Should YOU have a Mini Keg? TMCraft Growler Mini Keg Review
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- Опубліковано 27 гру 2023
- A Mini Keg or Growler is a great addition to your toolbox. TMCraft sent us this product to review. We already have a few of them, but this one is black! They work great for keeping carbonated beverages and pouring when traveling. We've also used them to carbonate brews, but that isn't really what they are made for. We have other videos on how to carbonate in these mini kegs too.
Cherry Coke Wine was Keg Carbed: • How to make WINE from ...
Our Coffee Stout was Carbed in a mini keg too: • Easy Coffee Stout - Ca...
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TMCraft 128oz Matte Black Mini Keg with Cooler Jacket: amzn.to/48c0tWU
TMCraft 128oz Mini Keg: amzn.to/48RtSWn
TMCraft 170oz Mini Keg (we have not used this model yet): amzn.to/48gcNoY
Fun T-shirts: city-steading.com/product-cat...
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I have been rolling this idea around in my head recently...you sold me. Gonna order one now. Thank you again for what you do. I started this hobby over the summer and I really enjoy it. Have a great New Year.
Awesome! They are addictive though....
So I've only been brewing for a little while and you both have helped me so much, so i want to thank you both. Today i bottled a spiced cider and racked a strawberry wine that i made based on yours except with frozen strawberries. The reading on my strawberry wine i had to take a picture of because it was just insane. After fermenting for 3 weeks it came to 0.983. You were right 71B is an absolute BEAST!
Something I'm considering getting. Thanks for the review!
Really useful. We have a few now!
I got a TM craft 1.3 gallon for Christmas. I am currently Carbonating the fruit punch wine. So far I am very very pleased with how it works.
I just got one from Christmas. 😊 thanks to you guys.
Nice!
Ha ha ha. Ordered myself one for Christmas. You posted this right after I got to work today and it got delivered soon after. Rushing home now to unbox mine too!
Ok, dang you two, I just ordered one.
A good present for me right now. I've got to have a fun thing and the fact that my brewing station is now up and ready to use.
LOVE YOU GUYS.
Right back atcha Joan!
I will admit that I was 'forced' into purchasing as my older sister purchased the CO2 cartridges and sent them to me for Christmas.
Ok, so I could use them for bicycle tire inflation, but I don't really need THAT many cartridges for my bike tires.😏
I bought one as well, thanks for your review! I have finally brewed a beer I am proud of and recently started kegging with a handful of corny kegs. Now I can just take a gallon of my brew easily instead of loading up a 5 gallon keg and 10lb CO2 bottle!
You must have a nice Christmas and a happy New Year.
I now have some test Ginger brew up and running
Cheers
Thanks, you too!
I've owned several mini kegs and they're great for several things:
1. Space efficient storage of your brews, still or carbonated. You can pour out of them, but it's a bit sloppy- recommended to attach the dispenser when you're ready to drink. Keep it at a low psi if it's a still brew, otherwise it will force carbonate. But it'll keep it fresh and unoxygenated for a while, unlike a bottle. Either way, these single walled mini kegs hold a lot of liquid in an efficiently spaced vessel
2. Force carbonating! If you want to make something carbonated, you'll basically sacrifice one c02 cartridge for a larger mini keg like this one(99% sure CSB has a gallon sized one here, but you can easily find 2 gallon and half gallon varieties, all threaded for the same accessories) and it'll be ready in a couple of days
3. My favorite feature: safe bottle/keg conditioning! If you don't want to waste money on a c02 for force carbonating and then another for dispensing, these things have a good enough seal with their threaded caps that they can condition carbonate after adding your appropriate sugar type/amount... But with a virtually impossible chance of any explosions like you'd get from a bottle! At worst, using too much priming sugar could cause a horrible mess when opening the finished product
I used to have a huge collection of these, but I had to sell them during a bad financial time about a year back... I could easily see myself getting a bunch of 64oz mini kegs in the future and making them my primary means of storing my meads and wines, even if I almost never carbonate them
Thank you so much our friend, hope we will have more collaboration in the future and enjoy the keg :)
Thank you!
