The Best Party Keg Accessories for Serving Homebrew Beer (Fass Frisch) 

No, the pressure stays in, the taps are extremely snug. You have to use the grey bungs with the white cap on the inside. These get pushed through into the beer but can be reclaimed and reassembled afterwards

hi not sure if you've seen since this video, but the FF party star deluxe was in my local brew shop under the brewferm brand. i am headed out to the shops this week to check the shelves for compatible prefilled mini kegs

Hi lonewolf! Yes, I have experienced this as well. In my experience this happens for three reasons 1. You clean them too hard or 2. The opening becomes rusty or 3. The tap perishes which exposes metal. The first one is easy to fix, just use warm soapy water and do not scrub the inside. The second can be fixed by making sure the tap is open when the bung is removed. This makes removing the tap much easier and avoids damage to the opening. The third thing doesn't really happen with the kegs that have the kind of opening I'm using here because the taps are push rather than twist. Do you have some kegs lined up?

@@dr.tanknstein7590 Yeah, I took the plunge and bought four kegs and a party tap at my local homebrew supplier. Already got a batch in them carbonating. Definitely easier than bottling!

@Dr. TankNStein .. I have used this set up... but the metalic taste is strong, the co2 tap is new, have used new kegs from brewferm and reused a party keg, both taste very metalic? The same batch bottled is amazing. Not sure what we've done wrong

Absolutely, I've been using these things for a while now and the kegs are great, the accessories just make serving from them a bit cooler and makes the beer go further

Yes, the grey bungs have a small white insert in the middle that gets pushed into the beer. If you’re not planning on drinking the beer straight away, you should give this a spray of sanitiser before you push it into the beer to avoid contamination

Hello! I always push. If you remove it then you’ll let a lot of the gas out and probably foam the beer. I always use the grey type bungs with the easy push plastic piece in the middle. There is a way you can do it with the black and red bungs too but I’m not entirely sure how to

Hi Bruce, honestly, I’m not sure, I’ve never tried. The manufacturers seem to suggest that it can be used with these kegs but I’m not sure if the tubing would fit the hole. Are there any images of what the top of a supermarket keg looks like once opened?

@@dr.tanknstein7590 no images of the supermarket ones, I guess the middle would need pulling out. What diameter is the tube that goes in the Keg? The supermarket bungs are a hard plastic, I assume the grey ones you use are a rubber Construction

Hi Bruce, Most of the supermarket mini kegs are Huber mini kegs with a special 3 piece bung. Very easy to use with Partystar Delux or kegerators, simply push through (no hitting!) There is a 'how to' video you can view at the bottom of this news post www.europeanmalt.com/2020/07/22/home-beer-dispense-machines-kegerators-for-huber-mini-kegs/

Hi Clifford! No, the grey bungs are completely reusable, you just have to fish the little white part out of your beer at the end

Hi Calvin, thanks for watching! Unfortunately, I’ve just found out that the place I usually recommend for these has shut down! I would maybe try your local homebrew shop (if you have one) or you can buy kegs with the bung here: brew2bottle.co.uk/products/5ltr-mini-keg-rubber-plug?currency=GBP&Google%20Shopping&gclid=CjwKCAiAlfqOBhAeEiwAYi43F4wYYXWOtMVrE5P0p8uBar5E4t7rj6gYNTQqZrwIqyWM3gfUZfUqhhoCkU0QAvD_BwE

Hi Marijn! Thanks for watching. In my opinion, 6 g is too little and 12 g is too much. I like between 8 and 10 g of priming sugar. So, though the mini-keg contains around 9X the volume of beer as a 500ml bottle, you only need to use 2X the amount of priming sugar. Carbonation at this level of sugar CAN be good but, in my opinion, the 'flatness' of the beer is a result of the serving method. If you are using the native tap on the keg then the hole is far too small and the beer can gush out. The partystar tap is great but even this can experience gushing as you pour your first beer if the carbonation is too high. So you almost want to carbonate less in the keg to get a better carbonation in the glass... Hope that makes sense? Finally, yes, always carbonate at room temperature or higher. Not only does this generate the correct amount of CO2 in the quickest time BUT carbonating at higher (room) temperature helps the yeast to become active enough to begin to re-digest some off-flavours that may be formed during fermentation such as diacetyl and other VDKs... Hope this helps?

