Mini Kegs & Keg Alternatives
A 5.0-gallon (19-L) kegging setup is great if you have the space. Five gallons (19 L) is the volume of most homebrew recipes and carboys and other pieces of homebrewing equipment are often scaled to this size batch.
However, not everyone has the luxury of enough space to use a “full” kegging system. If you need your fridge space for food and don’t have the space for a dedicated beer fridge, you need a different kegging solution.
Mini-kegs are an option for homebrewers looking to avoid bottling, but who don’t have the space for a full kegging system. There are a few different types of mini-kegs on the market today with the most popular being the Party Pig from Quoin and the Tap-A-Draft from Sturman BG. Both systems use large PET plastic bottles to hold their contents and hold a smaller amount of beer than a full-sized 5-gallon (19-L) batch, but that is about all they have in common with each other.
The 2.25-gallon (8.5-L) Party Pig uses priming sugar to achieve natural carbonation in the “pig” along with a single use plastic pressurization pouch. After giving the pig a week or so to carbonate you activate the pouch inside to create pressure in the pig and force the beer out. To activate the disposable pressure pouch, you insert a hose into the beer faucet and using a small hand pump force air into the pig increasing the pressure inside until the pressure pouch activates. As the pouch inside expands it takes up the extra space as beer is consumed keeping the beer from going flat and forcing it out of the faucet. As far as I can tell, there is no way to force carbonate in a Party Pig — but if you have carbonated beer, you could use that to fill a Pig, which would be a great way to take a couple gallons of homebrew to a party.
I have also found that if you let the beer in the Pig sit for too long without drinking it, the pressure can build up inside the Pig to the point at which it can be difficult to depress the button on the faucet. If this ever happens to you, don’t keep pushing on the button and take it outside. When the button does depress the beer will be coming out in a hurry and can cause a mess. Two party pigs would fall just short of holding a 5-gallon (19-L) batch.
The Tap-A-Draft, or TAD as its fans call it, is a more recent entrant into the mini-keg market. The Tap-A-Draft now comes with a 6-L (1.6-gallon) PET plastic bottle, so three bottles will almost handle a 5-gallon (19-L) batch. Tap-A-Draft does allow the homebrewer the choice of natural carbonation or forced carbonation through the use of small, disposable, CO2 cartridges. The manufacturer claims that it only takes two of these cartridges to dispense a whole bottle, if you plan on force carbonation, you will probably need more. It also makes a great way to take beer you have in a Corny keg to a party, just fill it up and grab a couple CO2 cartridges and go.
A final option is reusable metal 5-L (1.3-gallon) mini-kegs, the type some craft brews are packaged in. Taps that use CO2 cartridges, as well as gravity taps, are available for these and four of these kegs will hold a 5-gallon (19-L) batch with about a quart (~1 L) of room to spare.