Very cool system.
I have been using a mini keg for a little over a year now and they are great for small batch carbonation and traveling. I have one that holds around 180 fl oz which is perfect for full one gallon batches plus whatever back sweetener that one wants to use. ( think little big mouth bubbler batches ) I primarily use mine for carbonating and transporting ciders. I have a carbonated blueberry hard cider in mine as we speak. The only downside to these little kegs is the cost of the 16 gram CO2 cylinders, as it always takes at least two if not three to carbonate and pour 5 quarts of liquid.
Hi guys, first off thanks for the content and knowledge, me and my wife found your videos and went down the rabbit hole! We have 3 different 1gal of mead, wine, and cider going now for our 1st time. We bought on of these mini keg growlers to use and I was wondering if you can bottle and prime in these to save a CO2 cartridge?
You can!
I have Vevor's version of this. Probably made at the same factory. :) Its identical. I love it
Good stuff
My 64 oz just arrived!
I was just looking at the Square Keg mini and thought it would be neat to have one for mead. You can use Co2, Argon or Nitrogen in it they recommended Argon for meads and wines, CO2 for carbonated drinks and nitrogen for nitro brew coffee
I think the insulator protection can be used mainly to avoid condensation and surfaces getting wet.
But... Condensation = energy loss. The insulator helps keep the mini keg cool a little longer, by avoiding condensation, slowing the energy transfer (from humid ambient air -> chilled liquid). "Cold" is just the absence of energy.
I use 5 gallon corny kegs, the old kegs that held fountain drink syrup, they work so well, the best investment ive made for kegging my homebrews.
If you need 5 gallons, sure. We have no need for that much of anything.
I bought one a couple of years ago and I love it. I’ve used it for mead and for beer. I wish there was a better (*easy* and cheap) option for CO2 rather than the tiny cartridge. Something ready to use, not something I have to get all the parts for (you can hack up solutions with soda stream canisters and full fledged co2 tanks).
Do you know why the airlock equals out after fermentation? Because just thinking about it shouldn't it still hold pressure and just stop bubbling?
Because gas escapes and equalizes the pressure over time.
If you were to pasteurize a cider and then force carb, would you pasteurize in the keg? And if so, closed or open?
I don't think I would pasteurize in the keg. It's good to rack after.
I just got a corny keg for christmas and i saw another comment saying you can bottle off these. I would love to see a video of that in the future so its easier to follow along the process of force carb into bottling then pasturizing. I have been curious of how you might force carb and backsweeten. Would you force carb then put it in a jug to sweeten then bottle then pasturize?
You would sweeten with non-fermentable sugars, or pasteurize then force carb :)
I made a mead but forgot to rehydrate the yeast before adding it to the must, will this be a problem? If so, how should I solve it? I used lalvin D47 wine yeast.
We don't always hydrate. It's fine.
I wonder about the height with everything assembled so that I know whether or not it will fit within my refrigerator. Thanks for sharing this, I've been thinking of getting one for cider.
I measured... 19 inches with everything on it. The handle can come off though and makes it more like 16.
@@CitySteadingBrews Perfect - Thanks!
I've been wanting to get one of these, but could you clarify the holding carbination to actually carbonating you mentioned at 2:31
They can keep carbonation in say.. a beer, using pressure and can serve it due to that, but you can also carbonate in them, as we showed in the videos linked in the description.
When using a bubble airlock, would you all say it’s best practice to fill it to the MAX line?
Yes.
I'm newer to brewing and am currently carbonating naturally in the bottle.
Is it possible to use this keg to carbonate and then bottle it from the keg?
Yes! We have carbed in it and you can bottle afterward.
I just got a new book on mead making. I wonder if you or other viewers could recommend books.
We have some in our store. Honestly at this point I just experiment and learn from others.
I got this model shortly after the coffee stout video. I like it so far, I've been able to carbonate around 25 PSI for 3 days in the fridge on average, using only one CO2 cartridge. I've not been successful in bottling from this keg so far, most of the carbonation gets lost sadly.
Yeah, still working on it myself.