@@dr.tanknstein7590 Thanks for the quick and elaborate response, much appreciated! I do have the partystar tap which makes a difference. What I find difficult to get my head around: if I prime with only 8g of sugar, carbonation will be low in the keg. How will carboniation in the glass be any better, when the method of serving does not add any? The CO2 patterns are only there to enable the use of the tap and don't add any carboniation to the beer, or do they? I am a little confused, as you can see ;-)

@@doodles1977 so have you tried to carbonate with 8g and found it to be low? I have never found the carbonation low when using 8-10g. The partystar does not add any carbonation but it does allow you to control your pour (go as slowly as possible and use as little extra gas as possible) and direct the pour a little better (submerging the nozzle of the tap in your beer helps to keep carbonation in there too).

@@dr.tanknstein7590 No I have not, I recently got it as a gift and want to do it right the first time ;-) It's just that 8g on 4,5 liters seems so low when you usually add 6g to a liter. That should do something to the level of carbonation, or does the larger formfactor of the keg also come into play?

@@doodles1977 ah, I see! 8-10g is plenty, trust me. I think that this lower level of prime works because of the lower ratio of headspace:beer volume and the fact that the keg never really releases pressure without also dispelling beer. When you open a bottle or can, all of the head pressure is lost and also some of the dissolved carbon dioxide. This never happens with kegs as you are mainly dispelling beer and retaining gas (and therefore pressure)

Hi Daniel, yes, I always use the gray push-through type bungs with the accessories. There is some information on the fass Frisch page that suggests that the party tap and CO2 cannister can be pushed through the red pressure relief valves but I have never tried that myself. I go grey every time!

my guess is the same because the ones with the tap on the bottom are 50 cents more just an extra option.

Hi Jimmy! The party star works with both types of keg so I guess it’s entirely up to you. The other accessory (the beer protector) requires that you have a tap at the bottom of the keg. Personally, I like the option of the tap at the bottom anyway as this comes in handy when trying to remove the very last bits of sanitiser/beer from a keg during cleaning

Yes, I have eased off on the mini kegs a little. They’re really good if you have people coming over though

It does produce foam initially until the pressure equalises. Make sure the you aren’t using any gas at first, the pressure from the carbonation will be more than enough to push the beer out

Hi Paul! I get asked this question a lot actually and I’ve answered it so many times confidently that I’m tempted to say: actually I don’t know haha. The thing with Guinness is that it is actually carbonated with the ‘beer gas’ which is (I think) 70/30 N2/CO2. My thoughts are that if you got a standard carbonated stout and dispensed it with N2 then it wouldn’t make any difference because the actual gas dissolved in the beer is still CO2... does that make sense? Like I say though, I’ve confidently dismissed this idea so much that now I’m kinda hoping someone does it and proves me wrong!

Yeah I believe that these are 16 only. The reason is that it has to be a pretty snug fit into the housing to stop it from leaking

Max Lacarin I guess that’s the beauty of using no rinse sanitiser! Either you can use the tap to eject the last few drops or just do several rinses to make sure that your cleaning product is either rinsed out or is extremely diluted. I have also syphoned cleaner out of there before too.

Hi Carl, yes, bit of a hiatus at the minute due to a house move that turned out more work than anticipated! I think that In theory you could do that. If you do, make sure that you release the pressure very slowly so as not to foam up your beer. You’ll also have to be very quick with this to avoid getting air in there... probably not a massive issue as there’ll still be a bit of a CO2 ‘blanket’ but worth considering. The tap is definitely worth it though once it’s on

@@dr.tanknstein7590 cheers doc

Hi Albert! Thanks for the comment! If you are concerned about oxidation then the tap/CO2 ‘protector’ is essential. The kegs themselves are great but without the accessories the beer in there begins to oxidise (slowly) once tapped as the top is essentially open to air. With regards filling and priming the keg, you are correct: transfer the beer and add priming sugar and seal the keg. To avoid aeration I always suggest using tubing that can sit at the bottom of the keg during transfer, that way the beer does not ‘slosh’ and foam-up. Adding external CO2 is very tricky as you absolutely do not want to have any considerable pressure inside the system. The pressure generated by the priming is usually a little more than enough to be honest. If you are very worried about oxygen absorption, I would suggest purging the keg as best you can with CO2 before bottling (you’ll never completely remove O2 but can dramatically reduce it. Then, as the beer fills the keg it will push the CO2 out of the keg (replacing it with beer as it does). This will leave you with a CO2 ‘blanket’ on top of your beer. As the beer then naturally carbonates and the pressure increases the headspace will be almost entirely CO2. Alternatively you could keep a slight positive pressure inside the keg by purging and leaving your CO2 line in the top of the keg with a SLIGHT influx of CO2. This does not have to be a lot as the goal of this is to push oxygen away from the opening and not to remove it from the keg... I may do a short video on this as I don’t think I have done a good job of explaining that haha! But the main thing here is to not over pressurise the keg. The openings of the taps and the distance from keg to tap is too small to handle large amounts of pressure whilst delivering a well carbonated beer

@@dr.tanknstein7590 thank you very much! this was informative :) regarding the infusion of co2 to the mini keg prior to introducing the beer for priming, can the small 16g co2 patron handle that?

