option of having a few more available of occasion (like a party) so I thought this would be a good idea.

Here are some pictures of my kegs in use:

http://http://www.blackcows.com/bcb/

If you live close to any brewpubs most will sell you beer in kegs. I live near Omaha and have 4 or 5 options for 5 gallon kegs. You also can take a 15.5 gallon keg and transfer the 15 gallons into 3 5 gallon corny kegs if you need space around your machine.

A few questions for you, what pressure are you running your taps? Beer is usually carbonated at 10 to 12 psi so if you are running much different than that you may have problems. Also are you getting foam or a good pour? Finally how about some pictures?

Mike

mbartenhagen

Its a pre mix machine not post mix

Sorry for the Delay but work gets in the way of drinking. To answer your questions I run about 18-20 psi of CO2.. I haven’t had any problems except previously busted internal lines (the ones that run thru the water to chill the beer/soda) seems I had bad foamy beer and you could watch the clear supply line just foam and foam. Well having ZERO experience with tappers, kegs, and soda fountains, I had not a clue till I checked on the ice dam in the machine, only to find frothy foam on the water in the reservoir. So after finding a line that didn’t leak I have some of the best MGD I have ever had ( and I’ve had a lot) I thought I had a problem again cuz the beer came out slow and flat and silly me it was the end of the 1/4 barrel. Seems you invite a few ppl over to try out the new toy and low and behold the beers gone

My surprise is I didn’t find anything about using pre-mix machines on the web. There has to be a ton of these machines on the market. The great thing about them is that you don’t need to refrigerate the kegs.....and with 5 tappers who could keep the kegs cold. I mean it would take up my whole theater! Lol ! So I’ll try and post some pics with this if not tonight then this weekend for sure. If you have any technical or other questions don’t hesitate to ask.

Jester 2


ok here is a link to the pics if you want more or something specific let me know ( especially if this doesn't work)

http://picasaweb.google.com/RockRidgeTheater/Theater