Hey, thank you for your trust, it may has some problem, welcome to contact us, we will help you to fix it.
@@TMCraftus thank you. I'm sure it's just user error.
Bottling from a keg without a bottle filler f some type will lose carbonation afaik. This is true of all kegs though. I am working on a solution :)
@@CitySteadingBrews I have the same dispensing tube that you had. I've seen a video that talks about restricting the tube inner diameter should also help maintain carbonation during transfer.
neoprene jackets do a great job of insulating.Think about how much more thermally conductive the bare metal would be compared to the neoprene.
I would highly suggest getting a floating dip tube for your keg. This way you are always drawing from the top of the liquid, avoiding the yeast.
I have yet to see one for a keg this size.
@@CitySteadingBrews Cant you just buy a stainless steel hollow ball and add it to the end of that tube to make a floating dip tube?
I suppose that could work, sure!
Hi. How many beers with one CO2 cartridge? Thanks.
Usually is enough for one gallon.
SOOO, I had bariatric surgery and can't have carbonation of any kind, tends to stretch the stomach and that is a bad thing. The question I have is will it hold mead and push it with CO2 cartridges without carbonating the beverage? I can't find anything on the net specifically about that. Either that or I really suck at googling.. HEHE CHEERS!!! P.S> LOVE Y'ALL CHANNEL. I am not the official D&D mead maker for our gaming group, now that I revealed I watch you... Going to do skeeter pee, cranberry orange and the holiday mead... WISH ME LUCK!!!
Yes, you just don't set the psi past say 5 or so and turn off the gas when storing.
@@CitySteadingBrews SWEET!!! Thank you for the info!!!
👍👍🥳
Anyone tried using "soda stream" for carbonating drinks?
Messy.
The gallon size is limiting, but I might buy one or 2. Then build a larger force carb system on corny kegs. To include equal pressure bottling. Aaaand...probably a kegerator...cuz. LOL
Equal pressure bottling systems would be a GREAT review!!
They have a larger size too: amzn.to/48gcNoY
If we get more into kegging, we can do that.
@CitySteadingBrews Dang, if they went from 1g to 3g....definitely worth buying both. With Cornelius kegs, that means 1,3,5 gallon batches. Possibly a suggestion to the manufacturer? Going from 128oz to 170oz in brewing is...kinda wierd, and not so useful.
Edit: It DOES make 170oz option more attractive though. How often do we actually hit a gallon or less when we brew a "gallon"...we all get greedy! lol
Hey, thank you for your advise. We do have 1.6 gallon and more, you can try it. Hope you will like it
I got just a one gallon without the kit. Keeps a gallon of emergency water in the back of the suburban without the extra bulk of an insulated jug. Has come in handy when things run longer than planned and nobody brought extra water.
I would suggest SS BrewTech stainless steel bucket. I think you might enjoy it.
Isn't their smallest 5.5 gallons? We have ZERO need for that. We make over 40 brews a year and can't drink everything we make now, lol.
Also, that's a fermenter, this is a way to carbonate... very different products actually.
@@CitySteadingBrews 3.5 gallon is the smallest.
@@CitySteadingBrews I thought you meant products in general. I think your audience might like it. The brew bucket collects the lees and is easy to clean and lift. It has a lot of the benefits of a conical fermenter without the overwhelming expense.
oh! My bad... wasn't sure why you were saying that but we DID ask for whatever things you might want to see reviewed! Sorry for the misunderstanding on my part! @@shannoncraig509
Woot
Have you ever thought of making a fruit nouveau wine with that keg? Nouveau wine uses carbonic maceration to create a natural fermentation into anaerobic environment instead of the most common aerobic alcoholic fermentation, and it takes less than a month. As far as i know, nobody has ever tried to make a nouveau fruit wine. But it doesn't take long
Nouveau wine to my knowledge just means made and sold within a year.
Also... wine making is an anaerobic process.
I was gonna be really disappointed if one of you didn't sing: "Under Pressure," by Bowie & Queen.
You knew she would :)
I was wondering if you have a p.o. box I would like to send you some specialty honey!
We do! Thank you.
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