@@Mr8899ACDC a 16g cartridge contains a hell of a lot of CO2, far more than you need for this. Ideally, you need a way of slowly releasing the gas. A standard keg charger is good for a corny keg but releases the gas far too quickly. If you have one of the taps then you may attach your cartridge to this, place the tap in without the bung and then slowly fill the keg with the gas. This will then allow you to keep the positive pressure on the keg if you leave the outlet of the tap just inside the opening of the keg as you fill it... Does that make sense?

@@dr.tanknstein7590 Thanks! Slowly it's getting together. :) So, ye I get it, without the keg bung I fill it up with the CO2 by using the party CO2 dispenser on the top. How do I know when is the keg filled up with CO2? And lastly, "This will then allow you to keep the positive pressure on the keg if you leave the outlet of the tap just inside the opening of the keg as you fill it" so this means to keep the outlet on the bottom closed or halfway open? I just really wanna make sure that I do it the right way. Sorry for the massive amount of questions but hopefully this conversation is educative for others as well. :D

skip 9thdonCaster yes it’s funny isn’t it how the fass-Frisch taps don’t fit to the bungs they supply! They sound like the correct ones yes, they need to have a removable plastic section in the middle that can be pushed through into the beer? But they definitely do seal the system and keep carbonation in there

Dr. TankNStein thanks for such a prompt reply. Much appreciated.

The party star is a great tap! I typically use 8-10g depending on the style. The party star is much more forgiving than the actual keg tap so you can get away with a bit more carbonation

@@dr.tanknstein7590 thanks for the reply. I'll be kegging lager and stout so what would you advise on priming for those styles. Cheers

Hi Simon! Thanks for the comment. The shop bought kegs have a slightly different bung on them, it may be difficult to use the tap with them. If you wanted to give it a go I would still suggest using the native tap on the keg for the first 1 or two pints at least to release some pressure before removing the top bung. The dip tube of the tap is approx 8mm in diameter so if you have a shop bought keg already maybe check to see how large the hole is on the top of the keg?

Hello! Thanks for watching. To be honest, I haven’t noticed any loss of pressure but I will keep an eye out. What did happen when I first started using these is that if the tap wasn’t properly clipped on to the rim of the keg, the tap would be pushed up and out and some beer would leak out (somehow). Have you used these with any other bungs?

Dr. TankNStein I've just bought a load of stuff second hand and I just used water to see how it worked, it looked like the guy before put tape or something around the keg hole to stop leaks as I had to clean gum off around that area, I'll try ptf tape around bung if I need to, the tape even clicked in still moves with handle being pressed, look like it need a stabalising bar running 90degres of original clip, there is an upgraded tap on far fiss with an x fitting, I just can't justify it at the mo after buying all the kit, pity they don't sell a clip on bar to go on the original party tap. But cheers for the vid and I'm looking forward to mini kegging , I've used a top tap king keg in the past with good results

Dr. TankNStein I've seen a guy in USA using brown bungs and he reckons they are tighter, just have to find out where he got them from

Hi Dusan, you can clean the kegs with any normal cleaner and then starsan or similar to sanitise. You can use brushes but I suggest being careful particularly around the opening as this can rust if not treated nicely and then the keg becomes a little jeopardised… I use the tap at the bottom of the keg to make sure it is completely empty of chemicals before use

Hi J4N! You can buy different kinds of jackets that will keep the beer colder for longer but to be honest, 5L of beer stays cold for quite a while. You can probably organise your refrigerator to store the beer in there whilst you drink it

@@dr.tanknstein7590 Yeah, I totally understand, but the last time I would have enjoyed such thing would be when we did some apero in the woods. I can manage to have some shadow, but still, it was something like 30°. Definitely something I would not need all the time, but I would appreciate to have the option sometimes

