Edme Pressure Barrel?

[sl7vk]

Have you guys ever heard of this? Sounds affordable and easy to use...

Edme Pressure Barrel

A five gallon plastic kegging system. Ingeniously designed with an automatic CO2 injector, CO2 bulb holder (uses 8 gram cartridges) and floating tap assembly which ensures the kegging system always draws off the clearest beer possible. The standard kegging system in the UK.

69 dollars for the entire system seems awefully cheap. I can't get a direct link to it, but it is under the kegging section of this site.

http://www.beernut.com/Web_store/web_store.cgi

[Derekt2]

Originally posted by sl7vk
Have you guys ever heard of this? Sounds affordable and easy to use...



69 dollars for the entire system seems awefully cheap. I can't get a direct link to it, but it is under the kegging section of this site.

http://www.beernut.com/Web_store/web_store.cgi

Not sure those are still made as EDME has been defunct for quite some time. I had one in college 20 years ago. It worked okay, nothing great (also intended for "real ale" so it won't be as gassy as you might expect). Save your pennies and by a soda system, ot by a Tap-a-Draft and use store bought 3l bottles. Works great.

[stringy]

Yes, these are very common in the homebrew shops here in england and I used a couple of them before I got my corny keg set up. Theres a whole load of them including pictures here, which is hopefully of some help!
www.easybrew.co.uk (http://www.easybrew.co.uk/product_results.php?PHPSESSID=f61c42570b5181359c2a 6d23843b97f7&category=57&kit=5&PHPSESSID=f61c42570b5181359c2a6d23843b97f7)

Derekt2 is right, they are intended to be used for real ale. The beer put into the barrel with priming sugar, so natural carbonation occurs. The pressure from this is then used to dispense the beer, until it drops too low, and co2 cartridges are used.
Therefore if you need to force carbonate your beer you would have to either
a) use a lot of CO2 cartridges, which would work out quite expensive in the long run. or
b) modify the keg to use a co2 cylinder and regulator.
However I am fairly sure the pressure rating on these barrels isnt mush more than 15psi, which is probably not high enough for force carbonation.

Also I found that on several occasions the barrels would leak and not hold pressure, not sure if thats because I wasnt looking after them or because I had bad luck.
I would also not have trusted them with my beer to store for a couple of months like I would with a corny keg.
In the end I found them too much hassle and I moved on to using the cornelius kegs.

Basically they do work, if all you want is somewhere basic to store your beer whilst it carbonates before drinking it. But I would say your better off going for a corny keg set up, which I find more versatile and more reliable, plus they are shiny!! :)

[sl7vk]

Thanks for the reply's! I guess this isn't going to suit my needs. Now how do I convince the wife that we need to buy a second fridge for the corny's! Yikes.......

My wife isn't going to like how the extra energy is going to effect our CO2 output and our Carbon footprint....... :(

[toneyc]

Then as mentioned above, perhaps you should investigate the Tap-A-Draft?

:)
Toney.