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Tap a Crap (draft)
Anyone else use this min keg setup? I hope I didn't waste $90 on this....the first two I've tapped taste like crap! Horrible! I tastedit before I racked to the mini kegs, and it was great I thought. I'mnot sure if it's from the aluminum mini kegs, or if something went wrong, and it took a while to show up.....
Are you still screwing around with that thing!?!
Its 2009, time to give up some kitchen space for a small chest freezer and just go with 5 gallon cornies.
Once its setup let me know so I can come over and check the system for QC purposes.
I have the Tap-A-Draft, but not the one with the mini-kegs. I just use 3-liter soda bottles. Never really had any problems with the taste changing for the bad.
Maybe you can expand on what the "crap" tastes like, so we might be able to give you idea of what it might be. Is it metallic, sulphery, thin, etc.? You got this at Beer Wine...didn't you?
brewchez wrote:
Are you still screwing around with that thing!?!
Its 2009, time to give up some kitchen space for a small chest freezer and just go with 5 gallon cornies.
Once its setup let me know so I can come over and check the system for QC purposes.
Yeah, still messing with it..but I just got it late last year. My kitchen is 12x12....I don't have room for much...Although, there is one area, but I want to put a small fermentaion fridge there as opposed to the kegs...Hmmm, thinking need to be done...I'll need a beer for that....
dmofot wrote:
I have the Tap-A-Draft, but not the one with the mini-kegs. I just use 3-liter soda bottles. Never really had any problems with the taste changing for the bad.
Maybe you can expand on what the "crap" tastes like, so we might be able to give you idea of what it might be. Is it metallic, sulphery, thin, etc.? You got this at Beer Wine...didn't you?
The crap taste is thin and metallic. Before it went in, it was strong pale, with bourbon and spices. Nothing metallic at all....Yeah, I got this at BW during their December super saver sale. I thought it was a great deal, but then noticed the regular setup comes with the plastic bottles, not these stupid mini kegs. The first one leaked like a SOB, and I've gone through 6 CO2 cartridges for two kegs. I think it may be the kegs themselves. I know they are aluminum, but I don't think that should matter. I cleaned them out with insanely hot water and oxi clean before I used them, and of course they were sanitized....
I'm pretty pissed too...this was a holiday ale brewed in September. It was friggin wonderful until I "kegged" it.....
Okay MIke...you got me man..I'll have a real keg system by summer time. I have to save a bit for closing when I refi my mortgage in a few weeks..but then it's on the list for sooner than later....
I was real tempted to buy one of these party pig, tap a draft, mini keg systems. When I looked closer, it seemed that alot of the places where actually dropping the mini kegs, because of just such problems, non carbing, over carbing off tastes and such. I havn't heard anything bad about the other systems, but if you google mini kegs, you'll see what I mean.
I'm just going to wait, and put it all together with cornies when i'm ready to nail down a kegging system.
ricka182 wrote:
Yeah, still messing with it..but I just got it late last year. My kitchen is 12x12....I don't have room for much...Although, there is one area, but I want to put a small fermentaion fridge there as opposed to the kegs...Hmmm, thinking need to be done...I'll need a beer for that....
Look here's a short list of things to remove to make room for a kegorator in a small kitchen, this should help:
Stove...(Take out and delivery is the budding brewers best friend)
Dishwasher...(and surrounding cabinets, see above for no dishes approach)
Kitchen table...(come on this is 2009 America no one eats at the table anymore, thats why houses don't get built with dining rooms anymore)
With those approaches I see room for a kegorater with 6 taps, an Ale fridge and a lager fridge all in a 12X12 kitchen.
(Save money for your refi man!)
Ya know what?..screw it, I'll just tear down my house, and build a small brewery. I can sleep on grain sacks, will have natural heat from the burners, and...oh wait..that's right, I live in a duplex condo. Not sure my neighbor would let that fly.
But seriously, the table is somewhat wasted. I would like to start eating there again, but the HD makes it so hard. There's always something on that looks so cool......I'll make room for another, but smaller fridge. Someday, I'll also have a real house with a garage..I mean, an attached brew house...
Never used a tap a draft, but a local brewery here recently started puting their beer in mini kegs. Last summer I was really enjoying their pilsner (in bottles) when I noticed they had it in a mini keg. I figured great draft style from my fridge. It was horrible. I don't know if It was a different batch or what but the bottled stuff was complex, light and extremely refreshing (the local brewer is a german brewmaster transplant) The "kegged" stuff tasted like miller light. Anyway The experience was enough to steer me clear of mini kegs. I'm hopping to get a kegging system this spring since santa didn't come through.
I think metallic tastes are usually associated with iron, but if you're only getting it when you put your beer into the aluminum mini-kegs...well that would be enough for me to not use the mini-kegs. Go to the grocery store, buy a 3-liter bottle of soda, dump the soda (or go all Elf on it and chug it), clean bottle, fill with beer, and hook that up. If you're able to use the Tap-A-Draft without a metallic taste...then you have your answer!
With the 3-liter soda bottles, it takes one CO2 cartridge to dispense a whole bottle. It uses up an extra if you also need to carbonate.
DT
I use the tap-a-draft with 6 liter PET bottles and it seems as though when the amount of beer drops a bit the pressure inside the bottle goes down and it doesn't dispense as well. You need to use two CO2 cartridges to dispense with, and I end up changing them at least once. Sometimes twice. This seems to be especially true if I use the nitrogen, and of course when force carbing. So I'll go through about 4-6 cartridges per bottle.
I have used the Tap a Draft system for about two years without any issues but I also use the plastic bottles that mine came with originally. No off tastes, no tearing out kitchen appliances.... just good beer in bottles that fit on the fridge shelf.
I guess I'll go pick up a 3 liter soda bottle next time. It'll have to wait though...my next batch is going to bottles only..I'm running out and don't want to take any more chances.
When you can check out Midwest Supplies or one of the other large on line shops for the plastic bottles that go with the TAD system. They hold 6 liters each and you can buy them in sets of 4 I think. They fit on a regular fridge shelf.
I have a soft spot for TAD cos it's what got me back into brewing. I stopped a decade ago, mostly because I hated cleaning and sanitizing all those little bottles. When I happened upon TAD I thought, hey i can brew again and only wash a few of these plastic keggy things.
I'm not best pleased with it, really, and don't use it anymore. It's a bit fiddly to set up, the pressure doesn't last if you don't drink it all at once, and once the CO2 is in you have to keep it horizontal. I actually bottle most of my beer in 2l PET bottles with maybe a gallon in 22oz glass, unless it's something I expect to keep around for more than 3 months or so.
The one thing I still use it for is if I'm brewing something I know is going to be demolished in one sitting, like a summer BBQ or something. Then I'll package up one or two of the 6l TAD bottles for the event.
My father in law has the TAD system and I had first hand experience with it once and it had no effect on the taste of the beer. We used the 6 liter bottles that it came with. The only issue we had was with carbonation and dispensing pressure. I'm not sure we had the CO2 connected tight enough, or if we even used the proper amount. I'm willing to give it another shout though.
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