Last year, I made a “keg” of about the same size as my “Mr Beer” nano-micro-mini-keg using:
1 plastic “kitty litter” bucket. (three cats; you do the math on how many of these things I have laying around…)
1 plastic water spigot–the kind you would avoid putting in outside for your water hoses/sprinklers, whatever (because it’s cheezy and easily broken) but which is better, IMO, than brass for a cheapo brew setup.
1-male/female threaded coupler to fit the spigot–and a rubber “hose washer”
1-male/female threaded 1/2″ PVC coupler
1-male threaded/female Unthreaded 1/2″ PVC pipe coupler
2-1.5″ sections of 1/2″ PVC pipe
1-1/2″ PVC “trap”
(The last four pieces are used in constructing the airlock for the keg/bucket fermenter.)
I cleaned the kitty litter bucket very, very well with dish soap and water, then rinsed it and filled it with clean water with 1/2 cup chlorine bleach (yes, I soaked the lid in the bleach water for a few minutes before putting it on the bucket). I let that soak over night.
Traced the size of the water spigot end and the male/female threaded couplers in their respective places—the spigot about 1″ above the bottom edge of the bucket and the male end of the coupler (to the airlock) traced in the center of the snap-on lid to the
bucket.
Placed all the plumbing parts in the bleach water to soak.
When the bucket and parts had soaked overnight, I discarded most of the bleach water (reserving about a gallon for cleanup after finishing construction), rinsed them and laid everything out on clean paper towels.
Next, using a razor knife, I cut the holed on the inside of the traced lines and threaded the male threaded/female UNthreaded 1/2″ PVC pipe coupler coupler for the airlock into the hole on the lid and secured it with the male/female threaded 1/2″ PVC coupler on the inside of the lid.
Then, I threaded the hose washer onto the water spigot and the water spigot into the hole 1″ above the bottom of the bucket. I then secured that with the pipe coupler that fit its threaded piece.
Next, I rinsed the rest of the plumbing pieces yet again in bleach water, then clean water and assembled the airlock as per the graphic.
I then filled the bucket with the remaining bleach water, topped it off, shook the water around and then drained all that would drain through the spigot, dumping the rest from the top. Followed that with a thorough rinsing with plain water. Placed the top back on.
Well, this year I made another, but spent all of about $5 on a plastic spigot and a 3-piece manufactured airlock. Tonight, I racked some “apple wine” (yeh, I know there’s no such thing, but I used wine yeast to ferment some apple juice for hard cider, so that’s what I’m calling it. So there. :-)) from its primary fermenter into the new “kitty litter fermenter”. Slick as goose grease. I only transferred about three gallons (it was a 3.5+a tad gallon mix) and bottled the other half gallon or so in Grolsch swingtops with a lil bit of priming sugar to hopefully induce some carbonation. I’ll check one of the bottles in about a week or so to see if it’s OK.
Fun stuff. On the schedule: brew another batch of beer tomorrow as a reward IF I squeeze in the water pump installation for the lil Saturn econocar and maybe bottle the molasses beer this weekend (I’ll sample it and get it bottled if it’s ready).
Meanwhile, I have some racking out of another kind to do.
Sounds like a lot of fun. So does the kitty litter keg cause the fermented brew to lose carbonation? It sounds like it might based on your need to add sugar to the beer when you bottle it.
Also, you mention a graphic… could you post or send a copy?
Hobbies are good, especially if you can eat (or drink) them.
Perri,
Hmmm, excerpted parts of this from a post last year describing brewing “Georgy Porgie Molasses Beer” and somehow between now and then (in the hosting move?) I’ve misplaced the graphic. Guess I need to take another pic for ya.
Carbonation: during primary fermentation, the yeast turns sugars into alcohol and CO2 and the CO2 is released via thw airlock–aids in further yeast activity to get rid of the CO2. When bottle conditioning, a little charging with sugar (or some of the trub, or both) gives the yeast some more to work on and with the brew tightly capped, the only place for the CO2 to go is into the beer, hence the nice head when poured.
Old time traditional ales, brewed all in the keg, served from the brew keg are a tad flatter than bottle conditioned brews by nature. Some carbonation but not much at all, at all, unless they’ve been tightly capped off, and then–pop the bung and you’d better drink the whole thing if you want much of a head. I could make less carbonated brews quite easily by just doing a secondary fermentation in another fermenter (like I’m doing with the cider) and serving it straight from the fermenter or just bottling it straight after a full secondary fermentation–and I’ll probably do that with about half the cider.
I’ll take a shot sometime today and either post or send it.
Yeh, Woody, I like eatable/drinkable hobbies. That’s the problem with working on cars or making tables and such like: drinking gas and oil, notsomuch, and while I could chew on splinters while woodworking, I don’t find them all that satisfying (although making and repairing stuff is kinda fun–and making stuff from castoffs and “trash” is even more so–my computer “desk”–really a table with an added keyboard drawer–is based on four legs made from 6″ or greater diameter limbs from our sycamore stand downed during an ice storm. Solid. :-))