Deluxe even lol

Hi there! Glad to hear you’re coming over to kegging! I’m not 100% whether the pressure release valve bungs work to be honest, I would imaging that they could given the way they work. With regards the drops, i have never used them BUT I would say that if you typically use 2 per pint then use maybe 4 or 5 per keg? The sugar dosing for kegs is very different to bottles due to the head space in the keg and the narrow bore of the keg exits if that makes sense? I typically only ever put twice and much sugar in a keg that I would in a bottle. It’s always much better to under-carbonate than to over-carbonate

Hi Markeiz! Thanks for watching. Yeah, the party star is great, definitely glad I made the investment. In terms of nitrogen, I’m not sure you’d get the pay off to be honest unless you are using the party star to ‘carbonate’ your beer. When you get a ‘nitro’ beer this means that the beer is actually infused with nitrogen rather than carbon dioxide. Nitrogen is much less soluble than CO2 and so you get a much smoother beer (less acidic and less fizzy) with a creamier head (because all of the nitrogen ‘escapes’ at once). Unfortunately, you can’t naturally nitrate beer through conditioning and so you would then have a carbonated beer being served with nitrogen which wouldn’t have the same effect. One of my viewers has, however, carbonated his beer with a party star tap before, i.e. put non-primed beer in a keg with the party star connected and turned up full in the refrigerator for a day or so. You could try something similar with your nitrogen cartridges? This might actually work very well... I would be very interested to find out if you do this ;-)

Dr. TankNStein that’s fair enough. I did some research on nitro beers but couldn’t find anyone that had experience using the party star. But thanks for the super clear and quick answer. Very informative and I definitely didn’t consider the priming aspect. I might give it a try anyways, and if I do I will let you know :) keep sharing awesome content!

Hey have a look at company called cream supplies . You can nitrate stout in it and its fab. .product is called Splash Mosa Good luck

Oh wow! The gear is good but that delivery is a bit steep! I know that they have a uk distributor - Bruni Erben - but not sure if you’ll have any more luck there?

CaPunT yes, unfortunately, once you have Plummer a tap, you’re committed to a full keg! You COULD potentially reseal it yourself but the bungs are designed to work one-way so that the carbonation in the beer doesn’t blow the bung out. That being said, if I crack a party keg, I never usually wind up wanting to put it back on the shelf haha

@@dr.tanknstein7590 Aaaaaaaah bollocks. I guess i'll have to commit when I do tap then! Thanks for the reply, appreciate it.

CaPunT hahaha the things we do for efficient pouring eh! You have to be careful also, there’s something about pouring a good pint from a tap that makes you super thirsty!

Hello! Thanks for watching. No, the secondary ferment is carried out IN the keg. The amount of sediment that gathers in a keg is roughly the same as how much gathers in a bottle because you're not adding that much more sugar (8-10g per keg). Therefore it is possible to overcarbonate the same as you can do with a bottle. One of my subscribers has used the partystar tap to carbonate using the cartridges which (according to them) consumes about 1 cartridge per keg so perhaps you could try that?

@@dr.tanknstein7590 Just saw the video, love it! To @cillianpaget 's question, does the sediment come through the dip tube? When I see other Corny kegging videos, they suggest that you cut a length off the dip tube, so that the tap doesn't draw beer (and crud) from the very bottom of the keg... has this been something you need to do? How do you stop the sediment coming through?

@@bigdavylove thanks for watching. Like I said above, whilst you do get SOME sediment in the keg, the amount is not much more than the amount that you get in a bottle AND it’s all spread out across the bottom of the keg. (One of) The difference between a corny keg and a mini keg is that the bottom of this is flat (meaning the sediment is mice and spread out) whereas a corny keg has a conical bottom that forces the trub to collect in one place (right by the serving tube). The dip tube on the tap doesn’t really go all the way to the bottom here anyway as the flat design means it would just brush up against the bottom and not quite work. In short, you will get some sediment in your first beer but as long as you keep it still, you’ll be fine from then on. Hope this helps!

Hi Cathal, thanks for watching! I’m StarSan through and through! No rinse and it never runs out!

@@dr.tanknstein7590 thank you

a guy in another video showed how you can use the 12 grams maybe you can do the same with the 8 grams. he put tape around it until it fit well in the dispenser.

i think he had a older version idk

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-rQyL-VmL5kM.html

You need 16 Gram

Hi Vince! Thanks for your message. No, I’m not aware of these products, so you perhaps have a link that I could look at? It sounds intriguing... are you able to force carbonate the beer or is natural carbonation still the correct method?

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-qzwLYk6T9Wc.html Here's a link to a video that shows them, it's very German!

