5 litre Beer Keg

galtee boy wrote: »

I tried the Krombacher keg from Supervalu recently, I found the first night I opened it, it dispensed beautiful draft tasting pints, I don't drink a lot in a session, about 3 pints. Second night, a few more pints, still very nice, third night, there was maybe two pints left in keg and it was gone flat and didn't taste nice at all. Buddies have told me the kegs are designed for parties etc, where the full keg is drank in one session.

This is pretty much it. There's two tabs...one for the beer and one for the gas, which can be opened or closed, as you see fit. There is enough gas in the keg to keep it carbonated for the full 10 cans or 9 pints or whatever.

I find, however, that it's such a PITA trying to get the first few pints out without it turning to foam, that you're better off releasing a good dollop of the gas around the same time you open the tap to dispense the beer.

You're really supposed to find the sweetspot where you're not releasing too much gas but that the beer flows freely. this is pretty much impossible to do without wasting AT LEAST a pint. At least. If you try the softly softly apporach, the beer is being squeezed through a tiny opening and immediately turns to suds. So, the easiest way I've found is:

Open the bottom, beer-dispensing tab and pull the spigot out
Get ready to twist that tab to the 'fully open' position (not yet though)
Twist the gas tab at the top to about a quarter open, you'll hear some gas escaping but don't worry.
Then twist the bottom tab open like you practiced in step 2.....It's important to get it fully open
The beer should start flowing like you'd expect. If it's crazy gassy and foaming, you didn't open the gas tab enough

It's nigh on impossible to open it too much, so don't be afraid. This does waste a bit of the gas so you are better off trying to drain it one session, or two at the most. The ones I've tried to use properly ended up leaking gas overnight anyway, so they were still flat.