Vince Burke haha yes, that is quite German, I thought I was watching a video about coats for a minute there. The keg looks good though, I’ll look into them for sure

Thanks Jim, I'll order them and see how I get on, thanks for the info!

Good stuff Vince, let me know how you get on with them!

Hi Fito, I would use 8-10g per keg. Much less is required for a keg than the individual bottles

I have another video covering the basics of using these mini kegs that I think covers priming also?

@@dr.tanknstein7590 Hi. Thanks for the answer. I saw it and there you said 12-14 g per keg. So now im not sure, LOL

@@meflipanmisipas6841 haha I must have refined my recommendation. 8-10g is what I use currently 😉

Hi Gary, not 100% sure what you mean, but this is a little less sophisticated than a sankey or Cornelius keg fitting. This tap has a dip tube that is pushed through the bung at the top of the keg that ultimately feeds the tap...?

@@dr.tanknstein7590 Sorry I understand you now, I was looking at the wrong product that goes onto keg

Hi Aaron, the kegs can be primed with sugar in the same way that bottles are. Much less sugar is used though (8-10g per keg max)

@@dr.tanknstein7590 ok nice one cheers mate. Also the co2 picnic taps that fit kegs/growlers, anyway to fit one of those onto these mini kegs? Are the diameters of the holes the same?

@@aaronberry1344 I’ve played around with adding a carbacap to the bungs in order to get a tap on there. In my experience, the bore of these taps is just too large and you end up with not a great pint. The tap in this vid is a little pricey but it’s the best I’ve seen so far

@@dr.tanknstein7590 I thought that may be the case, I was just trying to find a quicker solution, nearly everywhere I’ve looked is Out of stock and fass frisch shipping is more than the tap itself now. Cheers for all your help 👍🏻

Hello! The bulb lasts at least for the whole keg, especially since you don't have to have the bulb in at first. To be honest, I had a few issues with leakage around the seal and so my bulbs were only lasting for 1 keg, I think that this was due to overcarbonation of the beer initially. I would just make sure that when you disconnect the tap, you turn the gas dial to the lowest setting and transfer straight into a new keg in order to maximise the CO2.

Yeah, I think if you read down the thread a few people have tried this. I never have but I think it would be a great idea if it worked out. I just haven’t got space in the fridge

mojonojo3 I got them from the same place I got the mini kegs, Fass Frisch

Yes, these devices take the 8g bulbs

Hi Mariusz, I only speak English unfortunately. Do you speak English also?

@@dr.tanknstein7590 whether kegs are disposable

Mariusz.S they can be disposed of but I reuse the kegs. If you wish to reuse the kegs I recommend immediate and gentle cleaning. I.e. do not let the dirt dry on the inside so that you have to scrub them if that makes sense?

kratom seeker it’s good to prime the beer for two reasons: 1) the priming builds up a positive pressure of CO2 in the keg that is protective against anything getting into it. The seals are airtight but the positive pressure can also slow the oxidation of the beer also due to ‘diluting’ the oxygen in the headspace. 2) these taps don’t carbonate the beer. They are simply to serve it. I guess if you wanted to you could run an experiment on carbonating the beer with a 16g bulb but that’s not the intention of the accessories. Hope this helps?

@@dr.tanknstein7590 yea my kegs will be here today I was hoping to have a glass of it today. Without ever using them it seems reasonable that would be a bit carbonated. If you open the co2 all the way possibly even put another cartridge in there i will test it and get back to ya. Thanks.

@@dr.tanknstein7590 I means its 16 grams but its only 5L of beer so I'm hoping lol

kratom seeker yes, could be the way! Make sure the beer is cold and you might be in with a chance!

@@dr.tanknstein7590 all the equipment came but seems i didnt realize my brew is still active some hmm well i got the plugs with the P.R> valves also and the site says it holds 13 bar before it releases so i assume 13 bars is ok to carbonate the beer now im trying to find info on how much bar 12 grams of co2 would make 13 bar or the equivalent 188 PSI for 5 liters.

Is that a problem?

@@dr.tanknstein7590 i think so, does yours have a hole, if so maybe its ok, i think gas is escaping from there

Right, I think I see what you mean now. The actual plastic casing that holds the gas bulb? This SHOULD have a hole in the bottom to prevent it getting stuck/cracking when the bulb cools down during use. The bulb should be screwed tight enough in to the main tap such that the casing isn’t really doing anything other than preventing you from touching the gas bulb

@@dr.tanknstein7590 cool cheers il try again